COGNITIVE RADIO

NETWORKS

UNIT I
INTRODUCTION TO SDR AND
COGNITIVE RADIO
Functions of Radio
General Digital Radio
 General Digital Radio

● Antenna Section
● Two basic types:
1. Receiving Antenna
2. Transmitting Antenna

● RF Front End Section

● Filters
● LNAs
● LO
● Down Conversion Mixers
 General Digital Radio

● ADC and DAC Section

● DUC and DAC Section

● DUC – Baseband signal to IF signal
● DDC – IF signal to baseband signal

● Baseband Section
● Connection setup, Equalization,
● Frequency Hopping, Coding/Decoding
● Correlation, Scrambling
● Modulation, Spreading & Pulse Shaping
 Software Defined Radio

“ Radio in which some or all of the physical

layer functions are software defined”

Basics
SCR – Software Controlled Radio
● Radio in which some or all of the physical
layer functions are software controlled.
 SDR Functionality

Hardware Components
Baseband
RF-Front End ADC and DAC
Processor

Software Modules
 Hardware Radio vs Software Radio
Constraint Conventional Radio Software Radio Cognitive Radio

Dynamically supports multiple

It supports only fixed It can create new
variable systems, protocols and
number of systems waveforms on its own
interfaces

Reconfiguration can be
It can interface with diverse
Application done only at the time of It negotiates new interfaces
systems
design
It adjusts operations to
It may support multiple
It provides a wide range of meet the QoS required by
services only at the time
service with available QoS. the application for the
of design
signal environment
More capable than Conventional More capable than SDR,
Traditional RF design
radio , Software architecture Intelligence
Design
Traditional Baseband Re-configurability, Provide Awareness, Learning and
design provisions for easy upgrades Observations
Hardware Radio vs Software Radio
Software Radio Classification

HR – Hardware Radio
SCR – Software Controlled Radio
SDR- Software Defined Radio
ISR – Ideal Software Radio
USR- Ultimate Software Radio (USR)
 Software Radio Classification
● Tier 0 : Hardware Radio
● The functions of the radio cannot be changed by software.
● Tier 1 : Software Controlled Radio (SCR)
● SCR Controls limited functions
● Changes of attributes [mode or frequency] cannot be done without
changing hardware.
● Tier 2 : Software Defined Radio (SDR)
● Performs wideband or narrow band operation.
● Capable of storing large number of waveforms or air interfaces.
● Separate antenna system, Wide band filtering, Amplification and Down
conversion
● Digital to Analog Conversion, analog up conversion, filtering and
amplification.
 Software Radio Classification

● Tier 3 : Ideal Software Radio (ISR)

● Provides the capabilities of SDR.
● Eliminates analog amplification and heterodyne
● Tier 4 : Ultimate Software Radio (USR)
● Does not require external antenna.
● No restrictions on operating frequency.
● Perform a wide range of adaptive services for user.
 Advantages of SDR
● Interoperability ● Ease of Design

● Efficient use of resources ● Research and

under varying conditions development

● Opportunistic frequency ● Flexible to incorporate

reuse (cognitive radio) additional functionality

● Reduced obsolescence ● Fewer discrete

(future-proofing) components

● Lower cost ● Multimode Operation

 Disadvantages of SDR
● Difficulty in writing the software for various target
systems.
● Need for interfaces to digital signals and algorithms.
● For very wide frequency coverage, the RF hardware
- need to be built in separate portions of circuitry.
● Poor dynamic range in some SDR design.

● A lack of understanding among designers as to what

is required.

● Software reliability may define overall radio

reliability, rather than hardware limitations.
 Benefits of SDR
● Reprogrammable units and infrastructure are
flexible or reconfigurable.

● Multiband or multimode operation has some

reduced obsolescence.

● Different standards can co-exist due to

ubiquitous connectivity.

● Enhances or facilitates experimentation.

