On the Feasibility of Interference Estimation Techniques in Cognitive Satellite Environments with Impairments

The increasing demand of wider frequency bands in wireless communications has lead in the last years to the introduction of novel techniques allowing to exploit more efficiently the radio spectrum. In particular, spectrum sharing is considered one of the key technologies for future wireless systems. Cognitive radio is considered the most important technique for efficiently allowing the spectrum sharing among heterogeneous systems. If on one hand the cognitive radio techniques have been extensively assessed in terrestrial communications, they remain quite an unexplored area in Satellite Communications (SatComs). In this paper an Interference Estimation technique for SatComs aiming to reuse the spectrum resources primarily allocated to terrestrial communications is discussed. In particular, its assessment in a realistic scenario, where multiple impairments are considered, is discussed.