Software Defined Radio (SDR) techniques are expected to be among the key technologies of heterogeneous cognitive radio networks for realizing efficient and convenient wireless communications by providing multiple radio services to users and decreasing development costs. In this paper, in order to evaluate the feasibility of SDR modems, we study the amount of computing throughput of a recent wireless system and determine a suitable modem architecture. Firstly, the functions for which SDR techniques provide significant benefits are clarified. Secondly, the computing throughputs are measured under the assumption that a dynamically reconfigurable processor, FlexSwordTM, is employed. Finally, based on a consideration of timing charts, we propose the architecture of an SDR-based modem with FlexSword. The possibility of implementing several wireless systems is also considered.

When a cognitive radio system dynamically utilizes a frequency band, channel control information must be communicated over the network in order for the currently available carrier frequencies to be shared. In order to keep efficient spectrum utilization, this control information should also be dynamically transmitted through channels such as cognitive pilot channels based on the channel conditions. If transmitters dynamically select carrier frequencies, receivers must receive the control signal without knowledge of its carrier frequencies. A novel scheme called differential code parallel transmission (DCPT) enables receivers to receive low-rate information without any knowledge of the carrier frequency. The transmitter simultaneously transmits two signals whose carrier frequencies are separated by a predefined value. The absolute values of the carrier frequencies can be varied. When the receiver receives the DCPT signal, it multiplies the signal by a frequency-shifted version of itself; this yields a DC component that represents the data signal, which is then demodulated. However, the multiplication process results in the noise power being squared, necessitating high received signal power. In this paper, to realize a bandpass filter that passes only DCPT signals of unknown frequency and that suppresses noise and interference at other frequencies, a DCPT-adaptive bandpass filter (ABF) that employs an adaptive equalizer is proposed. In the training phase, the received signal is the filter input and the frequency-shifted signal is the training input. Then, the filter is trained to pass the higher-frequency signal of the two DCPT signals. The performance of DCPT-ABF is evaluated through computer simulations. We find that DCPT-ABF operates successfully even under strong interference.

A technique for suppressing the clipping noise of an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) is proposed to realize a cognitive radio transceiver that offers high sensitivity carrier-sensing. When a large bandwidth cognitive radio transceiver performs carrier-sensing, it must receive a radio wave that includes many primary user transmissions. The radio wave may have high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and clipping noise may be generated. Clipping noise becomes an obstacle to the achievement of high-sensitivity carrier-sensing. In the proposed technique, the original values of the samples clipped by an ADC are estimated by interpolation. Polynomial spline interpolation to the clipped signal is performed in the first step, and then SINC function interpolation is applied to the spline interpolated signal. The performance was evaluated using the signals with various PAPR. It has been found that suppression performance has a dependency on the number of samples clipped at once rather than on PAPR. Although there is an upper limit for the number of samples clipped at once that can be compensated with high accuracy, about 20 dB suppression of clipping noise was achieved with the medium degree of clipping.

When cognitive radio (CR) systems dynamically use the frequency band, a control signal is necessary to indicate which carrier frequencies are currently available in the network. In order to keep efficient spectrum utilization, this control signal also should be transmitted based on the channel conditions. If transmitters dynamically select carrier frequencies, receivers have to receive control signals without knowledge of their carrier frequencies. To enable such transmission and reception, this paper proposes a novel scheme called DCPT (Differential Code Parallel Transmission). With DCPT, receivers can receive low-rate information with no knowledge of the carrier frequencies. The transmitter transmits two signals whose carrier frequencies are spaced by a predefined value. The absolute values of the carrier frequencies can be varied. When the receiver acquires the DCPT signal, it multiplies the signal by a frequency-shifted version of the signal; this yields a DC component that represents the data signal which is then demodulated. The performance was evaluated by means of numerical analysis and computer simulation. We confirmed that DCPT operates successfully even under severe interference if its parameters are appropriately configured.