PECAS: A Low-Cost Prototype for the Estimation of Channel Activity Statistics in Cognitive Radio

Dynamic spectrum access/cognitive radio (DSA/CR) systems can benefit from an accurate knowledge of the primary channel ON/OFF activity statistics. This information can be readily obtained from spectrum sensing observations. However, given the practical limitations of spectrum sensing, an accurate and realistic evaluation of estimation methods is required before they can be implemented in real systems. This paper presents the design and implementation of a low-cost Prototype for the Estimation of Channel Activity Statistics (PECAS) in DSA/CR systems. An in-depth description of the hardware design (based on common and inexpensive components) and software implementation (based on free open source code) is provided along with an illustrative applicability example. The developed platform provides researchers and engineers with a low-cost fully functional tool for proof-of- concept, validation and optimisation of algorithms and designs.