Adaptability and Configurability in Cognitive Radio Design on Small Form Factor Software Radio Platform

The recent advances in cognitive radio technology based on software defined radio platforms have extended the capabilities of wireless communication systems. The unique ability of cognitive radios to alter their communication protocols to meet changing system demands make them great candidates for wireless applications that are difficult to implement using conventional wireless terminals. Small form factor platforms make cognitive radio portable and easy to deploy. This paper discusses the design and implementation methodology to build a cognitive radio on small form factor platform with heterogeneous processing architecture. The result of this discussion is a configurable wireless transceiver that features two important concepts of cognitive radio, namely configurability and adaptability.