A cluster‐based sequential cooperative spectrum sensing scheme utilizing reporting framework for cognitive radios

The cognitive radio (CR) technology is being considered as a novel approach for improving the spectrum utilization by detecting and using the vacant spectrum bands of licensed users. Cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) is the most promising method for offering more reliable sensing performance compared to individual sensing. However, in a large CR network, CSS requires a huge number of sensing result transmissions from cognitive radio users (CUs) to the fusion center (FC), which can result in overhead traffic of the control channel and lack of power consumption of the CUs. In this paper, we propose a cluster‐based sequential cooperative spectrum sensing (SCSS) scheme utilizing a reporting framework to reduce the number of direct reports from CUs to FC while keeping similar sensing performance as the conventional CSS. By using the proposed scheme, the power consumption in the sensing process and the overhead of the control channel can be significantly reduced. Simulation proves the efficiency of the proposed scheme. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.