This paper investigates dynamic spectrum access based on MAC-Layer spectrum sensing and prior channel pre-allocation strategy. We first combine channel utilization with channel state transition probability from idle to busy to reflect the channel opportunity quality in cognitive radio systems. Then a MAC-Layer spectrum sensing algorithm based on Channel Opportunity Quality Descending Order (COQDO) is proposed for the single secondary user scenario, so that the single secondary user can be provided with dynamic spectrum access. For the multi-secondary users scenario, in order to solve the channel collision problem among secondary users in dynamic spectrum access, a joint MAC-Layer spectrum sensing and prior channel pre-allocation algorithm is proposed and analyzed. Channel collision problem occurs when more than one secondary users detect the channel as idle and access it at the same time. Furthermore, the prior channel pre-allocation is optimized by using the conventional Color Sensitive Graph Coloring (CSGC) algorithm. Extensive simulation results are presented to compare our proposed algorithms with existing algorithms in terms of idle channel search delay and accumulated channel handoff delay.

A cooperative relaying system with transmission scheduling is investigated. Cooperative relaying is composed of multiple links because the source sends the data to more than one receiver, and the destination receives multiple data transmitted by more than one transmitter. Therefore, if the source can transmit the data when the channel gains of the links are high, it is not clear which channel gains should be high in order to achieve high spectral efficiency. In the present letter, the spectral efficiency of a cooperative relaying system is theoretically derived under the assumption that the source transmits the data only when the channel gains of links are above certain threshold values. Numerical results reveal that a high spectral efficiency can be achieved by assuring a high channel gain for the link with the highest average received power among links to the destination.

A simple suboptimal power allocation method is proposed for SC-FDMA systems. It is known that the performance of constant power-based allocation methods is close to that of optimal solutions. In this letter, by utilizing the waterfilling condition inequality derived for SC-FDMA systems, a threshold is set to select subcarriers for loading constant power to these selected subcarriers. It offers competitive performance as confirmed by the simulation results.

This paper proposes a hardware-based parallel pattern matching engine using a memory-based bit-split string matcher architecture. The proposed bit-split string matcher separates the transition table from the state table, so that state transitions towards the initial state are not stored. Therefore, total memory requirements can be minimized.

Traditional wavelet-based speech enhancement algorithms are ineffective in the presence of highly non-stationary noise because of the difficulties in the accurate estimation of the local noise spectrum. In this paper, a simple method of noise estimation employing the use of a voice activity detector is proposed. We can improve the output of a wavelet-based speech enhancement algorithm in the presence of random noise bursts according to the results of VAD decision. The noisy speech is first preprocessed using bark-scale wavelet packet decomposition ( BSWPD ) to convert a noisy signal into wavelet coefficients (WCs). It is found that the VAD using bark-scale spectral entropy, called as BS-Entropy, parameter is superior to other energy-based approach especially in variable noise-level. The wavelet coefficient threshold (WCT) of each subband is then temporally adjusted according to the result of VAD approach. In a speech-dominated frame, the speech is categorized into either a voiced frame or an unvoiced frame. A voiced frame possesses a strong tone-like spectrum in lower subbands, so that the WCs of lower-band must be reserved. On the contrary, the WCT tends to increase in lower-band if the speech is categorized as unvoiced. In a noise-dominated frame, the background noise can be almost completely removed by increasing the WCT. The objective and subjective experimental results are then used to evaluate the proposed system. The experiments show that this algorithm is valid on various noise conditions, especially for color noise and non-stationary noise conditions.

We analyze the performance of an adaptive communication scheme in which by employing limited feedback, the source will decide to transmit signal to the destination either by the direct link or by the direct and relaying links. Specifically, by using the instantaneous SNR as the metric, if the S-D link is better, the source will transmit to destination directly. Otherwise, the two-phase transmission mode will be triggered in which source cooperates with the relay or transmits twice within two time slots based on the quality of the received signal at the relay. Initially, the spectral efficiency is derived by calculating the probabilities of direct transmission and two-phase transmission mode. Subsequently, the BER performance for the adaptive cooperation schemes is analyzed by considering the BER routines of two events: the source transmits the signal alone or cooperates with the relay. Also, the optimum power allocation is studied based on the BER result. Finally, Monte-Carlo simulation results are presented to confirm the performance enhancement offered by the proposed scheme.

We propose a surface profiling algorithm by white-light interferometry that extends sampling interval to twice of the widest interval among those used in conventional algorithms. The proposed algorithm uses a novel function called an in-phase component of an interferogram to detect the peak of the interferogram, while conventional algorithms used the squared-envelope function or the envelope function. We show that the in-phase component has the same peak as the corresponding interferogram when an optical filter has a symmetric spectral distribution. We further show that the in-phase component can be reconstructed from sampled values of the interferogram using the so-called quadrature sampling technique. Since reconstruction formulas used in the algorithm are very simple, the proposed algorithm requires low computational costs. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

In this letter, the performance improvement by the deployment of multiple antennas in cognitive radio systems is studied from a system-level view. The term opportunistic spectrum efficiency (OSE) is defined as the performance metric to evaluate the spectrum opportunities that can actually be exploited by the secondary user (SU). By applying a simple energy combining detector, we show that deploying multiple antennas at the SU transceiver can improve the maximum achievable OSE significantly. Numerical results also reveal that the improvement comes from the reduction of both the detection overhead and the false alarm probability.

