According to Mitre computer scientist Joseph Mitola, next-generation cell phones might be cognitive radios (CRs), or software radios learning from interaction with their users and acting in their best interest.
InfoWorld talked with him about how his vision of "cognitive radio" would work, and how it could redefine cell phone technology. Here are selected Q&As.
Q: You coined the term cognitive radio. What is it?
A: A cognitive radio (CR) has a computation model of itself. It knows that it is a smart radio, and it has a user who does certain things. If you're a journalist, you might be willing to pay a premium to get higher speech quality. If a CR detected an interview, and it would cost three cents a minute for a clearer signal, [a message] would pop up on the display asking if you want to pay three cents more a minute for clearer audio. Over time, it would learn and would build into the computation model that the user likes high-quality speech when doing interviews. This computation model of itself, of the user and the network, plus the machine learning means that the user doesn't have to reprogram it and keep telling it what to do. ... There isn't a true working model yet. It may be five to 10 years out.
Q: Can you define the architecture of a CR?
A: It's a software radio. This would have enough flexibility in the hardware to be programmed to a band or mode. So instead of being stuck in the 800 to 900MHz band, it would be able to adapt over to an ISM band or up to an IEEE band or 5GHz. The CR would know what to do based on experience. It knows where home is. You get in the car to go to work. It's measuring the radio propagation, signal strength, the quality of the different bands as it drives around with you. It's building this nifty internal database of what it can do when and where.
He also said that sending a 10 MB email in a zone where carrier charges are high might cause the CR to alert its user, and suggest waiting until getting to the office to use the LAN instead.
Finally, he talked about serious issues like privacy and security. For example, he envisions that video recognition would allow CR cell phones to visually authenticate their owners.
For more information about the CRs, please read the full interview. And as Mitola said, don't rush to the store to buy a CR: you'll have to wait for maybe ten years.
Source: Loretta W. Prencipe, InfoWorld, February 28, 2003
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