Clustering methods for distributed spectrum sensing in cognitive radio systems

Abstract

It is known that the reliability of spectrum sensing in cognitive radio systems has the potential to improve when this critical process is performed distributively by multiple radios. In situations in which a large number of cognitive radios are present in a given geographical area, these radios will likely have to be divided into multiple sensing clusters in order to keep bandwidth and power requirements manageable. In this paper, we propose different clustering methods for distributed spectrum sensing and evaluate their performance in terms of sensing reliability and resultant spectrum efficiency. The use of position information by clustering methods is also considered.