Detection of DTV Spectrum White Spaces for IEEE 802.22 Network Using Correlator Detector

In this paper, a correlation-based spectrum sensing method is presented to detect the frequency holes in the licensed digital TV band when accurate existence database is not available. The data segment and field synchronization symbols of digital TV signal features are considered in this sensing method. These two approaches (features) are proposed by using the cross correlation between the time accumulated original signal pattern and a copy of this pattern with different sensing time to present the desired detection scheme at low signal to noise ratio levels. When data segment synchronization approach is considered, simulation result show that the correlator detector can detect SNR of -25dB in 19.25 msec when PFA=0.1. However for the field synchronization correlator detector, the result show that the minimum detected SNR is -30dB for sensing time of 96.4msec.