A Quantization-Based Multibit Data Fusion Scheme for Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks

Spectrum sensing remains a challenge in the context of cognitive radio networks (CRNs). Compared with traditional single-user sensing, cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) exploits multiuser diversity to overcome channel fading, shadowing, and hidden terminal problems, which can effectively enhance the sensing performance and protect licensed users from harmful interference. However, for a large number of sensing nodes that need high bandwidth of the control channel for data transmitting, CSS increases cooperative overhead. To address this problem, we investigated the soft decision fusion strategy under a limited bandwidth of the control channel and proposed a simple quantization-based multibit data soft fusion rule for CSS for its simple structure and easily implementation. Under the quantization-based sensing strategy, each cooperative secondary user (SU) adopts an energy detector for local spectrum sensing. Each SU transmits quantized multibit data that sends local sensing information, instead of forwarding local one-bit hard decision results or original observation statistics, to the fusion center (FC). Furthermore, the closed-form expressions of the quantization levels and the quantization thresholds are analytically derived. Simulation results indicate that the detection performance of the proposed method approaches that of the conventional soft fusion rule with less cooperative overhead and outperforms the hard decision rules. Extensive simulations also show that multibit quantization fusion achieves a desirable tradeoff between the sensing performance and the control channel overhead for CSS.