Reconfigurable filter implementation of a matched-filter based spectrum sensor for Cognitive Radio systems

Spectrum sensing is one of the most important features of Cognitive Radio (CR) systems. Matched-filter based spectrum sensing techniques provide optimum sensing performance given that a number of characteristics of the transmitted signal are known by the sensors. Assuming that the received signal pertains to one communication standard from a given set of wireless technologies, conventional spectrum sensors employ separate filters corresponding to each standard which gives rise to increased power consumption and ciruit size. A novel reconfigurable matched-filter based spectrum sensor to be deployed in CR systems is proposed in order to overcome the disadvantages of conventional design methods. This approach proposes a spectrum of design qualities which trade-off area for reconfiguration overhead. We will show that our approach is capable of designing reconfigurable filter for standards with widely varying filter characteristics.