Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the perceived scarcity of the radio spectrum is mainly caused by the inflexible allocation of the spectrum to licensed users. To overcome this problem, flexible dynamic spectrum access by cognitive radios (CRs) has been proposed. It is expected that CRs will form a core part of fourth generation (4G) wireless technology and will be used in common carrier, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and Smart Grid applications. While CR enables a more efficient and more flexible use of the radio spectrum, it will inevitably also cause additional interference to existing, licensed systems. Therefore, CR presents both a challenge and an opportunity to service providers and equipment vendors alike. In the proposed project, we will perform a comprehensive investigation of the challenges and opportunities presented by the introduction of CR technology. Since the design of dynamic spectrum access mechanisms based on CR involves both the medium access control (MAC) and the physical (PRY) layers and is also heavily affected by the underlying channel models, we have assembled a team of six researchers with extensive experience in all relevant areas. The specific objectives of the proposed research include: (1) Development of accurate propagation and spectrum occupancy models for CR networks. (2) Development of improved signal design and detection methods for CR and legacy systems. (3) Design of efficient MAC and protocols for CR systems.