Unified analysis of energy detection of unknown signals over generalized fading channels

Reliable spectrum sensing is the very task upon which the entire operation of cognitive radio rests. Blind sensing of spectral-holes using a radiometer (energy detectors) is one of the solutions that have been proposed for enabling opportunistic spectrum access. This article revisits the problem of energy detection of an unknown deterministic signal over a myriad of fading environments. Specifically, a new approach (based on the canonical series representations of the generalized Marcum Q-function of real order in conjunction with the derivatives of the moment generating function of signal-to-noise ratio) is proposed to analyze the performance of maximal-ratio combining (MRC) and square-law combining (SLC) energy detectors with independent but non-identically distributed (i.n.d) fading statistics, including Rice and mixed-fading channels. Our analytical framework is also capable of treating the Nakagami-m channels with non-integer fading severity indices as well as halfodd integer values for the time-bandwidth product u. Many of these cases were either intractable with the classical probability density function/contour integral approaches, or that heretofore had resisted simple/computationally efficient solutions. Selected numerical results are also provided for the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) of MRC and SLC diversity energy detectors over Rice and Nakagami-m channels.