● Combines both analog and digital
communication.
 Issues of SDR
● Wideband radio need,
▪ Broad spectrum coverage
▪ Dynamic re-configurability
▪ Interference mitigation
▪ Adaptation of open system architectures.

● Wideband power amplifier has some

constraints such as linearity,
bandwidth and efficiency.

● Cost to initiate SDR is very high

Software Radio Architecture Evolution
 Software Radio Architecture
Evolution

A. It moves ADC as close to the receiving

antenna as possible.

B. It substitutes software for hardware

processing.

C. Facilitates a transition from dedicated to

general-purpose hardware.
 Software Radio Architecture Evolution
Year Description
E-System Inc. - term Software Radio.
1984
A prototype digital baseband receiver.

First military radio was implemented

Its physical layer components in software
Example :
1. U.S Military SPEAK easy I & SPEAK easy II radios:
✔ A Compact radio
✔ Fully developed SDR with sufficient DSP resources
1991
✔ Tactical military communications from 2MHz to 2GHz
✔ Interoperability between different air-interface standards.
2. U. S. Navy’s Digital Modulator Radio (DMR):
✔ Generate many waveforms and modes which can able to be remotely
controlled with an Ethernet interface.
 Software Radio Architecture Evolution

Year Description

1992 Joe Mitola published a paper on software radio.

A digital radio - reconfigures which changes the software codes running

1993
on it.

Modular Multi-funtion Information Transfer System (MMITS) - First

1996
SDR Association

✔ SDR was implemented for commercial purpose.

1997 to ✔ Cellular networks include a general-purpose, more economic
1999 hardware platform, future proofing and easier bug fixes through
software upgrades.
 Software Radio Architecture Evolution

Year Description
✔ Creation of Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)
1997
✔ Software Communication Architecture (SCA) was formed

✔ Automated code generation for embedded SDR.

1998 ✔ Joe Mitola - term Cognitive Radio
✔ MMITS forum was renamed into SDR forum.

2001 ✔ GNU radio was implemented

 Software Radio Architecture Evolution
Year Description
✔ FCC first time gave approval for commercial SDR.

✔ Vanu Inc. & Anywave BS.

2004
✔ Physical processors - baseband running on pico-chip of
frequencies. processors
✔ Texas Instruments and Xilinx
2006 ✔ Product was equipped with ARM, DSP, FPGA, Frontend tunable
receivers (200MHz to 1GHz).

2009 LIME Microsystems - Commercial Single chip RF Frontend receiver

2010 SDR forum - renamed - wireless innovation forum.

Aspects of Software Defined Radio

● Multi-band

● Multi-carrier

● Multi-mode

● Multi-rate

● Variable Bandwidth
 Applications of SDR

● Military Application

● Monitoring System

● Disaster management

● Deep Space Communications

 Cognitive Radio
● Cognitive Radio (CR) is an adaptive, intelligent radio

and network technology that can automatically detect

available channels in a wireless spectrum and change
transmission and reception parameters which enables
more communication to run concurrently and also
improve radio operating behavior.

● Federal Communications Commission(FCC) defines CR

as: “A Cognitive Radio is a radio that can change its

transmitter or receiver parameters based on
interaction with the environment in which it operates.
 Dynamic Spectrum Management’
●A new spectrum sharing paradigm that allows
secondary users to access the abundant spectrum
holes or white spaces in the licensed spectrum
bands
●Key issues:
Awareness
Intelligence
Learning
Adaption
Reliability and
Efficiency.
Relationship between different advanced wireless
technologies
Adaptive Radio
✔ To monitor and to modify their
performance and Operational
Parameters
Cognitive Radio
✔ Communication systems are aware of
their internal state and environment
(location and RF)
Intelligent Radio
✔ Capable of machine learning
 Characteristics of CR
1. Reconfigurability

2. Intelligent Adaptive Behavior

Capabilities of CR
1. Flexibility and Agility

2. Sensing

3. Learning and Adaptability

 Evolution of Cognitive Radio
Year Description

1984 Software Defined Radio was implemented by Esystem Inc.,

Later on Cognitive Radio research work was started by Mitola and

Magurie

CR research focused fully on DSA.More research projects are done based

on this DSA based CR. Example: URA, SPECTRUM, MILTON
2000
-
Most important project in spectrum management and policy research was
2003
Next Generation (XG) project
Different working groups on CR and SDR are: IEEE 802.22, SCC41
working groups, ETSI’S re-configurable radio systems technical
committee.

