Cognitive Radio - First Experiments

Original author: David Talbot
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Your attention is invited to the translation of an article on cognitive radio.
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Due to the rapid growth of smartphones, data transmission in wireless networks may face a catastrophic lack of frequencies, so the White House advisory group offers mobile operators and research laboratories to step up their efforts to find solutions for more efficient use of the spectrum.


One solution is to use the so-called cognitive radio, which can detect the currently unused frequency bands and switch between such free channels without interrupting data transfer.

A startup in New Jersey has recently created the fastest prototype to date, using the principle of cognitive radio. The prototype operates on the maximum possible frequency range and is one of the first among the models of this technology, which will enter the mass market in the future and allow the spectrum to be used more efficiently.

This is a device called CogRadio, which was created by Radio Technology Systems in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. The device can quickly switch from one wireless channel to another and at the same time broadcast the video stream without breaks, and is also used to test and test the software that will be used in commercial products.

“This is the most convenient and versatile broadband device that was not previously available to researchers,” said Dipankara Raychaudhuri, director of Winlab, at Rutgers University, which developed the CogRadio software. Existing models, he says, cannot switch fast enough, and have a limited range of spectrum and bandwidth. “Today, this is the best experimental prototype of cognitive radio available, and it’s very important because everyone is interested in testing and deploying such technology.”

This is the first device capable of operating in the range from 100 MHz to 7.5 GHz, including frequencies for television, Wi-Fi and frequencies for GSM. The device is able to detect unoccupied frequencies and switch between them in 50 microseconds, and in some cases in 1 microsecond. This is a record for switching speed, said Peter Woliansky, a graduate of Bell Labs, who developed the device and then founded a startup.

The device is capable of transmitting data at a speed of 400 Mbps, which is much faster than existing Wi-Fi devices.

Commercial wireless systems created using this technology could offer new services. And of course, this technology, if it enters the mass market, which is now dominated by large companies, will create competition, which in turn will lead to lower prices for wireless access for the end user.

Now the device costs $ 6000, but it is cheaper than other similar devices.
Prices will fall and such devices can afford not only rich laboratories, but also a wide range of small companies involved in the development of software for cognitive radio. “For people studying wireless technology, creating such a device and making it work is very difficult,” says Woliansky.

CogRadio will serve as a testing ground for the research work of the National Science Foundation for the creation of mobile-oriented Internet access, in which wireless and smartphones are seen as the main means of accessing the Internet (project headquartered in Raychaudhuri Labs)

CogRadio will also be used in one of the first outdoor cognitive radio tests to be at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where its software was developed. (Cognitive radio research was mainly conducted in a shielded laboratory due to possible harmful interference, but the US Federal Communications Commission has begun issuing permits for outdoor testing).

And researchers from Virginia Tech will use such devices to develop the next generation of high-speed broadband channels for police and firefighters, and other emergency services that include video transmission and Internet access.

Cognitive radio can create a whole host of new services. For example, it can route cellular calls to Wi-Fi, which is done today in small microcell wireless base stations, and can also avoid using fiber to access the Internet, and instead use the existing television spectrum in the 400 MHz band.

In all such projects, the big problem is fast frequency switching and high bandwidth. “You need to quickly switch from frequency to frequency, possibly in a very wide range, and once you find a free channel you need to use as much bandwidth as possible to transfer data and it's actually very difficult to do,” says Chip Elliot, project director for Cognitive NSF Radio Project at BBN in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “This radio is perfect for such things.”

Someday, future smartphones and other devices will include some of these technologies. “Although this is an important milestone for realizing high performance and using cognitive radio, much remains to be done - chip design, interface and more,” says Raychaudhuri. Other companies and research groups are also working on improving and enhancing cognitive radio.

Passions are heating up, as the requirements for mobile networks are growing. Bell Labs estimates mobile traffic will grow 25 times by 2016, Cisco says, it will grow 18 times. The FCC makes it clear that the existing spectrum will end next year, and new technologies will be vital.

The upcoming White House report on wireless technology is being co-written with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and others, including Craig Mandy, a senior fellow and strategist at Microsoft. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is also pushing the industry to develop new technologies.

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