This paper investigates the design issues of spectrum sensing in the cognitive radio (CR) networks of opportunistic unlicensed spectrum access. The cognitive radios can perform a communication using the incumbent user spectrum band without the interference caused by the cognitive radio users. In this case, the cognitive radios must know the real-time radio environments of the incumbent user spectrum band using the spectrum sensing, beacon signal, and geo-location database access. Then in this paper, we are going to provide spectrum sensing issues which include the sensing techniques, the regulatory requirements, the analysis of DTV detection threshold, and main considerations associated with the spectrum sensing design in cognitive radio systems. Also, this paper introduces design trade-offs in order to optimize the sensing parameters such as sensing time and sensing complexity.