ATSC digital television signal detection with spectral correlation density

In this paper, we consider the problem of spectrum sensing for advanced television systems committee (ATSC) digital television (DTV) signal detection. To exploit the cyclostationarity of the ATSC DTV signals, we employ spectral correlation density (SCD) as the decision statistic and propose an optimal detection algorithm. The major difficulty is in obtaining the probability distribution functions of the SCD. To overcome the difficulty, we probabilistically model the pilot frequency location and employ Gaussian approximation for the SCD distribution. Then, we obtain a practically implementable detection algorithm that outperforms the industry leading systems by 2-3 dB. We also propose various techniques that greatly reduce the system complexity with performance degradation by only a few tenths of decibels. Finally, we show how robust the system is to the estimation errors of the noise power spectral density level and the probability distribution of the pilot frequency location.