An Improved Spectrum Sensing Method Based on Multitaper-Singular Value

Decomposition in Cognitive Radio

Wu Qianqian, Xu Chunxiu, Wu Muqing, Gao Hu
Broadband Communication Network Lab
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Beijing, China
qq8610636@gmail.com, xuchunxiu@bupt.edu.cn, wumuqing@bupt.edu.cn, stgaohu@gmail.com


AbstractIn order to improve the spectrum hole detection in
Cognitive radio (CR), Multitaper Method with Singular Value
Decomposition (MTM-SVD) has been proposed. However, how
to decide the coefficient in the spatiotemporal complex matrix
constructed by MTM-SVD is still under discussion. In this
paper, a new scheme, employing array signal processing, for
coefficient determination is introduced. Since the sensor used
in spectrum sensing is attached with antenna array, the
directions of the interference sources can be computed by
Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm. By using
multiple sensors, the position of the interference source can be
estimated. Moreover, the coefficient in MTM-SVD is related to
the distance between the sensor and the interference source.
Therefore, a more proper value of the coefficient will be given
and the interference temperature will be estimated more
accurately. Simulation results show that, the proposed method
has a better performance for spectrum hole detection than the
conventional method.
Keywords-cognitive radio; spectrum sensing; interference
temperature; multitaper method with singular value
decomposion; multiple signal classification
I. INTRODUCTION
With the rapid growth of wireless communications, the
problem of spectrum utilization has become ever more
critical. On one hand, emerging wireless technologies
required for high data rate applications have faced the
problem of the ever-increasing scarcity of spectrum. On the
other hand, the spectrum utilization at a particular geographic
location and a specific time is often very low, resulting in
spectrum wastage. Cognitive Radio (CR) technique is
considered as one of the solutions of this problem. CR is
defined as an intelligent wireless communication system that
is aware of its surrounding environment and uses the
methodology of understanding by building to learn from the
environment and adapt to statistic variations in the input [1].
In CR networks, Primary Users (PU) are the owners of
the licensed spectrum while the Secondary (unlicensed)
Users (SU) transmit and receive signals over the licensed
spectrum when the primary users are inactive [2]. Reliable
detection of primary user signals is the major challenge
which meets the implementation of the CR.
As indicated before, spectrum sensing plays a critical role
in CR networks. However, spectrum sensing is a tough task
because of shadowing, fading, and time-varying natures of
wireless channels. In order to improve the performance of
spectrum sensing, cooperative spectrum sensing is proposed,
which can recover the limits of spectrum sensing by only one
node. Since multipath fading varies significantly depending
on the environment, the probability that multiple CR sensors
are experiencing deep fading or are blocked by obstacles
simultaneously is rather low [3]. Therefore, cooperation
among CR sensors will effectively improve the performance
of spectrum sensing.
Cooperative spectrum sensing in a centralized CR
network consists of a base station and a number of CR
sensors. In this network, each CR sensor sends its sensing
information to the base station via the common control
channels while the base station combines the sensing
information and makes a decision on the presence or absence
of the primary signal [3].
In [1], Haykin has suggested employing a set of sensors
to properly sniff the RF environment along different
directions. He recommended a Multitaper Method with
Singular Value Decomposition (MTM-SVD) to estimate the
interference temperature of the radio environment. In the
decomposition, how to determine the coefficients in the
matrix which represent variable weights accounting for
relative areas is not given. In the paper, by modeling the
fading wireless channel between PU and CR sensor, we
provide a method to determine the coefficient and optimize
MTM-SVD method.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II
reviews the MUSIC algorithm used for the detection of the
direction of signals. Section III presents the model
formulation. The MTM-SVD joint array signal processing is
applied to the spectrum sensing. Section IV presents the
results and section V concludes the paper.
II. MUSIC ALGORITHM
The Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) is a popular
method to estimate the Direction of Arrival (DOA) of the
signal which is usually used in array signal processing [4].
Considering signals incidence to an array with D far-space
(
D
S S S , , ,
2 1
), the array are composed of M cells
( D M > ). The array output vector as:
) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( t t t N S A X - 0 (1)
where the 0 is parameter containing information of
directional angle. The D M matrix is given by:
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{ ) ( ) ( ) (
2 1 D
0 0 0 a a a A . (2)
Based on (1), the covariance matrix of array data is:
[ ] [ ] I A AR I A SS A XX R
2 2
o o - -
H
s
H H H
E E (3)
where
s
R denotes the covariance matrix of signals,
2
o
represents noise power, I is a M M unit matrix, the
superscript H denotes Hermitian transposition.
The signals are uncorrelated, therefore, the rank of
s
R is
D based on the matrix analyzing theories. The eigenvalues of
s
R can be arranged in order as follows:
0
1 2 1