IEEE 802.22 aims to provide DSA to vacant TV spectrum.

CR started using TVWS for opportunistic access of spectrum bands.

Evolution of Cognitive Radio

2004 FCC proposed to allow opportunistic access to TV bands.

Adaptrum, I2C, Motorola, Microsoft and Philips were forwarded some

demands to FCC for using prototype cognitive radios in TV bands.

2008
In November, FCC ordered to establish rules to allow the operation of
cognitive devices in TVWS on secondary basis.

U.K.Regulator, Ofcom were proposed FCC to allow license exempt use of

interleaved spectrum for cognitive devices.

In February, Ofcom published a new consultation which provides further

2009
details of its proposed cognitive access to TVWS.
 SDR and CR
ARCHITECTURES
Hardware structure of SDR device
Basic hardware architecture of a modern
SDR
Hardware Architecture of an SDR-
Digital Receiver
Hardware Architecture of an SDR-
Digital Transmitter
Software structure of SDR device
SDR
Processor architecture
SDR baseband hardware system architecture
Essential Functions of SDR
Architecture of an AACR
Minimal AACR node
Architecture
 Enabling Technologies
1) SDR:
SDRs provide software control of a variety of modulation
techniques, wideband and narrowband operation, transmission
security (TRANSEC) functions (such as hopping), and
waveform requirements.
▪ digital modular radio (DMR)
▪ Small Unit Operations Situational Awareness Systems (SUO
SAS) - portable SDR operating from 20 MHz to 2.5 GHz.
▪ Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)
 Enabling Technologies
2) Cognitive Radio :
●A cognitive radio adds both a sensing and an adaptation element
to the software defined and software radios.
●Four new capabilities embodied in cognitive radios will help
enable dynamic use of the spectrum:
(i)Flexibility :ability to change the waveform
and the configuration of a device.
(ii)Agility : ability to change the spectral band in which a
device will operate.
(iii)RF sensing :ability to observe the state of the system, which
includes the radio and environment.
(iv)Networking: ability to communicate between multiple nodes
and thus facilitate combining the sensing and control capacity
of those nodes.
 Enabling Technologies
3) Policy-based radio:
A radio that is governed by a predetermined set of rules for
behavior.
The rules define the operating limits of such a radio.
These rules can be defined and implemented:
● During manufacture
● During configuration of a device by the user
● During over-the-air provisioning and/or
● By over-the-air control.
 Enabling Technologies
4) Software reconfigurable radio:
A SDR that:
(1) incorporates software-controlled antenna filters to
dynamically select receivable frequencies, and
(2) is capable of downloading and installing updated
software for controlling operational characteristics and
antenna filters without manual intervention.
5) Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS):
●1. A general term used to describe mitigation techniques
that allow, amongst others, detection, and avoidance of
co-channel interference with other radios in the same
system or with respect to other systems.
●2. The ability to sense signals from other nearby
transmitters in an effort to choose an optimum operating
environment.
 Radio frequency spectrum and regulation
Spectrum: nature’s communication highway-10 kHz to 300 GHz
Physical Characteristics of Spectrum: The radio frequency
spectrum is formed by a virtually infinite set of discreet
frequencies characterized as waves with wavelengths
corresponding to the frequencies according to the simple formula,
frequency equals the speed of light divided by the wavelength, or

