Efficient Evidence-based Decision Fusion Scheme for Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks

In this article, an evidence based decision fusion cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) schemes has been considered for overcoming the hidden terminal problem, improving reliability, and increasing SU agility. Under practical conditions, the combination of conflicting evidences with the classical Dempster‐Shafer theory (DS theory) rule may produce counter‐intuitive results when combining the secondary users (SUs) sensing data evidence leading to poor CSS performance. In order to overcome and minimize the effect of conflicting data, and to enhance performance of the CSS system, a novel efficient evidence‐based decision fusion scheme CSS is proposed. The approach is based on the credibility of evidence from the SUs sensing decision, which represents the similarity or the relation among the different SUs sensing data evidence, and a dissociability degree measure that indicates the quality or clarity of the SUs sensing data evidence. Furthermore, a weighted averaging factor determined by the credibility and dissociability of the SU sensing data evidence is proposed. Simulation results presented show that under practical conditions the proposed scheme enhances the performance of the CSS system when compared to traditional fusion rules that do not take into account the difference in local sensing reliability between the SUs.