This paper introduces a reconfigurable test bed
for advanced distributed RF sensing algorithmic prototyping
and performance evaluation that demonstrates the feasibility of
the QoSMOS project sensing architecture. Both the individual
sensors and the controller unit are implemented using the open
SDR platform GNU Radio. The sensors use USRP hardware. The
current implementation uses the energy detection algorithm in the
sensors and the hard 1-out-of-M combination in the controller
unit to generate the final decision on the presence of an incumbent
signal. All communication between the controller unit and the
sensing elements is done over standard IP protocol for ease of
use. The test signals imitating the RF scene that the sensors
would experience in a real world deployment are created using
an Agilent’s state-of-the-art radio environment emulator. The
significant gains achieved with this distributed sensing test bed
are aligned with the theoretical results found in the literature.