Abstract

Cognitive Radio (CR) is a promising technology to exploit the underutilized spectrum. Spectrum sensing is one of the most important components for the establishment of cognitive radio system. Spectrum sensing allows the secondary users (SUs) to detect the presence of the primary users (PUs). The aim of this work is to create a CR environment to study the spectrum sensing methods using Universal software radio Peripheral (USRP) boards. In this paper a novel method of estimation of spectrum opportunities in multiple dimensions especially the space and the angle dimensions are carried out on USRP boards. This paper typically provides the experimental results carried out in an indoor wireless environment. To enhance the sensing performance the space dimension is firstly studied using spatial diversity of the cooperative SUs. Secondly the receiver diversity is analyzed using multiple antennas to enhance the error performance of the wireless system. The spectrum usage is also determined in the angle dimension by investigating the direction of the dominant signals using MUSIC algorithm.