Cognitive radio kit framework: experimental platform for dynamic spectrum research

This paper presents an overview of a Cognitive Radio Kit, an open software defined radio framework developed specifically to enable experimental research in cognitive radio and dynamic spectrum techniques. Currently available open software defined platforms are limited by performance and bandwidth constraints, and inadequate frequency tuning range at the RF front-end. The proposed platform addressed those limitations by providing the ability to dynamically add hardware based acceleration for baseband processing, coupled with up to four wide-tuning range RF front-ends. The challenge resides in defining the architecture and programming model for the platform. All those considerations along with an application example are discussed and presented in this paper.