These radio waves operate as periodic waves and therefore the

time-varying value of the signal at a point in space may be
represented in the general form

where s is the signal strength, t is the time, A is the amplitude of

the signal, and f is its frequency. A can either be a constant or vary
with time.
 Radio frequency spectrum and regulation
●The reflection and refraction of an incident radio
wave at the interface to a medium with a
different refractive index
 Radio frequency spectrum and regulation
●The impact of diffraction, absorption, and
scattering on an incident radio wave.
 Radio frequency spectrum and regulation
●Self-interference in a simple reflection/refraction environment.
 Implications for Communication
Applications
The utility of the spectrum is derived from its ability to be
modulated in a variety of ways to transport useful information.
This includes
(i) applying or removing power from a specific frequency or
spectral range, such as pulse modulation or amplitude shift keying
(ASK);
(ii) increasing or decreasing the power level applied to a frequency,
such as amplitude modulation (AM);
(iii) switching the transmitted power from one frequency to another,
such as frequency modulation or frequency shift keying (FSK);
(iv) altering the phase of the signal, such as phase shift keying
(PSK);
(v) combining these techniques to create a variety of evermore
complex signal encoding structures.
 Regulatory history and successes
first wireless communications systems-wireless telegraph
pioneered by Marconi and others in the late 1800s.
The first international wireless standards meeting-the
International Radiotelegraph Conference - organized by the
International Telegraph Union (ITU)-in 1906 in Berlin.
Objectives and Philosophy:
●The ITU mission: bringing the benefits of ICT to all the
world’s inhabitants.
●ITU’s mission is to enable the growth and sustained
development of telecommunications and information
networks, and to facilitate universal access so that people
everywhere can participate in, and benefit from, the emerging
information society and global economy.
●ITU remains dedicated to helping the world communicate.
 Early History and Success
The initial radio standards were focused on - shore-based
radio receivers.
This was especially important for monitoring distress signals.
Though frequencies were formally allocated as early as 1912
to initially assist in these ship-to-shore communications,
The 1927 International Radiotelegraph Conference provided a
relatively comprehensive allocation of frequency bands to the
various radio services in existence at the time (fixed, maritime
and aeronautical mobile, broadcasting, amateur, and
experimental).
On October 15, 1947, ITU became a United Nations
specialized agency.
 Early History and Success
At the same time, the International Frequency Registration
Board (IFRB) was established within the ITU to coordinate the
increasingly complicated task of managing the radio frequency
spectrum.
Also in the same year, the Table of Frequency Allocations, first
introduced in 1912 (based on concerns that arose after the
Titanic disaster), became mandatory to assist, guide, and at
times tabulate spectrum use in the various member countries.
Over the years this table has been expanded (especially to
higher and higher frequency ranges) and continuously refined
by the ITU.
While the ITU provides a framework and guidance for global
spectral use, each nation has its own independent regulatory
body that operates under the national government of the
specific country.
 Early History and Success
In the United States the primary regulatory body is the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - established
in 1934.
This body in turn replaced and expanded the charter of the
Federal Radio Commission, which had been established in
1927.
The FCC develops and enforces regulations in support of the
laws governing the commercial use of the spectrum created by
the U.S. Congress and signed into law by the president.
In the United States, government use of the spectrum is
administered by a separate entity, the Office of Spectrum
Management in the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA), which reports to the
Department of Commerce in the executive branch of the
government.
 EMERGING REGULATORY CHALLENGES AND
ACTIONS
Since mid-1980s, most regulatory bodies have moved from
the strict assessment of “public interest” value, to the use of
a market-based approach for “new spectrum” assignment
(i.e., various forms of auction), especially for commercial
assignments such as cell phone bands.
I. Era of Increasing Regulatory Challenges:
supply of spectrum is clearly finite, but the demand for the
spectrum is fundamentally unbounded.
This ever-increasing demand is sometimes based on the
“quadruple whammy” of spectrum use.
This “quadruple whammy” is composed of four elements,
all focused on satisfying a critical personal or societal need.
 EMERGING REGULATORY CHALLENGES AND
ACTIONS
Elements of the Quadruple whammy:
1)Applications:
The number and variety of different radio applications is virtually
unbounded and rapidly evolving.
For example, these include: broadcast communications (television,
radio), commercial communications (emergency services radios),
industrial communications and fleet management, aeronautical
communications, military communications, personal communications
(cell phones, two-way radios), wireless networks (personal, local
area, metropolitan), satellite communications.
2) Coverage:
The need to offer these applications to an ever broader audience and
eliminate any spatial constraints in the use of the applications.
 EMERGING REGULATORY CHALLENGES AND
ACTIONS
3) Duty Cycle:
The most popular of these applications will be used for an ever
increasing percentage of the time, ultimately following the
popular personal dictum of “always on, always connected.”
4) Performance:
The demands for ever-increasing levels of performance for the
popular applications require increasing allocation of spectral
bandwidth, since there is a direct correlation between allocated
bandwidth and the sustainable data rate that a channel can
support.
In its simplest form this is described by the Nyquist bandwidth
formula:
C = 2B (for binary signals)
C = 2B log 2 (M) (for multilevel signals),
where C is the capacity, B is the bandwidth, and M is the number
of signal levels.
 EMERGING REGULATORY CHALLENGES AND
ACTIONS
II. Allocation, Reallocation, and Optimization:
Regulatory value judgments were required to determine that an existing
application should be retired, replaced, relocated, or have its spectral
allocation reduced to make room for a new high-priority application
that could optimally operate in the spectrum used by the existing
application.
This is obviously an extremely difficult task.
Two dominant trends that have transformed the spectrum management
landscape since the early 1980s.
The first trend is the move to government auctions as a means of using
raw dollars of determining the most appropriate allocation of spectrum,
or at least the block band assignments.
This market-based approach is currently being extended to allow
entities that have obtained spectral resources to resell or lease these
resources to others on a long-term or temporal basis.
 EMERGING REGULATORY CHALLENGES AND
ACTIONS
The most widely used band for unlicensed activities is at 2.4 GHz, but
large new bands at 5-6 GHz are now available around the world for
new applications.
The second approach, called dynamic spectrum access networks, and
its tightly related cousin cognitive access networks (with the primary
embodiment being cognitive radios), has created a push for regulatory
approval enabling temporary (usually licensed-exempt) sharing of
spectrum along both spatial and, importantly, temporal dimensions
between heterogeneous users.
This approach is based on the important observation that most of the
spectrum, in most of the places, most of the time is completely unused.
 EMERGING REGULATORY CHALLENGES AND
ACTIONS

