“Cognitive Radio Networks”

(Half-day tutorial)

Abstract

Today’s wireless networks are characterized by a fixed spectrum assignment policy. However, a large portion of the assigned spectrum is used sporadically and geographical variations in the utilization of assigned spectrum ranges from 15% to 85% with a high variance in time. The limited available spectrum and the inefficiency in the spectrum usage necessitate a new communication paradigm to exploit the existing wireless spectrum opportunistically. This new networking paradigm is referred to as cognitive radio networks. In this tutorial, the novel functionalities and current research challenges of the cognitive radio networks are explained in detail. More specifically, a brief overview of the cognitive radio technology is provided and the network architecture is introduced. Moreover, the cognitive network functions such as spectrum management, spectrum mobility and spectrum sharing are explained in detail. The influence of these functions on the performance of the upper layer protocols such as routing and transport are investigated and open research issues in these areas are also outlined.

Biography

Ian F. Akyildiz received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany, in 1978, 1981 and 1984, respectively. Currently, he is the Ken Byers Distinguished Chair Professor with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Director of Broadband and Wireless Networking Laboratory.

He has held visiting professorships at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Chile, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI), Ecole Nationale Superieure Telecommunications in Paris, France, Universidad Politecnico de Cataluna in Barcelona, Spain, and Universidad Illes Baleares, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of Computer Networks (Elsevier) Journal as well as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Ad Hoc Networks Journal (Elsevier). He is a past editor for IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (1996-2001), Kluwer Journal of Cluster Computing (1997-2001), ACM-Springer Journal for Multimedia Systems (1995-2002), IEEE Transactions on Computers (1992-1996), as well as ACM-Springer Journal of Wireless Networks (WINET) (1995-2005).

He guest-edited several special issues for various journals between 1988-2001. He was the technical program chair of the 9th IEEE Computer Communications Workshop in 1994, ACM MOBICOM'96 (Mobile Computing and Networking) conference, IEEE INFOCOM'98 (Computer Networking Conference), as well as IEEE ICC 2003 (International Conference on Communications). He was the General Chair for the premier conference in wireless networking, ACM MOBICOM 2002. He is the Co-Founder of the ACM SenSys (Sensor Systems) Conference and General Co-Chair of the ACM SenSys 2003, in Los Angeles in November 2003. He was the General Chair for Third Med Hoc (Mediterrenean Conference on Ad Hoc Networks), in Bodrum, Turkey, June 2004.