SummaryIn this paper, a performance analysis is presented for user selection schemes in a single-input multiple-output spectrum sharing system. In the considered system, multiple secondary users try to use the licensed spectrum of a primary user in an opportunistic manner, in which an interference constraint for the primary user is satisfied. In this paper, we first use 2 conventional user selection schemes for single-input multiple-output spectrum sharing system and analyze the system performance for each scheme. We then propose a new user selection scheme that can overcome the limitations of those 2 conventional user selection schemes. As for the performance analysis, the average channel capacity, the outage probability, and the bit error rate performances of the system using the presented user selection schemes are analyzed and mathematical closed-form expressions for the outage probability are derived. The performances of the system are evaluated using the derived mathematical formulas in different cases. In addition, Monte Carlo simulation results are also provided to show the accuracy and correctness of the performed analysis.