A stand-alone sensor for spectrum occupancy monitoring in dynamic spectrum access framework

Dynamic spectrum access surely represents a solution in order to fight the problem of spectrum scarcity. Cognitive radios are flexible communication terminals that can change their receiving and transmitting features and consequently implement dynamic spectrum access. To be sure not to cause harmful interference to the licensed users, fast and reliable spectrum sensing techniques must be adopted. Among several standardization activities, Spectrum Characterization and Occupancy Sensing (SCOS) system is a spectrum sensor network that has among its aims the execution of spectrum sensing tasks and publication of sensing results on spectrum sharing database. In this paper a spectrum occupancy sensor, to be employed in such a kind of network, is proposed. It is implemented on a software defined radio device. It has been developed in order to obtain fast and reliable measures also in situations characterized by a very low signal–to–noise ratio. Preliminary hardware characterization and performance assessment confirm the goodness of the proposal.