Extending cognitive radios with new perspectives

Over a decade-long research on Cognitive Radio (CR) has provided many solutions to its fundamental challenges such as spectrum sensing and resource allocation. However, most of these solutions are particularly designed either for networks which have a supporting infrastructure (i.e., cognitive base stations) or for ad hoc networks with persistent connectivity. In this paper, we focus on less-investigated cases and highlight their potential for realisation of CR paradigm to a broader domain beyond the extensively researched centralised networks or well-connected decentralised networks. In particular, we analyze the potential of applying delay-tolerant networking paradigm for CRNs and outline how social network analysis and social properties can be exploited in the design of CRN solutions.