METHOD AND SYSTEM TO MAKE CURRENT WIRELESS RADIOS COGNITIVE USING AN EXTERNAL SENSOR AND APPLICATION LEVEL MESSAGING

• US 20120142386A1
• Filed: 03/11/2011
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Incorporated (BAE Systems Plc)
• Original Assignee: BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Incorporated (BAE Systems Plc)
• Inventors: Mody, Apurva N., Sherman, Matthew J., Yau, Kwok N., Trojan, Alan, Sputz, Sharon K., Farkas, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 9,277,411 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/509
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference

Abstract

A system and method for converting a non-cognitive radio into a cognitive radio is presented. A cognitive radio system includes, a non-cognitive radio; an electronic device, a spectrum sensing logic and configuration and management logic. The electronic device is connected to the non-cognitive radio so that it receives and/or transmits messages to/from a wireless network. The configuration and management logic is connected between the non-cognitive radio and the spectrum sensing logic. The spectrum sensing logic and the configuration and management logic are removable from the non-cognitive radio allowing the cognitive radio to operate in a non-cognitive mode. The spectrum sensing logic senses a wireless environment to determine available frequencies and available channels. The configuration and management logic transmits available frequencies, available channels or other spectrum data to a remote spectrum manager that is managing access to the wireless network.

Claims

1. A cognitive radio system comprising:

a non-cognitive radio;

an electronic device connected to the non-cognitive radio so that the electronic device can perform at least one of the group of;

receive message from a wireless network and transmit messages to the wireless network;

a spectrum sensing logic to sense a wireless environment to determine at least one of the group of;

available frequencies and available channels; and

configuration and management logic connected between the non-cognitive radio and the spectrum sensing logic to transmit at least one of;

the available frequencies and available channels to a remote spectrum manager that is managing access to the wireless network, wherein the spectrum sensing logic and the configuration and management logic are removable from the non-cognitive radio allowing the cognitive radio to operate in a non-cognitive mode.

2. The cognitive radio system of claim 1 wherein the configuration and management logic and the non-cognitive radio are configured to send messages to and from the remote spectrum manager in the application level of the Open Systems Interconnection (ISO) model.

3. The cognitive radio system of claim 1 wherein the configuration and management logic and the remote spectrum manager are configured to be logically connected using internet protocol (IP) addressing at the application level of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model.

4. The cognitive radio system of claim 1 further comprising:

a switch connected between the non-cognitive radio and the electronic device and between the non-cognitive radio and the configuration and management logic.

5. The cognitive radio system of claim 1 wherein the configuration and management logic further comprises:

mode logic to determine when to place the cognitive radio system in an autonomous mode and when to place the cognitive radio system in a client/server mode with the cognitive radio system acting as a client to the remote spectrum manager that acts as a server, wherein in the autonomous mode the configuration and management logic is configured to scan a specified frequency range and provide periodic reports about at least one of the group of;

spectral density, available frequencies and available channels to the spectrum manager.

6. The cognitive radio system of claim 1 wherein the wireless network is a wireless regional area network (WRAN).

7. The cognitive radio system of claim 1 wherein the configuration and management logic further comprises:

a display generated by the configuration and management logic displaying at least one of the group of;

channels available, channels not available, channel spectral characteristics, signal classification results and parameter settings for the spectrum sensing logic.

8. The cognitive radio system of claim 7 wherein the display is displayed on the electronic device.

9. The cognitive radio system of claim 1 wherein the electronic device is a laptop.

10. The cognitive radio system of claim 1 further comprising:

an antenna to capture a signal;

a Low Noise pre-Amplifier (LNA) connected between the antenna and the spectrum sensing logic to reduce an effective Noise Figure (NF) of the signal before inputting the signal into the spectrum sensing logic.

11. A method to convert a non-cognitive radio in a cognitive radio comprising:

connecting a spectrum sensor between a configuration and management unit and an antenna, wherein the spectrum sensor senses a wireless environment to determine at least one of the group of;

available frequencies and available channels; and

connecting the configuration and management unit to a non-cognitive radio, wherein the configuration and management unit is configured to transmit at least one of;

the available frequencies and available channels to a remote spectrum manager that is managing access to a wireless network, wherein the spectrum sensor and the configuration and management unit are removable from the non-cognitive radio.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

connecting an electronic device to the non-cognitive radio to allow the electronic device to transmit and receive message over the wireless network.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the configuration and management communicates with a remote spectrum manager in the application level of the Open Systems Interconnection (ISO) model.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

transmitting from the configuration and management unit at least one of;

the available frequencies and available channels to the remote spectrum manager in the application level.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

removing the antenna from the non-cognitive radio.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

operating the non-cognitive radio in the wireless network in a non-cognitive mode.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

display on a graphical user interface (GUI) spectral data collected from the spectrum sensor.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

accepting and applying operating settings for the spectrum sensor through the GUI.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein the spectrum sensor determines at least one spectrum characteristic based on at least one of:

higher order statistics (HOS) of the spectrum and cyclostationary features of the spectrum.

20. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

operating the cognitive radio according to the International Electrical and Electronic Engineers Institute (IEEE) 802.22 standard.