Spectrum Sensing with USRP-E110

TL;DR

This paper presents the development and implementation of a standalone White Spaces detector using GNURadio and USRP-E110, enabling dynamic spectrum sensing for future wireless services like SuperWiFi.

Contribution

It introduces a novel standalone spectrum sensing system for TV-UHF White Spaces using USRP-E110 and GNURadio, facilitating centralized monitoring and regulation compliance.

Findings

Successful implementation of White Spaces detection algorithms

Real-time spectrum sensing capability demonstrated

Potential for improved spectrum utilization in wireless networks

Abstract

Spectrum sensing is one of the key topics towards the implementation of future wireless services like SuperWiFi. This new wireless proposal aims at using the freed spectrum resulting from the analog-to-digital transition of TV channels for wireless data transmission (UHF TV White Spaces). The benefits range from better building penetration to longer distances when compared to the set of IEEE 802.11 standards. Nevertheless, the effective use of the available spectrum is subject to strict regulation that prohibits unlicensed users to interfere with incumbents (like wireless microphones). Cognitive Radios (CR) and dynamic spectrum allocation are suggested to cope with this problem. These techniques consist on frequency sweeps of the TV-UHF band to detect White Spaces that could be used for SuperWiFi transmissions. In this paper we develop and implement algorithms from GNURadio in the Ettus USRP-E110 to build a standalone White Spaces detector that can be consulted from a centralized location via IP networks.