Two adaptive energy detectors are proposed for cognitive radio systems to detect the primary users. Unlike the conventional energy detector (CED) where a decision is made after receiving all samples, our detectors make a decision with the sequential arrival of samples. Hence, the sample size of the proposed detectors is adaptive. Simulation results show that for a desired performance, the average sample size of the proposed detectors is much less than that of the CED. Therefore, they are more agile than the CED.

Amidst conflicting views about whether soft cooperative energy detection scheme (SCEDS) outperforms hard cooperative energy detection scheme (HCEDS) greatly in cognitive radio, we establish the bridge that mathematically connects SCEDS and HCEDS by closed approximations. Through this bridge, it is demonstrate that, if the number of detectors of HCEDS is 1.6 times as that of SCEDS, they have nearly the same performance which is confirmed by numerical simulations, enabling a quantitative evaluation of the relation between them and a resolution of the conflicting views.