Traditionally, frequency spectrum is licensed to users by government agencies in a fixed manner where licensee has exclusive right to access the allocated band. This policy has been de jure practice to protect systems from mutual interference for many years. However, with increasing demand for the spectrum and scarcity of vacant bands, a spectrum policy reform seems inevitable. Meanwhile, recent measurements suggest the possibility of sharing spectrum among different parties subject to interference-protection constraints. In this paper we study spectrum-sharing between a primary licensee and a group of secondary users. In order to enable access to unused licensed spectrum, a secondary user has to monitor licensed bands and opportunistically transmit whenever no primary signal is detected. However, detection is compromised when a user experiences shadowing or fading effects. In such cases, user cannot distinguish between an unused band and a deep fade. Collaborative spectrum sensing is proposed and studied in this paper as a means to combat such effects. Our analysis and simulation results suggest that collaboration may improve sensing performance significantly

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Collaborative spectrum sensing for opportunistic access in fading environments

Traditionally, the frequency spectrum is licensed to users by government agencies in a rigid manner where the licensee has the exclusive right to access the allocated band. Therefore, licensees are protected from any interference all the time. From a practical standpoint, however, an unlicensed (secondary) user may share a frequency band with its licensed (primary) owner as long as the interference it incurs is not deemed harmful by the licensee. In a fading environment, a secondary user may take advantage of this fact by opportunistically transmitting with high power when its signal, as received by the licensed receiver, is deeply faded. In this paper we investigate the capacity gains offered by this dynamic spectrum sharing approach when channels vary due to fading. In particular, we quantify the relation between the secondary channel capacity and the interference inflicted on the primary user. We further evaluate and compare the capacity under different fading distributions. Interestingly, our results indicate a significant gain in spectrum access in fading environments compared to the deterministic case

Fundamental limits of spectrum-sharing in fading environments

We establish a statistical model for the ultra-wide bandwidth (UWB) indoor channel based on an extensive measurement campaign in a typical modern office building with 2-ns delay resolution. The approach is based on the investigation of the statistical properties of the multipath profiles measured in different rooms over a finely spaced measurement grid. The analysis leads to the formulation of a stochastic tapped-delay-line (STDL) model of the UWB indoor channel. The averaged power delay profile can be well-modeled by a single exponential decay with a statistically distributed decay constant. The small-scale statistics of path energy gains follow Gamma distributions whose parameters m are truncated Gaussian variables with mean values and standard deviations decreasing with delay. The total received energy experiences a lognormal shadowing around the mean energy given by the path-loss power law. We also find that the correlation between multipath components is negligible. Finally, we propose an implementation of the STDL model and give a comparison between the experimental data and the simulation results.

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The ultra-wide bandwidth indoor channel: from statistical model to simulations

This paper presents an overview of ultrawideband (UWB) propagation channels. It first demonstrates how the frequency selectivity of propagation processes causes fundamental differences between UWB channels and "conventional" (narrowband) channels. The concept of pathloss has to be modified, and the well-known WSSUS model is not applicable anymore. The paper also describes deterministic and stochastic models for UWB channels, identifies the key parameters for the description of delay dispersion, attenuation, and directional characterization, and surveys the typical parameter values that have been measured. Measurement techniques and methods for extracting model parameters are also different in UWB channels; for example, the concepts of narrowband channel parameter estimation (e.g., maximum-likelihood estimation) have to be modified. Finally, channel models also have an important impact on the performance evaluation of various UWB systems.

Ultrawideband propagation channels-theory, measurement, and modeling

Empirical propagation models have found favour in both research and industrial communities owing to their speed of execution and their limited reliance on detailed knowledge of the terrain. Although the study of empirical propagation models for mobile channels has been exhaustive, their applicability for FWA systems is yet to be properly validated. Among the contenders, the ECC-33 model, the Stanford University Interim (SUI) models, and the COST-231 Hata model show the most promise. In this paper, a comprehensive set of propagation measurements taken at 3.5 GHz in Cambridge, UK is used to validate the applicability of the three models mentioned previously for rural, suburban and urban environments. The results show that in general the SUI and the COST-231 Hata model over-predict the path loss in all environments. The ECC-33 models shows the best results, especially in urban environments.

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Comparison of empirical propagation path loss models for fixed wireless access systems

We present a statistical path loss model derived from 1.9 GHz experimental data collected across the United States in 95 existing macrocells. The model is for suburban areas, and it distinguishes between different terrain categories. Moreover, it applies to distances and base antenna heights not well-covered by existing models. The characterization used is a linear curve fitting the decibel path loss to the decibel-distance, with a Gaussian random variation about that curve due to shadow fading. The slope of the linear curve (corresponding to the path loss exponent, /spl gamma/) is shown to be a random variate from one macrocell to another, as is the standard deviation /spl sigma/ of the shadow fading. These two parameters are statistically modeled, with the dependencies on base antenna height and terrain category made explicit. The resulting path loss model applies to base antenna heights from 10 to 80 m, base-to-terminal distances from 0.1 to 8 km, and three distinct terrain categories.

R. Bianchi

Papers

An empirically based path loss model for wireless channels in suburban environments