Spectrum (Licensed - Unlicensed) Spectrum utilization White Spaces Concept of Cognitive Radio Spectrum Management Spectrum Sensing Spectrum

Access Conclusion Future Directions References

Cognitive Radio

Licensed Spectrum Operation of a wireless transmitter over particular frequencies according to an authorization Spectrum licenses come with a frequency assignment Applications: Mobile telephony, GPRS
Unlicensed Spectrum Operation of a wireless transmitter at particular frequencies without authorization Predefined rules to mitigate interference Applications: WLAN, Wi-Fi

Cognitive Radio

Spectrum is assigned to users with a license on a long term basis normally for huge regions like whole countries
o o

Primary users = rightful owners of a spectrum portion (LU - licensed) Secondary users = users who access the spectrum opportunistically

Advantages
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Exclusive access to spectrum in well-defined areas Allow transmission in high power levels Protection from interference Long payback time on infrastructure High Prices Spectrum stays unused in some areas and periods of time

Disadvantages
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Cognitive Radio

Advantages
Low or no cost for spectrum access Allowing multiple users operate at the same frequencies Makes easier the participation of new or small businesses

Disadvantages
no guarantee performance limited QoS no legal protection from interference

Cognitive Radio

Increasing demand for radio spectrum Much of the spectrum is idle for a period of time and at large numbers of locations Goal: Increase the efficiency of spectrum usage

Cognitive Radio

White space (or spectrum hole)

Is a band wider than 1Mhz that remains unoccupied for 10 minutes or longer CR technology enables their identification and use Secondary users jump from one white space to another

Cognitive Radio

A new class of radios was defined by the term cognitive radio Several definitions (and variations) of Cognitive Radio exist: Mitola- Cognitive radio signifies a radio that employs model based reasoning to achieve a specified level of competence in radio related domains. FCC - A cognitive radio (CR) is a radio that can change its transmitter parameters based on interaction with the environment in which it operates. E2R: Cognitive radios (CR) are aware of the electromagnetic spectrum environment around them and make adjustments to their transmission characteristics accordingly, in a manner consistent with the tiered access rights model.

Such devices must be able to: sense the spectral environment over a wide bandwidth, detect the presence/absence of legacy users (primary users),

adapt the parameters of their communication scheme

the communication does not interfere with primary users.

Cognitive Radio

Cognitive radio is an emerging concept in wireless access, aimed at improving the way radio spectrum is utilized. The principle of cognitive radio is temporal, spatial and geographic re-use of licensed spectrum. The idea is that an unlicensed (secondary) user shall be permitted to use licensed spectrum, provided that it transmits with low enough power and that it is so far from any primary users that it does not interfere with. The motivation for cognitive radio is various measurements of spectrum utilization, that generally show that spectrum is underutilized. Cognitive radios should be able to exploit spectrum holes by detecting them and using them in an opportunistic manner. Cognitive radios could be permitted to transmit if they cannot ``hear'' any primary transmission: `transmit-if-you-cannot-hear-primary'' paradigm Spectrum Etiquette (Listen before talk)

Cognitive Radio

Interference

boundaries

Area of possible cognition

Primary network

Spectrum Etiquette
(Listen before to talk, interference mitigation, )

Cognitive Radio

Source: General Dynamic

It knows where it is It knows what services are available, for example, it can identify then to use empty spectrum to communicate more efficiently It knows what services interest the user, and knows how to find them It knows the current degree of needs and future likelihood of needs of its user Learns and recognizes usage patterns from the user Applies Model Based Reasoning about user needs, local content, environmental context Flexible architectures

Decision Systems
Cognitive Radio

External Intelligence Sources

Orient
Infer on Context Hierarchy Pre-process Parse Establish Priority Normal

Plan
Immediate Urgent

Generate Alternatives (Program Generation) Evaluate Alternatives

Observe
Receive a Message Read Buttons

Learn
New States
Save Global States

Register to Current Time

Decide
Alternate Resources

Outside World

Prior States
Send a Message Set Display

Act

Initiate Process(es) (Isochronism Is Key)

The Cognition Cycle

Cognitive Radio

Spectrum sensing

Determine which portions of the spectrum is available and detect the presence of licensed users when a user operates in a licensed band Select the best available channel Coordinate access to this channel with other users a SU changes its frequency of operation when a PU appears in the same band

Spectrum decision Spectrum sharing

Spectrum mobility

Cognitive Radio

Cooperation

CR users determine their actions based on observed information exchanged with their neighbors improve accuracy, fair sharing, PU interference Spectrum management functions rely on exchanging information between CR users over a common control channel In-Band CCC Out-of-Band CCC
global coverage cluster-based architectures for local coverage local coverage

Common control channel (CCC)

Cognitive Radio

PU Detection

energy detection
sense presence/absence based on received signals energy
(+) easy to implement () cannot differentiate signal types

feature detection

sense presence/absence by extracting specific features

controller coordinates PU detection

Sensing Control

(+) most effective scheme for CRAHNs () computationally complex, long sensing time

Challenges [4]

How quickly a CR user can find the available spectrum band How long and how frequently a CR user should sense the spectrum

