Sensitivity of Spectrum Sensing Techniques to RF Impairments

Cognitive radios are devices capable of sensing a large range of frequencies in order to detect the presence of primary networks and reuse their bands when they are not occupied. Due to the large spectrum to be sensed and the high power signal dynamics, low-cost implementations of the analog front-ends leads to imperfections. Two of them are studied in this paper: IQ imbalance and sampling clock offset (SCO). Based on a mathematical system model, we study analytically the impact of the two imperfections on the sensing performance of the energy detector and of the cyclostationarity detector. We show that the IQ imbalance does not impact the performance of the two detectors, and that the SCO only impacts significantly the performance of the cyclostationarity detector.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: VTC
• Authors: Jonathan Verlant-Chenet, Julien Renard, Jean-Michel Dricot, Philippe De Doncker, François Horlin
• Keywords: Communications, Cyclostationarity Detector, Detector, IQ Imbalance, VTC 2010