16 August 2011 | General, ICT
COST Action IC0905 TERRA puts smart and environment sensing Cognitive Radio (CR) on a trial
COST Action IC0905 ‘TERRA’ works on the development of future regulatory framework for the Cognitive Radio (CR) technology – a new, more efficient way of providing wireless services by using smart (cognitive) analysis of the environment for dynamic allocation of available bandwidth. This science and technology network has turned to the possibilities of proof-of-concept testing.
The industry is hesitant to make important investments and to bring this technology into everyday life, while policy-makers prefer to opt for a regulatory framework that will allow CR to be fully exploited until they can be reassured by a proof-of-concept. COST-TERRA believes that a dedicated test band could provide a fertile middle ground for extensive practical testing of CR and will resolve this ‘chicken-and-egg’ dilemma.
In order to provide an exit strategy from this technology-regulatory vicious circle, COST-TERRA is going to promote more active trials of CR to identify its best feasible application, guide policy-makers to open a regulatory framework and thus facilitate development of this technology.
After assessing several projects and developments in this area, COST-TERRA will collaborate with its sister COST Action IC0902 and FP7’s CREW project in promoting the importance of real-life CR testing and building real-life CR deployment scenarios into the CR testing programmes. Additionally, COST-TERRA has started to outline a proposal to regulators on dedicating a ‘pilot frequency band’ for a set of most attractive CR deployment scenarios.
Such pilot band would provide a regulatory certainty for the industry to make the necessary investments in the trial of this novel, and yet unproven technology. COST-TERRA will work on better defining this proposal for the pilot CR band, with the aim of exploiting the established liaisons with the EU regulators such as the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) and the European Commission, in order to further develop this project and bring it to the next stage.
Researchers of COST Action IC0905 'TERRA' working towards the trial
