Cognitive Radio: General

Concepts and 802.22

Eero Rikkonen
Jukka Talvitie
Outline

Cognitive Radio Concept

Types of Cognitive Radio

Main Functions
– Spectrum Sensing
– Spectrum Management
– Spectrum Mobility
– Spectrum Sharing

802.22
– Introduction
– PHY Layer
– MAC Layer
The Concept

wireless communication in which the transmission or
reception parameters are changed to communicate
efficiently without interfering with licensed users

parameter changes are based on the active monitoring

of several factors in the radio environment (e.g. radio
frequency spectrum)

this approach is enabled by software-defined radio

Background

most of the radio frequency spectrum inefficiently
utilized
– cellular network bands vs. amateur radio bands

spectrum utilization depends strongly on time and place

fixed spectrum allocation wastes resources

improved efficiency by allowing unlicensed users to

exploit spectrum whenever it would not cause
interference to licensed users
Types of Cognitive Radio

Two main approaches

– Full Cognitive Radio (“Mitola Radio”)

every possible parameter taken into account
– Spectrum Sensing Cognitive Radio

only radio frequency spectrum considered

Also division based on frequency spectrum

– Licensed Band Cognitive Radio
– Unlicensed Band Cognitive Radio
Spectrum Sensing Cognitive
Radio

most of the research work focused on this approach

the essential problem is in designing of high quality

spectrum sensing devices and algorithms for exchanging
spectrum sensing data between nodes
Main Functions

Spectrum sensing

Spectrum management

Spectrum mobility

Spectrum sharing
Spectrum Sensing 1/2

in order to avoid interference the spectrum

holes need to be sensed
– primary user detection the most efficient way

spectrum sensing techniques are divided into

three categories
– transmitter detection
– cooperative detection
– interference based detection
Spectrum Sensing 2/2

Transmitter Detection
– whether the signal from a primary transmitter is
locally present in a certain spectrum or not

three different approaches
– matched filter detection
– energy detection
– cyclostationary detection

Cooperative Detection

method where information from multiple users are
incorporated for primary user detection
Spectrum Management

needed to capture the best available spectrum to meet
user communication requirements

cognitive radios should decide on the best spectrum

band to meet the QoS requirements over all available
spectrum bands

management functions classified as

– spectrum analysis
– spectrum detection
Spectrum Mobility

the process where a cognitive radio user exchanges its

frequency of operation

target to use the spectrum in a dynamic manner by

allowing the radio terminals to operate in the best
available frequency band

seamless communication requirements during the

transition to better spectrum must be maintained
Spectrum Sharing

providing the fair spectrum scheduling method

sharing is a major challenge in open spectrum

usage

corresponds to MAC problems in existing

systems
802.22 - Introduction

IEEE working group aiming at constructing Wireless
Regional Area Network (WRAN) working utilizing white
spaces in TV bands

the first standard based on cognitive radios

different approaches proposed

– centralized servers provide information on available channels in
the area of Access Point (AP)
– local spectrum sensing only, where the AP would decide
independently which channels are available
– combination of the previous approaches
802.22 - Introduction
802.22 - Topology 1/2

fixed point-to-multipoint wireless air interface

Base Station (BS) manages its own cell and all

associated Consumer Premise Equipment (CPEs)

BS is responsible of
– medium access control
– managing distributed sensing by instructing the CPEs to perform
measurements of different channels
– deciding which steps to take (based on feedback)
802.22 - Topology 2/2
802.22 - PHY Layer 1/3

PHY layer must be able to

– adapt to the different conditions
– be flexible for jumping from channel to channel
without errors in transmission or loosing clients
(CPEs)
– dynamically adjust the bandwidth, modulation and
coding schemes

OFDMA will be the modulation scheme for

transmission in UL and DL
– possible to achieve fast adaptation
802.22 - PHY Layer 2/3

The approximate throughput by using just one

TV channel is 19 Mbit/s at a 30 km distance

this is not adequate to fulfill the requirements of

the standard

Channel Bonding utilizes more than one channel

allowing the system to have a larger bandwidth
and higher throughput
802.22 - PHY Layer 3/3

Channel Bonding
802.22 - MAC Layer 1/3

based on cognitive radio technology

consists of two structures: Frame and Superframe

Superframes are sent through every vacant TV channel
802.22 - MAC Layer 2/3

no pre-determined channel (frequency, time,

code) for CPE to look for BS

at start-up CPE scans the TV channels and

builds a spectrum occupancy map

this information may be later sent to BS and is

also used by the CPE to determine where to
look for BS
802.22 - MAC Layer 3/3

MAC layer will perform sensing in either in-band or out-of-band

measurements

Both of these are further divided into
– fast sensing (under 1ms per channel)
– fine sensing (about 25 ms per channel) is done if the BS feels that
more detailed sensing is needed
References

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