Cognitive radio testing framework based on USRP

Spectrum scarcity has become one of the most important problems to be solved in order to ensure the coexistence of the large number of modern communication systems. Cognitive radio (CR) technology has been considered a promising solution for enabling dynamic spectrum access and by that addressing this problem. Since its inception more than 10 years ago, several standardization activities have contributed to illustrating the potential of CR for commercial use. Meanwhile, worldwide efforts from agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have been deployed in order to remove regulatory barriers for future development of CR networks. A flexible testing framework for CR devices implemented using the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform is proposed and described, together with a case study on a commercially available device. The requirements imposed by the 802.11h standard are verified on this device and a number of discovered issues are presented and discussed.