Power-Efficient Periodic Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive MAC in Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks

We consider the time-unslotted cognitive radio based dynamic spectrum access (DSA) networks, where the secondary users (SUs) are unsynchronized with the primary users (PUs). We analytically derive the tradeoff between the energy consumption for spectrum sensing and the spectrum opportunity for SUs in terms of available spectrum usage time. We also consider the impact of the sensing errors, including missed detection and false alarm, on the energy consumption. Taking into consideration the sensing energy consumption, spectrum opportunities, and sensing errors, we propose a power-efficient periodic spectrum sensing scheme, which can save the sensing energy consumption while guaranteeing the priority of the PUs and the spectrum opportunity for the SUs. Also conducted are simulations to validate and evaluate our proposed sensing scheme.