Reconfigurable radio frontends for cooperative sensor networks: Tasks and challenges

This paper features a review of smart cities´ needs established by Cooperative Sensor Networks. Based on the challenges due to emerging demands and rapid technological advance, the frontend of a radio frequency (RF) transceiver has to reorganize its typical architecture to achieve service convergence. A solution for the RF-frontend architecture of an Internet of Things sensor network oriented system is proposed. It has been identified that state-of-the-art technology has to improve in terms of spectrum allocation, driven bandwidth and energy consumption. Key strategies as Cognitive Radio/Software-Defined-Radio combined with high performance tunable RF components can satisfy these requirements, and thus, reconfigure and adapt the wireless transceiver for different environments and user needs. Furthermore, the frequency range of operation can also be greatly enhanced by using tunable components to enable agile and universal functionality, as well as significant improvement in the utilization of resources.