Cognitive Networks: Towards Self-Aware Networks

7.6. Summary and Future Directions

The progeny of TellMe® seem headed to a purse or belt near you to better sense and perceive your needs for communications services so that you can take fuller advantage of the technology by, well, by doing nothing but letting the technology adapt to you. In 2005, the technology was not capable of sensing, perceiving and adapting to the user, but enabling technologies in machine speech and vision were maturing. Because of the FCC's rulings encouraging CR, many 'cognitive radio' products capable only of sniffing TV channels and employing unoccupied radio spectrum were appearing in the marketplace.

7.6.1. Architecture Frameworks

Often technical architecture frameworks of the kind presented in this chapter accelerate the state of practice by catalyzing work across industry on plug and play, teaming and collaboration. The thought is that to propel wireless technology from limited spectrum awareness towards valuable user awareness, some architecture like the CRA will be needed. In short, the CRA articulates the functions, components and design rules of next-generation cognitive radios. Each of the different aspects of the CRA contributes to the dialog:

1. The functional architecture identifies components and interfaces for cognitive radios with sensory and perception capabilities in the user domain, not just the radio domain.

2. The cognition cycle identifies the processing structures for the integration of sensing and perception into radio: observe (sense ...