The effect of modulated wideband converter placement on compressive spectrum sensing

The modulated wideband converter (MWC) introduced in [1] enables a wide band of spectrum to be sensed using inexpensive components. The MWC spreads the received signal in frequency, which allows the spectral occupancy to be sensed from sub-Nyquist rate samples via compressive sensing techniques. This paper compares embedding the MWC into the tuning circuit of the antenna with placing it in the receive chain. We demonstrate that embedding the MWC into the tuning circuit of the antenna can enhance the search bandwidth of the system.