Multi-channel robust spectrum sensing with low-complexity filter bank realization

In this paper, we propose a robust spectrum sensing scheme which can reliably detect signals in multiple channels within short observation time at the cost of low computational complexity. The scheme consists of two parts. The first part is the signal detection algorithm essentially based on the crosscorrelation of the feature sequence generated utilizing the signal´s periodical pilot structure, which is further enhanced in terms of reducing sensitivity to clock mismatch and mitigating the noise uncertainty problem. The second part is the filter bank realized using the polyphase network (PPN) structure, which enables the simultaneous sensing of multiple wideband channels with low complexity which is favourable for the reduction of implementation cost and power consumption, especially for mobile terminals. In addition to the simulations for performance evaluation under practical conditions, the proposed spectrum sensing scheme is validated using the 8-channel wideband signal captured in UHF TV band. The visualized crosscorrelation values from both measurement and simulation are perfectly matched, which successfully confirms the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed spectrum sensing scheme in real-world implementation.