Performance of energy detection based spectrum sensing in fading channels

In order to enable access to underutilized licensed spectrum, a secondary user has to monitor licensed bands and detects occupancy of primary users in the different parts of the spectrum. However, detection is compromised when a user experiences shadowing or fading effects. In this paper we evaluate the performance of cognitive radio with energy detection based spectrum sensing (ED-SS) in AWGN, and several fading scenarios such as log-normal shadowing, Rayleigh, Nakagami, and Weibull fading environments. The performance has been assessed in terms of miss detection (P_m) and false detection probabilities (P_f). The performances of energy detector for different values of average SNR are characterized through complementary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (plot of P_m vs. P_f). A simulation test bed has been developed to evaluate performance of ED-SS in different fading environments. A comparative performance of ED-SS has been studied for various fading channels.