Support of Asynchronous Sensing Optimization of Cooperative Sensing

Cognitive Radio

Radio Environment
Transmitted signal Spectrum holes information

RF stimuli RF stimuli

SPECTRUM DECISION

SPECTRUM SENSING

Source SENDORA Project Spectrum holes Channel information Capacity

SPECTRUM ANALYSIS

Cognitive Radio

Objective

choose the best spectrum band according to the QoS requirements & spectrum characteristics Spectrum Characterization

Functionalities

Spectrum Selection
Routing Protocol

received signal strength, interference, user number allocate the best spectrum band (QoS) available switch the spectrum or not? adjust operating parameters

Reconfiguration

Cognitive Radio

Objective

Maintain QoS for SU without interfering to the PU Resource Allocation Spectrum Access
channel selection and power allocation without interference

Functionalities

Spectrum Sensing Support

coordination of access in order to avoid collisions random access, time slotted, hybrid
PU transmission distinguished from other CR users

Challenges

Topology Discovery
use of non-uniforms channels by different CR users makes it difficult

Cognitive Radio

Objective

Functionalities

change the SU frequency if a PU requires the specific portion Spectrum Handoff

starts with link failure: PU activity or quality degradation users transfer their connections to an unused band sustain the QoS during spectrum switching avoid temporary disconnection

Connection Management

Challenges

Switching Delay Minimization Adaptive Framework for Spectrum Handoff

Cognitive Radio

Sensing Periodicity
Periodically sense the band in case a PU transmits Sensing has to be interleaved with data transmission Sensing period: maximum time of SU unawareness delay

Detection Sensitivity
The minimum SNR at which the primary signal may still be accurately detected by the CR Interference causes SIR to fall
harmful: If SIR falls below a certain threshold

Strong dependency between the detection sensitivity and the maximum power it is allowed to transmit in a licensed band We should be able to manage the total interference according to the networks detection sensitivity

Cognitive Radio

Channel Uncertainty
Channel fading and shadowing CRs have to distinguish a faded or shadowed primary signal from a white space

Noise Uncertainty
Limited accuracy on noise power estimation
calibration errors thermal noise changes

calculation of detection sensitivity with the worst case noise assumption

Cognitive Radio

Aggregate-Interference Uncertainty

multiple cognitive radio networks operating over the same licensed band energy detection: nearby CR Networks sense each other and avoid simultaneous transmission system-level coordination among CR networks overcomes uncertainty at increased implementation cost

Cognitive Radio

Pros and Cons

(+) higher detection sensitivity
users employ less sensitive detectors overcomes channel uncertainty

() additional communication overhead

band manager collects measurements broadcast decision to all SU control channel needed

() user reliability?

Cognitive Radio

Multiple CR users share the spectrum resource by determining who will access the channel, or when a user accesses the channel

There are 3 types of access protocols:

Random access protocols

- No need time synchronization - Based on the carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) principle

Time slotted protocols

- Need of network-wide synchronization, where time is divided into slots for both the control channel and the data transmission

Hybrid protocols

- Partially slotted transmission, in which the control signaling generally occurs over synchronized time slots
Cognitive Radio

Interaction between the network and transport layers with the link layer

Cooperation among the different users Research challenges: i) Control channel design ii) Adaptation to PU transmission

Cognitive Radio

Cognitive radio networks

may solve current wireless network problems resulting from the limited available spectrum create a new class of users who intelligently share spectrum when it its idle has performance limitations by the uncertainties at various levels is a multifaceted problem demanding coordinated efforts of the regulatory and technical sides
e.g. Cooperative Sensing which requires flexible policy

Spectrum Sensing

Spectrum Management

management functions help with interaction among CR users cooperation among multiple users ensures protection to PU and optimizes CR network performance

Cognitive Radio

An overview of the state of the art for medium access protocols in cognitive radio networks Spectrum management, spectrum sensing and spectrum access were discussed There is further work needed in devising accurate models that account for false alarm and missed detection probabilities in one framework The simplified ON/OFF PU traffic model may not be suitable in a practical environment where the licensed users may be cellular, contention-based, or have other possible access technologies

Cognitive Radio

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2.

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The information from multiple layers must be seamlessly integrated in the working of the MAC protocol Completely integration of the sensing function with more accuracy Significant scope for devising protocols that adapt the CR transmissions based on the type of the interferer Newer performance metrics that capture the CR specific improvements should be devised and used for evaluating the different MAC protocols

CRs are an open area of research with industrial and academic interest for the next few years
Cognitive Radio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_radio

Spectrum Management in Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks, Akyildiz, I.F. and Lee, W.Y. and Chowdhury, K.R., IEEE Network, 2009 Spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks: requirements, challenges and design trade-offs, Amir Ghasemi, Elvino S. Sousa, IEEE Communications Magazine, 2008
Sliding-Window Algorithm for Asynchronous Cooperative Sensing in Wireless Cognitive Networks, Chengqi Song, Qian Zhang, IEEE Communications Society, ICC 2008 proceedings PDF

Cognitive Radio

Any Questions ???

Cognitive Radio