Hybrid Detection Method for Improving Spectrum Sensing Performance in Cognitive Radio

Cognitive radio is the core prominent wireless technologies for the next generation wireless communication systems. Its main feature is the capability to increase the utilization of the currently scarce spectrum resources by allowing unlicensed users to access unused licensed frequency bands opportunistically. Energy detection based spectrum sensing is the most commonly used spectrum sensing technique in cognitive radio. In order to efficiently coordinating spectrum resources, wideband multichannel spectrum utilizes fast Fourier transform for spectrum sensing. This energy detection method is inherently sensitive to noise variances and increased hardware complexity. At low signal-to-noise ratio values energy detection degrades the spectrum sensing performance. A hybrid spectrum sensing method can be effectively used to achieve better spectrum sensing performance. Hybrid spectrum sensing utilizes a combination of energy detection and Max-Min Eigen value based detection. This is a highly effective method for ensuring acceptable spectrum sensing performance. Spectrum analysis is done using fast Fourier transform.