Performance and Reporting Channel Traffic of Eigenvalue Fusion and Block-coded Decision Fusion for Spectrum Sensing of OFDMA Signals

This paper presents a comparison between performance and data traffic in the reporting control channel of a cooperative centralized spectrum sensing scheme designed to detect idle OFDMA subchannels for cognitive radio applications. Eigenvalue and decision fusion strategies are compared when repetition and BCH block codes are used to protect the data carrying the sensor decisions. It is unveiled that the potential larger sensitivity to channel errors of the decision fusion can be supplanted when block codes are used, in some cases leading to an overall smaller amount of traffic when compared with the eigenvalue fusion. However, the advantage of the decision fusion over the eigenvalue fusion is not always pronounced, and sometimes reversed, demanding a case-by-case trade-off analysis regarding the target performance and the reporting channel traffic. This paper presents a comparison between performance and data traffic in the reporting control channel of a cooperative centralized spectrum sensing scheme designed to detect idle OFDMA subchannels for cognitive radio applications. Eigenvalue and decision fusion strategies are compared when repetition and BCH block codes are used to protect the data carrying the sensor decisions. It is unveiled that the potential larger sensitivity to channel errors of the decision fusion can be supplanted when block codes are used, in some cases leading to an overall smaller amount of traffic when compared with the eigenvalue fusion. However, the advantage of the decision fusion over the eigenvalue fusion is not always pronounced, and sometimes reversed, demanding a case-by-case trade-off analysis regarding the target performance and the reporting channel traffic.