III. Regulatory Actions:

The U.S. FCC modified its rules for the industrial, scientific, and
medical band to enable its use for wireless communication (FCC
Rules, Part 15-247).This was the first of three major initiatives to
begin to address this critical issue.
The other two have been the allowance of ultra-wideband (UWB)
underlays, based on an FCC Report and Order filed February 14,
2002 (and released April 22, 2002), and even more recently,
cognitive radio overlays supported by another FCC Report and
Order released March 11, 2005.
Other nations are following this trend, including the direction
outlined in the highly regarded Spectrum Framework Review
produced by Ofcom in June 2005.
 EMERGING REGULATORY CHALLENGES AND
ACTIONS
IV. Spectrum Task Forces and Commissions:
Two of the more prominent efforts conducted over the past decade
were the FCC Spectrum Task Force commissioned by then FCC
Chairman Michael Powell and chaired by Dr. Paul Kolodzy, and
The CSIS Spectrum Commission chaired by Bob Galvin, the
legendary former chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola,
and James Schlesinger, the former chair of the Atomic Energy
Commission, director of the CIA, secretary of Defense, and secretary
of Energy.
Both of these extensive studies came to the conclusion that the
existing regulatory structure that attempts to allocate a discrete band
for each application is no longer functional.
While these studies have clearly pointed the emerging power of
cognitive radio technology.
 REGULATORY ISSUES OF COGNITIVE ACCESS
I) Should a Regulator Allow Cognitive Access?
The national regulator in each country to decide who has access
to the radio spectrum.
The regulators enable access by either issuing licenses or
exempting particular devices from the need to have a license.
Therefore, cognitive access in commercial spectrum would
generally be illegal until it is enabled by a regulator through a set
of orders specifying the conditions under which this kind of
technology might be deployed.
The regulator could adopt a variety of approaches to cognitive
access, including
(1) Deciding not to allow it (and hence do nothing).
(2) Enabling existing license holders to allow cognitive access
into their own bands if they chose to.
(3) Licensing cognitive access to particular bands.
 REGULATORY ISSUES OF COGNITIVE ACCESS

