Versatile sensing for mobile devices: cost, performance and hardware prototypes

Spectrum sensing received a lot of attention as a key aspect in the realization of opportunistic radios. Even today, there is a strong belief in the community that the cost and performance of sensing solutions don't meet the stringent requirements of Opportunistic Spectrum Access (OSA). In this paper, the cost and measured performance of a sensing solution is studied. The solution is versatile, and performance/cost analysis is performed for sensing of Digital Broadcast TV for OSA in the TV White Spaces and for sensing of LTE signals for improved coexistence with and for LTE networks. We show how the solution could be used to upgrade mobile devices with sensing capabilities, or as a standalone spectrum sensing prototype.