Iris: an architecture for cognitive radio networking testbeds

Iris is a software architecture for building highly reconfigurable radio networks. It has formed the basis for a wide range of dynamic spectrum access and cognitive radio demonstration systems presented at a number of international conferences between 2007 and 2010. These systems have been developed using heterogeneous processing platforms including general-purpose processors, field-programmable gate arrays and the Cell Broadband Engine. Focusing on runtime reconfiguration, Iris offers support for all layers of the network stack and provides a platform for the development of not only reconfigurable point-to-point radio links but complete networks of cognitive radios. This article provides an overview of Iris, presenting the unique features of the architecture and illustrating how it can be used to develop a cognitive radio testbed.