A Novel Spectrum-Sensing Technique in Cognitive Radio Based on Stochastic Resonance

We propose a novel spectrum-sensing method for cognitive radio (CR) based on stochastic resonance (SR). The spectral power of primary users (PUs) can be amplified, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a received signal can be increased using SR. This ensures that the detection probability of the proposed approach is higher than that of the traditional energy detector. The detection probability of the proposed method is also theoretically derived under a constant false-alarm rate (CFAR). Performance analyses and computer simulation results show that the effectiveness of the proposed SR-based spectrum-sensing approach, particularly under low SNR circumstances, is better than that of the traditional energy-detection method. The computational complexity of the proposed approach can also be guaranteed to be comparable with the traditional spectrum-sensing methods.