Evaluation of Kolmogorov - Smirnov test for cooperative spectrum sensing in real channel conditions

The cognitive radio technology allows solving one of the main issues of current wireless communication technologies, namely a deficit of vacant spectrum. A dynamic spectrum access used in the cognitive radio networks (CRN) gives an ability to access to an unused spectrum in real time. Cooperative spectrum sensing is the most effective method for spectrum holes detecting. It combines sensing information of multiple cognitive radio users. In this paper, an experimental evaluation of spectrum sensing method based on the Kolmogorov - Smirnov statistical (K-S) test using the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) devices synchronized through a MIMO cable and with further processing in the GNU Radio and Matlab software is presented. Three hard decision fusion schemes are analyzed. Simulation comparison between these rules is presented via Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. The influence of real channel with interferences is compared in contrast to commonly assumed AWGN channel model of vacant channel noise.