Markus Dominik Mueck

ETSI reconfigurable radio systems: status and future directions on software defined radio and cognitive radio standards

This article details the current work status of the ETSI Reconfigurable Radio Systems Technical Committee, positions the ETSI work with respect to other standards efforts (IEEE 802, IEEE SCC41) as well as the European Regulatory Framework, and gives an outlook on the future evolution. In particular, software defined radio related study results are presented with a focus on SDR architectures for mobile devices such as mobile phones. For MDs, a novel architecture and inherent interfaces are presented enabling the usage of SDR principles in a mass market context. Cognitive radio principles within ETSI RRS are concentrated on two topics, a cognitive pilot channel proposal and a Functional Architecture for Management and control of reconfigurable radio systems, including dynamic self-organizing planning and management, dynamic spectrum management, joint radio resource management. Finally, study results are indicated that are targeting a SDR/CR security framework.

TV White Space standardization and regulation in Europe

Regulators around the world are currently setting rules and requirements that will allow for mass-market access to TV White Spaces. It is expected that the opening of those frequency bands to the consumer market will lead to a dramatic increase of spectrum exploitation efficiency in highly appealing frequency bands: In Europe, the frequency bands between 470 MHz and 790 MHz are considered and the inherent signal propagation properties are largely superior to those in standard cellular bands, for example, in 900 MHz and 2 GHz. This paper will present related use cases for the exploitation of TV White Space as they are currently discussed in the ETSI Reconfigurable Radio Systems Technical Committee. Then, the availability of TV White Spaces in Europe is investigated, followed by an overview of recent regulatory activities on the European Commission level. In particular, expectations related to a new revision of the European R&TTE Directive are presented which represents the basic regulatory framework in Europe.

Opportunistic relaying for Cognitive Radio enhanced cellular networks: Infrastructure and initial results

In this paper, we introduce the application of CR-based spectrum sharing concepts to enable opportunistic relaying operations in cellular networks. In particular, (i) we build on recent FCC rules and CEPT plans (SE43) that regulate the opportunistic spectrum usage in TV white spaces at 470-790 MHz; and (ii) we show that opportunistic relaying can lead to higher spectral efficiencies and/or reduced CAPEX (and consequently OPEX) due to a lighter infrastructure deployment. Finally, we outline some issues that are important to be addressed to quantify the gains achieved by the proposed opportunistic relay-based infrastructure deployment with respect to existing cellular networks. Some preliminary results are also shown.

A Local Cognitive Pilot Channel (LCPC) for neighbourhood discovery, relaying and cluster based local cognitive information management

This paper proposes a novel conceptual wireless communication framework in which Mobile Devices (MDs) are cooperating within geographically localized clusters. A Local Cognitive Pilot Channel (LCPC) is introduced for exchanging context information between such neighbouring MDs and for performing neighbourhood detection; the cluster size is hereby gradually adapted by incremental change of transmission power levels. The neighbourhood detection guarantees that the MDs are aware about the presence of neighbouring peers, followed by a corresponding exchange of context information, distribution of sensing tasks and negotiation of MDs serving as relay nodes; the distributed detection approach furthermore ensures that realtime constraints, as they occur in the presence of mobile MDs for example, are met. It will be shown that such a wireless framework can be deployed using a minimum of infrastructure equipment and is thus in particular useful for an early-phase deployment of a novel technology and/or for cost-reduction due to the minimization of the investment in network-equipment (CAPEX / OPEX reduction).

Demand driven evolution of the Cognitive Pilot Channel

This contribution focuses on the context of massively heterogeneous wireless communication systems and details new enabling mechanisms for guaranteeing an efficient usage of the available resources: Building on the known concept of a Cognitive Pilot Channel (CPC), the user is enabled to obtain a User Class dependent Virtual Connectivity Map (VCM) and is thus able to build on a-priori knowledge of the surrounding wireless framework for ahead planning of optimum horizontal/vertical handovers. Furthermore, it is illustrated how statistical modeling is exploited for characterizing the typical behavior of various communication systems, for example in the TV White Spaces (TVWS); the latter approach enables a statistical evaluation of the expected reliability and longevity of a radio link operated as secondary user. Finally, an Incentive Based Distributed Sensing concept is introduced which introduces a context dependent rewarding system for motivating Mobile Devices (MD) to contribute to a collaborative radio context sensing effort.

Combination of centralized & decentralized database and terminal-based spectrum sensing for secondary spectrum access

In this paper, we have proposed the combination of a centralized & decentralized database and distributed spectrum sensing method for secondary spectrum access. The potential benefits of the proposed solution in a cellular scenario exploiting the TV White Space for opportunistic spectrum access have been outlined.

ETSI RRS — The standardization path to next generation cognitive radio systems

This paper details the current work status of the ETSI Reconfigurable Radio Systems (RRS) Technical Committee (TC) and gives an outlook on the future evolution. While previous publications have presented an overview of ETSI RRS main working axes related to i) Cognitive Radio System Aspects, ii) Radio Equipment Architecture (including a Cognitive Pilot Channel (CPC) proposal and a Functional Architecture (FA) for Management and Control of Reconfigurable Radio Systems), iii) Cognitive Management and Control and iv) Public Safety, this document focuses on latest progress related to UHF White Spaces work and the definition of an SDR Handset Architecture. In particular, it is outlined how Cognitive Radio principles can help to adapt existing and/or evolving Radio Standards, such as 3GPP Long Term Evolution, to a possible operation in UHF White Space bands.

Future Internet Architectures and Scenarios by Means of Opportunistic Networks and Cognitive Management Systems

Our work showcases Future Internet oriented technologies: (i) operator governed opportunistic networks; (ii) cognitive management systems and control channels for their cooperation. The demonstration of these technologies shows enhanced service provision capabilities, higher resource utilization, lower transmission powers, and ”green” network operation.