Cogito test-bed - wireless research evolved

With each ensuing generation, radio networks are envisioned to support more advanced and differentiated services, enabling new user applications, translating therefore on the need for more bandwidth. The cognitive radio paradigm is expected to be integrated on the next generation of radio networks, allowing for cognitive enabled radio networks, which will provide the required higher bandwidths, via heterogeneous wireless architectures and dynamic spectrum management and aggregation techniques. To aid the development and maturing of these technologies, proper evaluation and testing tools are needed. In this paper, we introduce a test-bed which embraces the three main desired properties for a next generation test-bed (universal, collaborative and scalable), delivering a distributed test-bed architecture, entitled Cogito test-bed. Through this architecture the bridging between emulation and real world experimentation is enabled via a novel radio environment synchronization mechanism, based on the characterization of power emission patterns in time and frequency domains. The test-bed distributed architecture allows for remote analysis of the network(s) under testing, therefore allowing the management of the interaction among various IT labs, using as communication medium the public Internet. The Cogito test-bed is system independent, being able to encompass any standardized as well as future wireless systems.