Fast Primary User Detection during Ongoing Opportunistic Transmission in OFDM-based Cognitive Radio

Abstract

Cognitive radio requires that a secondary user (SU) stops its transmission as soon as possible upon the arrival of a primary user (PU). In this paper, we propose a novel approach to quickly detect PUs while an SU transmission is in progress. The proposed method requires an SU transmitter to use OFDM to insert periodic zero-energy intervals in a selected subcarrier and to detect energy during each interval for PU detection. The length and periodicity of these intervals determine the performance of PU detection. We also discuss how to determine the energy detection threshold.