Cognition flow in cognitive radio networks

This paper introduces the research progress on the cognition flow in the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) under Grant No. 2009CB320400 “Research on Basic Theories and Key Technologies of Cognitive Radio Networks”. We present the motivation behind the proposal of the concept of cognition flow, provide the definition, discuss the features, behaviours, representations, mathematical models, and the functions of cognition flow in Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs). We also analyse how the cognition flow promotes the convergence of heterogeneous networks. Our group also constructed the test platform to verify the usefulness of cognition flow. The results that were simulated by computers and tested on the platform both confirm that cognition flow can realise efficient interaction of cognitive information among heterogeneous networks in CRNs, which contributes to the seamless convergence of heterogeneous networks, and significantly improves the spectrum efficiency and users´ Quality of Experience (QoE).