Media Access with Spatial Reuse for Cooperative Spectrum Sensing

The increasing interest for wireless communication services and scarcity of radio spectrum resources have created the need for a more flexible and efficient usage of the radio frequency bands. Cognitive Radio (CR) emerges as an important trend for a solution to this problem. Spectrum sensing is a crucial function in a CR system. Cooperative spectrum sensing can overcome fading and shadowing effects, and hence increase the reliability of primary user detection. In this paper we consider a system model of a dedicated detect-andforward wireless sensor network (DetF WSN) for cooperative spectrum sensing with k-out-of-n decision fusion in the presence of reporting channels errors. Using this model we consider the design of a spatial reuse media access control (MAC) protocol based on TDMA/OFDMA to resolve conflicts and conserve resources for intra-WSN communication. The influence of the MAC protocol on spectrum sensing performance of the WSN is a key consideration. Two design approaches, using greedy and adaptive simulated annealing (ASA) algorithms, are considered in detail. Performance results assuming a grid network in a Rician fading environment are presented for the two design approaches.