Cognitive radio antennas that learn and adapt using Neural Networks

Cognition added to RF/antenna systems has extended software defined radio (SDR) communication systems into cognitive radio systems. Software defined radio has been established as a key enabling technology to realize cognitive radio. Thus a cognitive radio is an SDR that is aware of its environment, and autonomously adjusts its operations to achieve the designated objectives. A cognitive radio system is able to sense, reason, learn and be aware of its environment. A dynamic communication application such as cognitive radio requires antenna researchers to design software controlled reconfigurable antennas. The tuning ability of such antennas and the switching time are important to satisfy the requirements of continuously changing communication channels. Neural Networks (NNs) arose as a perfect candidate to control these antennas through Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). NNs represent a perfect solution to add learning and reasoning to the cognitive radio antenna systems.