(4) Exempting cognitive equipment from the need for licensing

with appropriate restrictions on when, where, and how they
might operate.
II) How to Determine the Rules of Entry
● If the regulator decides to allow cognitive access to a particular
band, perhaps a TV broadcasting band, the next step is to set the
rules of entry.
● The regulator will typically seek rules that ensure a very low
probability of interference to the incumbent users of the band
while at the same time placing the minimum possible restrictions
on the cognitive device.
● The regulator also needs to focus on the potential for interference
between cognitive devices as their usage grows. Avoiding
interference is generally a very difficult technical problem as
well as a challenging political issue.
 REGULATORY ISSUES OF COGNITIVE ACCESS

III. Regulatory Implications of Different Methods of

Cognition:
Three broad techniques used for identifying whether bands are free
from use have been suggested.
These are sensing, beacons, and geolocation, which importantly can
be used discretely or in combination to effect the desired level of
confidence in the attainment of a low-interference environment.
Geographical Databases
An alternative to sensing is for a cognitive device to precisely know
its location and have access to a database listing the frequencies it is
allowed to use at each location.
This overcomes the regulatory issues associated, with sensing, but
leads to other regulatory issues, such as
REGULATORY ISSUES OF COGNITIVE ACCESS

To what accuracy should the device know its location?

Who will maintain the database? Will there be one provider for all
bands or a separate database per band? What will the commercial
arrangements be? Will there be monopoly concerns?
What availability is needed for the database? Is it acceptable for it
to be off-air for substantial periods?
How will devices download updated versions of the database?
How frequently should they do so? What will the loading on the
spectrum be as a result?
What about the dynamic use of the spectrum for frequencies that
are only occasionally in use?
REGULATORY ISSUES OF COGNITIVE ACCESS
Beacon Reception:
This approach requires the transmission of a signal from some
appropriate infrastructure providing information on which
frequencies are available for cognitive use in the vicinity.
problems:
Who provides the beacon signal? What are the commercial
arrangements, and if there is only one provider, are there competition
concerns?
How is the information the beacon transmits kept up to date,
especially where the licensed services are changing rapidly?
What spectrum is used for the beacon?
What technical parameters and protocols are used by the beacon
transmitter?
REGULATORY ISSUES OF COGNITIVE ACCESS

How to prevent the beacon signal from being received outside its
intended coverage area and as a result being applied incorrectly,
and conversely how to make sure that it is available to all
cognitive devices in the target area?
Should there be separate beacons for separate frequency bands or
one beacon for all the bands into which cognitive access is
allowed?
Is it acceptable for the use of cognitive devices to be denied
access if the beacon fails or is taken off-air for any reason?
 REGULATORY ISSUES OF COGNITIVE ACCESS