Based on Free Probability Theory (FPT), which has become an important branch of Random Matrix Theory (RMT), a new scheme of frequency band sensing for Cognitive Radio (CR) in Direct-Sequence Code-Division Multiple-Access (DS-CDMA) multiuser network is proposed. Unlike previous studies in the field, the new scheme does not require the knowledge of the spreading sequences of users and is related to the behavior of the asymptotic free behavior of random matrices. Simulation results show that the asymptotic claims hold true even for a small number of observations (which makes it convenient for time-varying topologies) outperforming classical energy detection scheme and another scheme based on random matrix theory.

This paper is concerned with the estimation of radio communication distance when both the transmitter and receiver are arbitrarily distributed on a random rough surface such as desert, terrain, sea surface and so on. First, we simulate electromagnetic wave propagation along the rough surface by using the discrete ray tracing method (DRTM) proposed by authors recently. Second, we determine three parameters by conjugate gradient method (CGM) combined with the method of least-squares. Finally, we derive an analytical expression which can estimate the maximum communication distance when the input power of a transmitter and the minimum detectable electric intensity of a receiver are specified. Random rough surfaces are assumed to be Gaussian, pn-th order power law or exponential distributions.

Recently, a new multi-carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) system with cyclic-shift orthogonal keying (CSOK) has been proposed and shown to be more spectral and power efficient than conventional MC-CDMA systems. In this paper, a novel extension called the multiplexed CSOK (MCSOK) MC-CDMA system is proposed to further increase the data rate while maintaining a low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). First, the data stream is divided into multiple parallel substreams that are mapped into QPSK-CSOK symbols in terms of cyclic shifted Chu sequences. Second, these sequences are repeated, modulated, summed, and placed on IFFT subcarriers, resulting in a constant-modulus multiplexed signal that preserves the desired orthogonality among substreams. The receiver performs frequency-domain equalization and uses efficient demultiplexing, despreading, and demapping schemes to detect the modulation symbols. Furthermore, an alternate MCSOK system configuration with high link quality is also presented. Simulations show that the proposed MCSOK system attains lower PAPR and BER, as compared to conventional MC-CDMA system using Walsh codes. Under a rich multipath environment, the high link quality configuration exhibits excellent performance with both diversity gain and MCSOK modulation gain.

Due to the advancement of software radio and RF technology, cognitive radio(CR) has become an enabling technology to realize dynamic spectrum access through its spectrum sensing and reconfiguration capability. Robust and reliable spectrum sensing is a key factor to discover spectrum opportunity. Single cognitive radios often fail to provide such reliable information because of their inherent sensitivity limitation. Primary signals that are subject to detection by cognitive radios may become weak due to several factors such as fading and shadowing. One approach to overcome this problem is to perform spectrum sensing by using multiple CRs or multiple spectrum sensors. This approach is known as distributed sensing because sensing is carried out through cooperation of spatially distributed sensors. In distributed sensing, sensors should perform spectrum sensing and forward the result to a destination where data fusion is carried out. Depending on the channel conditions between sensors (sensor-to-sensor channel) and between the sensor and the radio (user-channel), we explore different spectrum sensing algorithms where sensors provide the sensing information either cooperatively or independently. Moreover we investigate sensing schemes based on soft information combining (SC), hard information combining (HC). Finally we propose a two-stage detection scheme that uses both SC and HC. The newly proposed detection scheme is shown to provide improved performance compared to sensing based on either HC or SC alone. Computer simulation results are provided to illustrate the performances of the different sensing algorithms.

This paper reviews applications of fuzzy logic to telecommunications and proposes a novel fuzzy combining scheme for cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio systems. A summary of previous applications of fuzzy logic to telecommunications is given outlining also potential applications of fuzzy logic in future cognitive radio systems. In complex and dynamic operational environments, future cognitive radio systems will need sophisticated decision making and environment awareness techniques that are capable of handling multidimensional, conflicting and usually non-predictable decision making problems where optimal solutions can not be necessarily found. The results indicate that fuzzy logic can be used in cooperative spectrum sensing to provide additional flexibility to existing combining methods.

In this paper, we propose a novel method for gathering sensing information by using an orthogonal narrowband signal for cooperative sensing in cognitive radio. It is desirable to improve the spectrum sensing performance by countering the locality effect of a wireless channel; cooperative sensing by using multiple inputs of sensing information from the surrounding sensing nodes has attracted attention. Cooperative sensing requires that sensing information be gathered at the master node for determining the existence of a primary signal. If the used information gathering method leads to redundancies, the total capacity of the secondary networks is not improved. In this paper, we propose a novel method for gathering sensing information that maps the sensing information to the orthogonal narrowband signal to achieve simultaneous sensing information gathering at the master node. In this method, the sensing information is mapped to an orthogonal subcarrier signal of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) structure to reduce the frequency resource required for sensing information gathering. The orthogonal signals are transmitted simultaneously from multiple sensing nodes. This paper evaluates the performance of the proposed information gathering method and confirms its effectiveness.

