Spectrum sensing based on specialized microcontroller based white space sensors : Measuring spectrum occupancy using a distributed sensor grid

Abstract: The continuing increase in the adoption and use of wireless technology aggravates the problem of spectrum scarcity due to the way we utilize the spectrum. The radio spectrum is a limited resource regulated by governmental agencies according to a fixed spectrum assignment policy. However, many studies show that this fixed radio frequency allocation leads to significant underutilization of the radio spectrum creating artificial scarcity, as most of the allocated spectrum is not used all of the time in every location. To meet services growing demands, efficient use of the spectrum is essential. Therefore, there is a need to estimate the radio spectrum utilization in several locations and during different periods of time in order to opportunistically exploit the existing wireless spectrum. Cognitive radio technology aims to search for those portions of the radio spectrum that are assigned to a specific service, but are unused during a specific time and at specific location in order to share these white spaces and thus to reduce the radio spectrum inefficiency. In this thesis, we study spectrum utilization in the frequency range from 790MHz to 925MHz. The spectrum sensing has been realized using a number of specialized microcontroller based white space sensors which utilize energy detection, situated in different locations of a building in Kista, Sweden. The occupancy of the frequency bands in this chunk of the spectrum is quantified as the fraction of samples with a power level greater than a threshold. The results from these spectrum measurements show that a significant amount of spectrum in this scanned range around the building is inefficiently used all the time.