A spectrum sensing scheme with dynamic sensing period adjustment for femtocells in LTE systems

This paper presents a novel spectrum sensing method for femtocells in LTE systems. In order to improve the downlink throughput and reduce sensing energy consumption of the femtocells, the method first identifies the service types (voice service or data service) of the macrocell users, and then dynamically adjusts the spectrum sensing period to optimize the throughput of the femtocells under the condition of controlling the interference to the macrocell users and the sensing energy consumption. Computer simulation results show that the method can improve downlink throughput of the femtocell cells, especially when the activity degree of the macrocell users is high. Meanwhile the sensing energy consumption of a femtocell can be reduced considerably.