A Novel Full-Duplex Spectrum Sensing Algorithm for OFDM Signals in Cognitive Radio Networks

Full duplex (FD) capability enables a "listen and talk" protocol for spectrum sensing that has been used as a new paradigm to increase the spectrum utilization in cognitive radio networks (CRNs). However, the spectrum sensing performance suffers from the imperfect self-interference suppression (SIS). This could significantly degrade the performance of FD systems in CRNs. In this paper, we investigate the issue of spectrum sensing with imperfect SIS in FD systems. By drawing support from a cyclic prefix (CP) of Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM) signals, we propose a novel spectrum sensing mechanism that is robust to self-interference. Comparing with other conventional sensing approaches in FD systems, the proposed method is independent of timing delay. That significantly improves the sensing performance, even without requiring a complex process for timing delay estimation. As a result, it also reduces the overhead of spectrum sensing. Extensive simulation results indicate that even with serious self-interference and timing delay, the presented approach is still able to achieve much higher performance than the conventional energy detection and waveform-based detection approaches.