Cognitive femtocell networks: an overlay architecture for localized dynamic spectrum access [Dynamic Spectrum Management]

We define and propose a femtocell-based cognitive radio architecture for enabling multitiered opportunistic access in next-generation broadband wireless systems. This architecture combines the conventional femtocell idea with an infrastructure-based overlay cognitive network paradigm. The cognitive femtocell concept leads to simpler and easier proliferation of cognitive radio into practical systems. We highlight the drawbacks and advantages of the proposed network structure with a discussion on research directions for cognitive femtocell architecture. We also provide experimental results to illustrate a general proof of concept for this new modality.