Signal identification for adaptive spectrum hyperspace access in wireless communications systems

Technologies that will lead to adaptive, intelligent, and aware wireless communications systems are expected to offer solutions to the capacity, interference, and reliability problems of wireless networks. The spectrum sensing feature of CR systems is a step forward to better recognize the problems and to achieve efficient spectrum allocation. On the other hand, even though spectrum sensing can constitute a solid base to accomplish the reconfigurability and awareness goals of next generation networks, a new perspective is required to benefit from all of the dimensions of the available electro (or spectrum) hyperspace, beyond frequency and time. Therefore, spectrum sensing should evolve to a more general and comprehensive awareness-providing mechanism, not only as part of CR systems but also as a communication environment-awareness component of an ASHA paradigm that can adapt sensing parameters autonomously to ensure robust signal identification, parameter estimation, and interference avoidance. Such an approach will lead to recognition of communication opportunities in different dimensions of the spectrum hyperspace, and provide necessary information about the air interfaces, access techniques, and waveforms that are deployed over the monitored spectrum to accomplish ASHA, resource and interference management.