Nonparametric Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Algorithm Based on Friedman Test

Covariance matrix based spectrum sensing encounters performance degradation when there the antenna correlation is low. To overcome this drawback, a nonparametric cooperative spectrum sensing algorithm based on Friedman test is proposed. Distributed sensors possess the effect of space diversity, so that the signal power among the sensors at the same time may not be completely equal. Based on this feature, the spectrum sensing is realized by comparing signal powers among the sensors. For the nonparametric approach is adopted, the proposed algorithm is robust to noise uncertainty and is suitable for noise of any statistical distribution. The theoretical expression of decision threshold is also derived, which shows that the decision threshold has no relationship with the sample number. As a result, the threshold does not need to be reset when the sample number changes. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.