A Novel Collaborative Cognitive Dynamic Network Architecture

Increasing mobile data demands in current cellular networks and the proliferation of advanced handheld devices have given rise to a new generation of dynamic network architectures (DNAs). In a DNA, users share their connectivities and act as access points providing Internet connections for others without additional network infrastructure cost. A large number of users and their dynamic connections make DNAs highly adaptive to variations in the network and suitable for low-cost ubiquitous Internet connectivity. In this article, we propose a novel collaborative cognitive DNA (CDNA) that incorporates cognitive capabilities to exploit underutilized spectrum in a more flexible and intelligent way. The design principles of CDNA are perfectly aligned to the functionality requirements of future 5G wireless networks such as energy and spectrum efficiency, scalability, dynamic reconfigurability, support for multihop communications, infrastructure sharing, and multi-operator cooperation. A case study with a new resource allocation problem enabled by CDNA is conducted using matching theory with pricing to illustrate the potential benefits of CDNA for users and operators, tackle user associations for data and spectrum trading with low complexity, and enable self-organizing capabilities. Finally, possible challenges and future research directions are given.