Methodological aspects of spectrum occupancy evaluation in the context of cognitive radio

Cognitive radio has recently emerged as a promising solution to conciliate the existing conflicts between spectrum demand growth and spectrum underutilisation. The basic underlying idea is to allow unlicensed users to access in an opportunistic and non‐interfering manner some licensed bands temporarily unoccupied by the licensed users. Within the framework of cognitive radio, several spectrum measurement campaigns have been performed in diverse locations and scenarios in order to assess the degree to which allocated spectrum bands are currently being used in real wireless communication systems. Although such measurement campaigns follow similar approaches, there is a lack of common and appropriate evaluation methodology, which would be desirable not only to prevent inaccurate results but also to enable the direct comparison of results from different sources. In this context, this work presents a comprehensive and in‐depth discussion of several important methodological aspects that need to be accounted for when evaluating spectrum occupancy in the context of cognitive radio. Moreover, a quantitative evaluation of the impact of different factors on the obtained results along with various useful guidelines is also provided. The results presented in this work highlight the importance of carefully designing an appropriate methodology when evaluating spectrum occupancy in the context of cognitive radio. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Several spectrum measurement campaigns have been performed in the framework of cognitive radio. Although they followed similar approaches, there is a lack of common and appropriate evaluation methodology, which would be desirable not only to prevent inaccurate results but also to enable the direct comparison of results from different sources. In this context, this work presents a comprehensive and in‐depth discussion of several important methodological aspects that need to be accounted for when evaluating spectrum occupancy in the context of cognitive radio.