International standardization of cognitive radio systems

The current radio environment is characterized by its heterogeneity. Different aspects of this heterogeneity include multiple operators and services, various radio access technologies, different network topologies, a broad range of radio equipment, and multiple frequency bands. Such an environment has a lot of technical and business opportunities. Examples are joint management of several radio access networks within one operator to balance load of these networks, detecting and using unused spectrum in the allocated frequency bands without interrupting the operation of the primary users of such frequency bands, and spectrum trading between several operators. To exploit such opportunities, the concept of cognitive radio system has been developed. Many CRS usage scenarios and business cases are possible. This has triggered a lot of standardization activity at all levels, including in the International Telecommunication Union, IEEE, European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and European Association for Standardizing Information and Communication Systems; each of these organizations is considering multiple CRS deployment scenarios and business directions. This article describes the current concept of the CRS and shows the big picture of international standardization of the CRS. Understanding of these standardization activities is very important for both academia and industry in order to select important research topics and promising business directions.