Project outline

Relentless development in telecom products and services is putting considerable pressure on the availability of frequency bands. Many observers have expressed their concern at the proliferation of antennas in the urban landscape; concurrently, a team of cross-Canada researchers is exploring the potential offered by unused or underutilized frequencies.

Professor Vijay Bhargava of the University of British Columbia (UBC), world-renowned in the field of wireless communication research, leads the project team in close collaboration with Professor François Gagnon (ETS) and Professor Charles Despins, President of Prompt and an Associate Professor at INRS. Their prime objective is to endow wireless networks with the “intelligence” needed to detect unused frequencies - thereby granting access to more users – by adapting signal power or throughput or by using sub-frequencies.

Surprisingly, recent measurement programs have revealed that the majority of currently available frequency bands are not used effectively. Accordingly, in 2002, the Federal Communications Commission, the uncontested authority in this field, officially recommended that unused frequencies be re-used or sub-leased.

Whether they are only partially used or neglected altogether by their license holders, ineffectively used frequencies represent a serious waste of a valuable resource both for the industry and for consumers. Cognitive – or intelligent – radio is a solution that would allow for an efficient use of this resource.

Download the scientific overview (pdf)

Expected results

• Enable collaborative detection for improved spectrum analysis
• Maximize spectrum capacity by adapting frequency power, throughput and use
• Create detection and allocation algorithms
• Design admission-control techniques
• Identify security threats for cognitive networks and mechanisms for ensuring security

Our partners

• CRSNG
• Bell
• Ericsson
• Inter Digital
• Sierra Wireless
• Nortel

Team members

Professors: Vijay Bhargava, Charles Despins and François Gagnon
Students: Olivier Duval, Youness Nohair

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