Concept design and performance evaluation of a parametrizable cognitive radio engine

The realization of cognitive radio concepts for alleviating the spectrum scarcity is of utmost interest. In particular the TV white space referring to non-occupied frequency bands in the TV spectrum has attracted many scientists. Spectrum sensing algorithms are one option to find such frequency bands. However, due to a variety of TV standards existing all over the world, different sensing algorithms are necessary to sense for TV signals. Within this manuscript, the authors present a parametrizable cognitive radio engine relying on a spectrum sensing algorithm which can easily be adapted to various TV standards. Furthermore, a cognitive radio platform is introduced and measurement results of the implemented algorithm are presented as proof of concept.