Survey of cognitive radio architectures

Cognitive Radio and Cognitive Networking are emerging fields of research that has the potential for transformative changes to the current status quo. Cognitive systems utilize environmental observations such as spectrum or network conditions to change operational configurations in order to optimize performance at individual node or over end-to-end goals. This paper surveys some of these origin cognitive frameworks and correlates these frameworks to cognitive radio implementations of today. Several definitive implementations and cognitive radio architectures are reviewed and compared. This paper also identifies area of need and suggests directions forward for novel research in this area through interdisciplinary collaboration with the cognitive sciences, integrating prediction and proactive operation into cognitive radio/network architectures and identifying less researched artificial intelligence algorithms that show promise towards cognitive radio architecture.