The effect of Cognitive radio on the telecom market

An informal coalition of technology companies including Dell, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, and Philips Electronics have asked the FCC to make unused portions of the TV broadcast spectrum available for unlicensed use by wireless devices [1]

Microsoft is preparing to submit its prototype "cognitive radio" soon. A company spokesperson said Microsoft and its partners aim to demonstrate to the FCC that consumer devices can utilize the spectrum "white space" without causing interference with TV or other signals.[1]

Cognitive radio is becoming the hot new trend in telecom industry, with the ever growing demand for wireless services, and with the decrease in the available spectrum, the need for a new way to manage and allocate spectrum is required, and that's where the cognitive radio comes in handy!

Cognitive radio (CR) technology builds upon software defined radio (SDR) technology and allows individual radios or groups of radios to make choices about their frequency use based upon their location and the radio use environment. It will sense the frequency use in the bands and will try to occupy a frequency channel to operate on, once the device "feels" that someone else is trying to use this channel, it will evacuate and start searching for other vacant channels [2] this feature can be very useful in licensed band "i.e. cellular bands" where the primary user " the cellular service provider" has the priority to use the spectrum.

There are many possibilities for the cognitive radio applications, whether its consumer markets, public safety and emergency services or military. They can also be applied in a wide range of frequencies "licensed or unlicensed"

However, the whole idea of a radio being able to choose an operating frequency "in licensed or unlicensed bands" from a wide range of frequencies is intimidating for wireless carriers and TV broadcasters, they paid a lot for the use of that spectrum and the idea of someone sharing the spectrum is not very welcome, in addition sharing the frequency will probably cause an unwanted interference, thus it will degrade their service.[1]

This is evident in Microsoft's coalition case, TV broadcaster showed their concern about the whole idea , the reason they mentioned was unwanted interference, that might not be the only reason, they probably don't want to open their spectrum for their competitors to provide voice and data services,

However, a new approach to spectrum management can solve this problem, by opening a "spectrum market" as Professor Dale Hatflield calls it, where spectrum can be bought, sold and leased like any other commodity! This can be a great way "maybe the only way" to persuade spectrum license holders to open their frequency bands for sharing,

And with creating more efficient and frequency agile devices, the cognitive radio can really be the solution to the ever growing problem of spectrum use and management. CR technology will not, of its own bring quantum jumps in intensity, but it will enable new spectrum management regimes that will. [2]




References:

[1] "Microsoft preps cognitive radio prototype for use with TV spectrum"
By Staff writers, www.ITnews.com.au 13 February 2007

[2] "Cognitive Radio: Brain-Empowered Wireless Communications"
Simon Haykin, IEEE journal on selected areas in communications, Vol. 23, No. 2, February 2005