Effect of uncertainties in modeling interferences in coherent and energy detectors for spectrum sensing

We examine an extreme case of modeling uncertainties in spectrum sensing, whereby the interference which, in addition to additive noise, affects a sensor has an unknown probability distribution, and only its maximum power is known. We deal with a situation in which the sensor disregards the presence of the interference, and we study its performance. Application of moment-bound theory allows the derivation of sharp (i.e., achievable) upper and lower bounds to the receiver operating characteristics of the sensor. Coherent and energy detectors are analyzed. In particular, it is proved that, even in the large signal-to-noise ratio regime, reliable sensing becomes impossible if the maximum interference power exceeds a certain threshold.