Stalling innovation of Cognitive Radio: The case for a dedicated frequency band

Abstract

After more than a decade of frantic R&D efforts, Cognitive Radio (CR) technology continues to fail to pass the first developmental milestone of a working prototype, suggesting that the CR innovation process may be stalling. This paper analyzes possible reasons for this situation from the perspective of innovation management and economics. The CR innovation process has developed in a complex environment shaped by a combination of technology-push and market-pull forces. This paper shows that this process is being stifled by two barriers emerging from the current reliance of CR technology on opportunistic dynamic spectrum access as the sole means for entry into the wireless market. The technology-push is affected by the barrier of technological complexities linked to the requirement to protect highly sensitive incumbent systems. The market-pull forces are being negated by market lock-in and a strong status quo of well-established wireless players. This paper argues that overcoming these barriers and revitalizing the practical development of CR could be possible with the aid of light-touch governmental intervention. This could take the form of designating a dedicated CR band, which would benefit CR through less strict spectrum access requirements. A vibrant cognitive environment could flourish in this type of band, supporting CR innovation.

Introduction

It has been more than a decade since the concept of Cognitive Radio (CR) was coined by Mitola (2000). It quickly became the most fashionable topic in the field of wireless research, with explosive growth in the numbers of conferences and publications dedicated to this subject. Regardless of the hype and frantic research activity, however, the advancement of CR to the market seems to proceed too slowly, as evidenced by R&D efforts that remain largely limited to academic environments and the continued lack of appropriate radio frequency (RF) front-end offerings (Pawelczak, Nolan, Doyle, Oh, & Cabric, 2011). This paper analyzes possible reasons for this sluggish progress from the perspective of innovation management and economics, with the aim of recommending suitable policies to boost further and more fertile developments of CR technology.

Presently, a plethora of definitions of CR exists. The authors adopt the holistic definition of CR as a radiocommunications device or a network of such devices that possesses full awareness of its operational context: the real-time situation with radio environment, the communication requirements of its user, the applicable regulatory policies and the device's own capabilities. CR uses this information to make autonomous decisions on how to configure itself for the communications task at hand (Doyle, 2009). Hence, in the context of this paper, CR represents a significant evolutionary step from traditional radiocommunication systems. The autonomous, cognitive re-configuration of CR opens up opportunities for new business models in the wireless communications marketplace built on the novel utility profiles of CR.¹

As an innovative technology, CR must progress through several developmental milestones. The first of these is the delivery of a working prototype (Suarez, 2004).² However, it appears that after more than a decade of extensive R&D efforts, CR still largely fails to pass the maturity test of producing a solid working prototype. Hence, industry watchers have sounded warning bells (Pawelczak et al., 2011).

It may be surmised that some systemic deficiencies exist, the reverse salient barriers (Hughes, 1987) in the composition and functioning of an eco-system of CR innovation that restrain the impetus of CR development. In their technical essence, both of the fundamental components of CR – the re-configurable radio hardware and the processors to run it with the help of software – are well-known modern technologies. Thus, in terms of technology, the challenge of CR boils down to designing suitable software algorithms to convert reconfigurable radios into proper CR. Why, after more than a decade as one of the most popular research topics in wireless R&D, does CR technology remain an elaborate concept rather than existing as a working prototype and establishing itself as an innovation that might bring tangible (commercial) benefits?

To address this question, this study focuses on the technology-push and demand-pull processes (Nemet, 2009) as applied to CR and discusses the barriers that may be stalling CR innovation. The rest of this paper is structured as follows. The following section considers the evolutionary role of CR innovation and analyzes its forces and dynamics to identify reverse salient barriers. The third section discusses the findings and proposes interventional policy measures, such as the designation of a dedicated CR band, which may enliven the technological innovation of CR and hasten its market introduction. The final section offers some concluding observations and ideas for future developments.