  In this paper, we investigate a spectrum sensing algorithm for detecting
spatial dimension holes in Multiple Inputs Multiple Outputs (MIMO)
transmissions for OFDM systems using Compressive Sensing (CS) tools. This
extends the energy detector to allow for detecting transmission opportunities
even if the band is already energy filled. We show that the task described
above is not performed efficiently by regular MIMO decoders (such as MMSE
decoder) due to possible sparsity in the transmit signal. Since CS
reconstruction tools take into account the sparsity order of the signal, they
are more efficient in detecting the activity of the users. Building on
successful activity detection by the CS detector, we show that the use of a
CS-aided MMSE decoders yields better performance rather than using either
CS-based or MMSE decoders separately. Simulations are conducted to verify the
gains from using CS detector for Primary user activity detection and the
performance gain in using CS-aided MMSE decoders for decoding the PU
information for future relaying.
