Sequential pilot sensing of ATSC signals in IEEE 802.22 cognitive radio networks

The IEEE 802.22 Standard promises to be the first practical implementation of the cognitive radio technology. It is based on dynamic spectrum sensing and opportunistic access of the bands that are not currently in use by TV transmitters. FFT based pilot sensing of the TV signal is recommended in the standard. The sensing is carried out by averaging over a fixed number of multiple dwells (6-10). We propose a sequential version of the scheme where the number of dwells required is dynamically varying according to the fidelity of the received signal. We show via simulation that the proposed sequential sensing strategy yields a throughput gain and reduces system overhead.