Cognitive Radio and software defined radio: signal processing perspectives

Abstract

Wireless communications technologies have evolved tremendously throughout the last three decades. Rapidly increasing number of users and conversion of the voice oriented applications to multimedia applications lead to the need for efficient and flexible communications systems. The evolution of wireless systems addressed this need with adaptive radios until now. The future evolutions are expected to continue this trend with a more structured and sophisticated manner, leading to software defined radio and cognitive radio concepts with the capabilities of sensing, awareness, learning, decision making, and advanced adaptation. These next generation communication technologies require effective, reliable and intelligent signal processing techniques to sustain these features. In this paper, signal intelligence concept including signal identification, multidimensional signal analysis, and location and environment awareness will be discussed following introductory information about radio spectrum sensing and monitoring.