In the present paper, the performance of cooperative relaying networks with adaptive relaying scheme selection is analyzed. Cooperative relaying is a new technique to achieve spatial diversity gain by using neighboring stations. However, when multiple stations transmit simultaneously, the number of interference signals increases. Therefore, the introduction of cooperative relaying in radio communication systems does not always increase the network capacity due to the co-channel interference. Therefore, in order to achieve high spectral efficiency, it is necessary to select cooperative relaying or non-cooperative relaying adaptively. Assuming both centralized and decentralized adaptive controls, the spectrum efficiency is evaluated. The performance under decentralized control is evaluated using a game-theoretic approach. Simulation results show that the introduction of cooperative relaying with centralized control always increases the spectral efficiency. On the other hand, Simulation results also show that, when each source selects a relaying scheme independently and selfishly to maximize its own spectral efficiency, the introduction of the cooperative relaying may reduce the spectral efficiency due to the increase in the number of interference signals.

When cognitive radio (CR) systems dynamically use the frequency band, a control signal is necessary to indicate which carrier frequencies are currently available in the network. In order to keep efficient spectrum utilization, this control signal also should be transmitted based on the channel conditions. If transmitters dynamically select carrier frequencies, receivers have to receive control signals without knowledge of their carrier frequencies. To enable such transmission and reception, this paper proposes a novel scheme called DCPT (Differential Code Parallel Transmission). With DCPT, receivers can receive low-rate information with no knowledge of the carrier frequencies. The transmitter transmits two signals whose carrier frequencies are spaced by a predefined value. The absolute values of the carrier frequencies can be varied. When the receiver acquires the DCPT signal, it multiplies the signal by a frequency-shifted version of the signal; this yields a DC component that represents the data signal which is then demodulated. The performance was evaluated by means of numerical analysis and computer simulation. We confirmed that DCPT operates successfully even under severe interference if its parameters are appropriately configured.

The synthesis of single- and double-wall carbon nanotubes by gas flow-modified, catalyst-supported chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) is reported. We have investigated the gas flow condition dependence on the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by placing blocks in the CCVD reactor. Carbon nanotubes having large diameters are preferentially grown under turbulent flow conditions. This indicates that the diameter distribution of CNTs can be controlled by modification of the gas flow condition in the CCVD.

The public safety spectrum is generally under-utilized due to the unique traffic characteristics of bursty and mission critical. This letter considers the application of dynamic spectrum access (DSA) to the combined spectrum of public safety (PS) and commercial (CMR) users in a common shared network that can provide both PS and CMR services. Our scenario includes the 700 MHz Public/Private Partnership which was recently issued by the Federal Communications Commission. We first propose an efficient DSA mechanism to coordinate the combined spectrum, and then establish a call admission control that reflects the proposed DSA in a wideband code division multiple access based network. The essentials of our proposed DSA are opportunistic access to the public safety spectrum and priority access to the commercial spectrum. Simulation results show that these schemes are well harmonized in various network environments.

An OFDMA based channel access scheme is proposed for dynamic spectrum access to utilize frequency spectrum efficiently. Though the OFDMA based scheme is flexible enough to change the bandwidth and channel of the transmitted signals, the OFDMA signal has large PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio). In addition, if the OFDMA receiver does not use a filter to extract sub-carriers before FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) processing, the designated sub-carriers suffer large interference from the adjacent channel signals in the FFT processing on the receiving side. To solve the problems such as PAPR and adjacent channel interference encountered in the OFDMA based scheme, this paper proposes a novel dynamic channel access scheme using overlap FFT filter-bank based on single carrier modulation. It also shows performance evaluation results of the proposed scheme by computer simulation.

Spectrum sensing is an important function for dynamic spectrum access (DSA) type cognitive radio systems to detect opportunities for sharing the spectrum with a primary system. The key requirements for spectrum sensing are stability in controlling the probability of false alarm as well as detection performance of the primary signals. However, false alarms can be triggered by noise uncertainty at the secondary devices or unknown interference signals from other secondary systems in realistic radio environments. This paper proposes a robust spectrum sensing method against such uncertainties; it is a kind of cyclostationary feature detection (CFD) approaches. Our proposed method, referred to as maximum cyclic autocorrelation selection (MCAS), compares the peak and non-peak values of the cyclic autocorrelation function (CAF) to detect primary signals, where the non-peak value is the CAF value calculated at cyclic frequencies between the peaks. In MCAS, the desired probability of false alarm can be obtained by setting the number of the non-peak values. In addition, the multiple peak values are combined in MCAS to obtain noise reduction effect and coherent combining gain. Through computer simulations, we show that MCAS can control the probability of false alarm under the condition of noise uncertainty and interference. Furthermore, our method achieves better performance with much less computational complexity in comparison to conventional CFD methods.