- M D D
v v v v v . (4)
For the matrix R , the following eigenequation can be
derived:

I U U U A AR U RU U
2
2 1
2
) 0 , , 0 , , , , ( o v v v o - -
D
H H
s
H H
diag
.(5)
From (4) and (5), the eigenvalues of R are ordered:

2
1 2 1
o / / / / /
- M D D
. (6)
And there is eigenequation as follows:

i i i i
H
s i
q q q I A AR Rq
2 2
) ( o / o - . (7)
Therefore, 0 ) (
i
H
q A 0 . This is because ranks of both
matrixes A and
s
R are full. We can rewrite the equation in a
vector form in the following way:
0 ) (
i j
H
q a 0 ( M i D D j s s - s s 1 , 1 ). (8)
Analyze R s eigenvalue as:

H
n n n
H
s s s
H
i i
M
i
i
U U U U q q R -

-

1
0
/ (9)
where
[ ] 0 0 q q q U
D s 2 1

[ ]
M D D n
q q q 0 0 U
2 1 - -
.
s
U is the subspace composed by the eigenvectors
corresponding to these big eigenvalues, namely signal
subspace;
n
U is the subspace composed by the eigenvectors
corresponding to other small eigenvalue, namely noise
subspace. Signal subspace and noise subspace are orthogonal
from each other. As indicated in (8), we get:
0 U a
n
H
) (0 . (1O)
Eigenvectors of noise subspace is calculated by
eigendecomposition. Consider the follow function of 0 [5]:

) ( ) (
1
) (
0 0
0
a U U a
H
n n
H
MUSIC
P . (11)
If 0 is equal to DOA of the signals, ( )
i
q a 0 and the
denominator is identically zero. MUSIC, therefore, identifies
as the directions of arrival, the peaks of the
function ) (0
MUSIC
P .
III. SYSTEM MODEL
As shown in Fig. 1, the CR network in our model
consists of one PU and multiple sensors on which antenna
arrays are employed. The signal from PU is considered as the
interference source in the CR network.

Figure 1. A simple CR network
To proceed further, we make these necessary
assumptions
- The distance between the sensor and the PU is so far
that the wave can be regarded as plane wave when it
reach the antenna arrays without considering the
pitch angle.
- Antenna arrays only receive the signal in the area of
interest.
- The number of interference sources is known and
less than the number of antennas.
- Only straight beam is considered.
Based on the model and assumptions, the position of the
interference source can be estimated by MUSIC algorithm
which process the signals received by antenna arrays.
Therefore, the distance between the sensors and the PU are
calculated. Considering an M-sensor cooperative CR
network, the distance is denoted as {
1 1 0 - M
d d d .
The multitaper method is applied at each CR sensor for
wide-band spectral analysis. The mth ( 1 0 - s s M m ) CR
sensor computes its kth ( 1 0 - s s K k ) eigenspectrum over
the frequency of interest by:
2010 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing Systems (ICSPS)
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) 2 exp( ) ( ) (
1
0
) ( ) (
ft j t x W f X
m
N
t
k
t
m
k
r -

-

(12)
where {
1
0
) (
-

N
t
k
t
W denotes the kth Slepian sequence and ) (t x
m

is the received signal at the mth CR sensor. Then each CR
sensor sends its eigenspectrum vector
( ) ) ( , ), ( ), ( ) (
) (
1
) (
1
) (
0
f X f X f X f
m
K
m m
m -
X (13)
to the base station. Setting the number of Slepian tapers K is
larger than the number of sensors M, the spatiotemporal
complex matrix is constructed at the base station as:

( )
(
(
(
(
(

-
- -
-
-
-
-
-
-
) 1 (
1 1
) 1 (
1 1
) 1 (
0 1
) 1 (
1 1
) 1 (
1 1
) 1 (
0 1
) 0 (
1 0
) 0 (
1 0
) 0 (
0 0
M
K M
M
M
M
M
K
K
X a X a X a
X a X a X a
X a X a X a
f

A
(14)
where each row is produced by different sensors, each
column is computed using a different Slepian taper. For
example, the element (2, 1) of the matrix represents the
eigenspectrum that has been estimated at the second CR
node using the first taper.
The coefficient
m
a denotes the weight allocated to the
mth CR sensor to take its geographic environment in to
account. However, the coefficient is not well-defined in [6].
Hence, we propose a method based on the distance to
determine the coefficient.
In the matrix ) ( f A , the coefficients represent spatially-
variable weights to adjust the relative position of the CR
sensors from the interference source. Moreover, the
interference power detected by sensor is related to the
wireless radio propagation model. According to Free-Space
Propagation Model, the power of signal is inversely
proportional to the square of the distance. The output power
of receiver is [7]:

re t in re
G G P
d
P
2
4
|
.
|

\
|

r
/
(15)
where
in
P is input power of transmitter, / is the signal
wavelength,
t
G and
re
G are the gain of transmitting and
receiving antenna respectively and d is the distance from
the transmitter.
According to the analysis before,
m
a can be determined
by the distance from the interference source. We set
m
a as:

