Cognitiva — A cognitive industrial wireless network protocol: Protocol design and testbed implementation

Abstract

In this paper we present the design of Cognitiva, a cognitive radio protocol for industrial wireless networks. It is designed for reliable multi-band operation in the license free Industrial, Scientific and Medical band as well as in Television White Spaces. We also present details on how the testbed was implemented in software radio using GNU radio and the Universal Software Radio Peripheral. The software is Open Source allowing the testbed to be extended or adapted. The protocol has a modular, cross layer design and the testbed can be used to test the real world performance of different cooperative spectrum sensing and dynamic spectrum access schemes. The protocol covers the PHY and MAC layers and functionality such as spectrum sensing and dynamic frequency selection is included.