Has Cognitive Radio Disappeared Like AI?
In some outposts of the wireless engineering community, “cognitive radio” (CR) and “software defined radio” (SDR) are sub-disciplines used in common practice, just like “artificial intelligence” (AI) is a common discipline of computer science. All of these have become part of the engineering tool kit. But the marketeers have homed in on all three as iconic for breakthrough products that are supposed to launch new eras of money-making.
Remember the wild days when “expert systems (ESs)” would replace your family physician or run a nuclear power plant? Remember how Campbell soup made a big ,splash by describing how ES was replacing the firm’s 80 year old uber-soup taster? Well I admit, I remember. I remember the “artificial Intelligence Company”.Where is the AI company now? Long gone, faded into general engineering practice.
I started thinking about all this a while back, but at our last WCA panel on “Commercial Status of CR and SDR”, on 11-9-10, it became obvious. There is no commercial system that declares itself as CR or SDR, but these technology methods and analyses are used in all the major standards!
By the way, there also seems to be negligible work going on, at least to public knowledge, on IEEE 802.22, which is the famous “white space” system.
We just got some pointy, anonymous comments noting that
http://www.xgtechnology.com
claims to have a cognitive radio/SDR system. True: it has a product sheet stating support for all channels in the 902 – 928 MHz unlicensed spectrum.
So I went back and also checked
http://www.adaptrum.com
They claim to have a cognitive radio “platform” for operating in white spaces in unspecified bands.
We cannot discern from either of these sites if the firms have any paying customers.
Perhaps some reader will let me know about the status of shipments or even orders?
I do not agree that Cognitive Radio is a “yet forgotten” technology. The key problem is that the CR hype appeared in the early stages of the development of the required technology. Therefore now it seems that it is taking too long to have something which can be really called Cognitive Radio.
In the last post in my blog about Cognitive Radio I comment some of the upcoming CR commercial products and standards:
Cognitive Radio Products | Spectral Holes
In terms of the standards incorporating this technology, besides 802.22, there exist several standards such as 802.16h, 802.11af, CogNeA… that is, CR did not disapear… it is just taking too long to market.
We should have been clearer about “disappeared”! We just meant that the technology has been used for many years in existing products and standards, but without the formal label CR attached. We note with great interest that CR will be incorporated in LTE…but the wireless operators likely will not use the term CR…
CR technology, in our humble opinion, is a set of technologies and techniques that make RF systems adaptive to their operating environment. We don’t want to engage in a legalistic discussion about whether, e.g., blind signal estimation is CR or not. When used, we say that’s CR. It’s kind of like pornography, as the Supreme Court justice was famed for saying…”I know it when I see it.”