A cyclic correlation-based cooperative spectrum sensing method for OFDM signals

In this paper, a new spectrum sensing method based on cyclic feature detection is proposed for detection of OFDM-based primary users. Based on the proposed asymptotically constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detector, a soft decision-based fusion rule for cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) is established. The proposed scheme aims to maximize the deflection criterion at the fusion center (FC), while the reporting channels are characterized by Rayleigh fading. In order to be able to evaluate the performance of the cooperative detector, some analytic threshold approximation methods are proposed for the cases where the fusion center has direct sensing capability or not. Extensive simulation results are provided to justify the advantages of our proposed cooperative spectrum sensing method.