Energy and spectrum efficiency in rural areas based on cognitive radio technology

Abstract

The rapid growth and development observed in wireless communications has resulted in the overcrowding of the radio spectrum used as a communication medium in wireless networks. In many countries, governmental agencies regulate the use of the radio spectrum by assigning a portion of the spectrum in the form of a renewable license to any company or person who wishes to use the wireless medium for communication purposes. This is in order to allow efficient utilization of this scarce resource. The need to close the digital divide means that cost effective communication technologies should be deployed in rural areas for wireless broadband connectivity. Cognitive Radio (CR) is seen as a technology that will bring a new communication paradigm to address spectrum scarcity in the most energy efficient manner. In this paper, researchers present the proposed work to be carried out as part of a doctoral thesis to address the spectrum scarcity and transmission power in energy constrained rural areas.