D d
a
m
m
2
1
(16)
where

1
0
2
1
M
i
m
d
D (17)
and
m
d denotes the distance between the mth sensor and the
interference source. Using (16), (14) is represented as:

( )
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(

-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
) 1 (
1 2
1
) 1 (
1 2
1
) 1 (
0 2
1
) 1 (
1 2
1
) 1 (
1 2
1
) 1 (
0 2
1
) 0 (
1 2
0
) 0 (
1 2
0
) 0 (
0 2
0
1 1 1
1 1 1
1 1 1
M
K
M
M
M
M
M
K
K
X
D d
X
D d
X
D d
X
D d
X
D d
X
D d
X
D d
X
D d
X
D d
f

A
(18)
Using the singular value decomposition, A can be
factorized as:
[ ] ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( f f f f
H
V 0 U A (19)
where U and V are MM and KK unitary matrix
respectively and the superscript H denotes Hermitian
transposition. )) ( ), ( ), ( (
1 1 0
f f f diag
M-
o o o is an M-
by-M diagonal matrix,
where 0 ) ( ) ( ) (
1 1 0
>
-
f f f
M
o o o . The largest
eigenvalue, namely,
2
0
) ( f o , provides an estimate of the
interference temperature. In order to show clearly in
simulation, we use the average of interference temperature
which is explained in [8].
IV. SIMULATION
In this section, the performance of the improved method
of MTM-SVD is compared with the conventional method,
and conclusions are drawn from the simulation results. In
addition, all signals we used are directly computer-generated.
The system model consists of a single PU and two
sensors on which five antenna elements are employed. The
coordinates of the two sensors are (10,10) and (210,10)
respectively. In the MTM, the half time bandwidth product
NW is assumed as 8, and the number of tapers K is 4.
As is shown in Fig. 2, there are two peaks of the
pseudospectrum function, which means the DOA of the
interference source detected by two sensors is got. The 0 are
3
r
- and
4
r
respectively.
2010 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing Systems (ICSPS)
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-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
-35
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
Directional Angle (rad)
P
s
e
u
d
o
s
p
e
c
t
r
u
m
Angular Spectrum Estimation via MUSIC


Sensor 1
Sensor 2

Figure 2. DOA of the interference sources calculated by MUSIC
Fig. 3 describes the position of interference source is
determined by two sensors with different location. As the
location of the two sensors is known, the distances between
the interference source and the two sensors can calculated.
The {
2 1
d d is {179.315 146.410}.
0 50 100 150 200 250
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
X-axis
Y
-
a
x
i
s
Positioning the Interference Source via DOA


(136.7949,136.7949)
Sensor 1 Sensor 2

Figure 3. the position of interference source computed by two sensors
Fig. 4 shows the average of interference temperature
calculated by the proposed method and the conventional
method of MTM-SVD at SNR = 10 dB. The statistic at the
subbands that is occupied by PUs signal is larger than the
unoccupied ones. Consequently, the SU is capable of
deciding about the presence of the PU. The threshold margin
for subbands decision using conventional method (0.05) is
small compared to proposed method (0.09). Therefore, the
SU can find the PUs signal more easily and accurately. The
possibility for giving false alarm about the presence of the
PUs signal is lower.
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0.58
0.6
0.62
0.64
0.66
0.68
0.7
Normalized Frequency
A
v
e
r
a
g
e

I
n
t
e
r
f
e
r
e
n
c
e

T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

o
f

S
u
b
b
a
n
d
s
Average Interference Temperature Estimates


Proposed Method
Conventional Method

Figure 4. The average of interference temperature calculated by the
proposed method and the conventional method of MTM-SVD
V. CONCLUSION
Cognitive radio must listen to the wireless environment
and detect spectrum hole accurately. In this paper, we have
proposed an improved method of MTM-SVD to detect and
estimate the PUs signal. By modeling the fading wireless
channel between PU and CR sensor, we provide a method to
compute the coefficient and optimize MTM-SVD method.
The analysis and simulation results show that the method is
efficient in finding the presence of the PUs signal and the
performance is better than conventional MTM-SVD. Our
method is accurate and robust and it is especially suitable for
detection and estimation of signal in a cooperative CR
network. In addition, the method can provide the position of
the PU, therefore, beamforming can be considered to use in
the network. Moreover, how to reduce the computation and
enhance the efficiency will be a major research topic in the
future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by Beijing Municipal Natural
Science Foundation (No. 4102043).
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2010 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing Systems (ICSPS)
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