There is no question that cognitive radio technology will be used for two-way communications in a wide range of applications — such as radios for tactical military forces and emergency responders. So it is no surprise that improving the security of cognitive radio technology is becoming extremely important. And indeed, that is the goal of Virginia Tech College of Engineering researcher, Jung-Min Park.

Conventional wireless devices — for example, cell phones and emergency services radios — are built with dedicated hardware that perform signal processing for transmission and reception.

However, a cognitive radio device that builds upon the concepts of Software Defined Radio (SDR) uses general-purpose computer processors that run radio applications software to perform signal processing. This use of software enables the device to readily change characteristics, including frequency, modulation, and transmission power. In addition, the software enables the device to sense and understand its environment and actively change its mode of operation based on its observations.

The electromagnetic spectrum is a limited natural resource, and the proliferation and success of wireless devices operating in unlicensed bands has led to overcrowding of those bands of the spectrum. A conventional, hardware-based wireless device can access only one portion of the radio spectrum. But an intelligent cognitive radio device can sense and identify "white spaces" — or vacant areas — in the spectrum that can be used for communications.

However, in a military setting, an adversary could try to bring down a network or interfere with its communications to gain a tactical advantage.
The network attributes that Park's research group will investigate include:

RSS    Save to Del.icio.us  Digg This