IV. Regulatory Developments to Date:

In November 2008 the FCC published its Report and Order enabling
cognitive access in the white space in the TV broadcast spectrum.
In July 2009,Ofcom published a statement on “Licence-Exempting
Cognitive Devices Using Interleaved Spectrum”.
● The FCC concluded that sensing alone was insufficiently proven for
cognitive access.
As a result, it further concluded that geographical databases (termed
geolocation) were also required.
Specified details such as the “locational” accuracy (50 m) and the
frequency of consulting the database (at least daily or whenever
movement is detected) were also stipulated in the Report and Order
document.
 SPECTRUM MEASUREMENTS AND USAGE

These studies have most often been performed by companies seeking

to understand the usage characteristics in a specific frequency band
into which they are attempting to provide a new wireless service.
Others have performed more significant studies over broader spectral
ranges, but most of these have been short-term studies looking at
specific spectral regions in specific geographies for relatively short
periods of time.
Early Spectrum Occupancy Studies:
The radio car procured by the Radio Division of the Department of
Commerce in the United States in 1927 to support its radio inspection
and operator licensing function.
Snapshot Studies:
Numerous short-term spectrum occupancy studies have been
conducted by a variety of organizations in different regions of the
world.
 SPECTRUM MEASUREMENTS AND USAGE

Shared Spectrum Company (SSC) often in concert with a

university partner (Stevens Institute of Technology and Illinois
Institute of Technology, IIT) and often funded by the National
Science Foundation.
These studies have generally demonstrated that there is an
abundance of unused or lightly used spectrum, which could
potentially be exploited through use of dynamic spectrum access
networks, or even static networks with carefully defined
geographic boundaries.
 SPECTRUM MEASUREMENTS AND USAGE

Spectrum Observatory:
The concept of a spectrum observatory is a relatively new idea in the
spectrum world.
Despite numerous spectrum occupancy studies, as described
previously, most of them have been of short duration (two days or
less in any single location).
“Snapshot” studies often focused on a relatively narrow spectral
band.
While these have been very effective in gaining general spectral
information about the location or in some cases a narrow spectral
band across a reasonable geographic area (mobile studies), much of
the interesting information can be obtained only by looking at the
spectrum over weeks or even months of time.
 SPECTRUM MEASUREMENTS AND USAGE

The first true spectrum observatory is the Wireless Network and

Communications Research Center’s (WiNCom) observatory
funded by NSF and located at IIT in Chicago, Illinois.
This spectrum observatory is dedicated to the multiyear
study of the spectral usage patterns in Chicago in the
spectral range from 30 MHz to 6 GHz using fixed,
nomadic, and potentially mobile observatory systems.
One of its fundamental purposes is to detect and
characterize spectral holes in time and space that can be
exploited by cognitive radio systems in the future.
 SPECTRUM MEASUREMENTS AND USAGE

Spectral Sensor Arrays:

For localized observation of the dynamic use of the
spectrum, sensor arrays should become a very valuable
measurement tool.
This sensor array system would be particularly valuable in high
network traffic areas and of even greater value in areas that also
have a highly dynamic usage pattern (e.g., mobile,
automobile-based wireless systems at a busy intersection in a
city).
 APPLICATIONS FOR SPECTRUM OCCUPANCY
DATA
Regulatory Guidance:
Spectrum occupancy data are particularly important to the
various policy makers and regulatory bodies responsible for
writing the spectrum allocation and usage rules for this valuable
natural resource.
Wireless Systems and Device Design Opportunities:
Spectrum occupancy data should also enhance the quality of the
designs provided by the various wireless system and device
suppliers as they are provided with a more in-depth
understanding of their targeted spectral environment.
 APPLICATIONS FOR SPECTRUM OCCUPANCY
DATA

Wireless Communications and Data Service Providers:

Wireless network and communications service providers
should also benefit from this wealth of new information on
the utilization of the spectrum.
This will enable them to more optimally utilize the
spectrum they control and give them a much improved
understanding of the current state of the spectrum that may
become available through an auction process.
Societal Value:
This should enable exciting new technologies to be more rapidly
deployed to meet the public’s ever-expanding needs and desires
to communicate, to be informed, to be educated, and to provide
information to others.