Cognitive Wireless Networks: Research, Applications, and Testbed

Successful deployment of future cognitive networks consisting of tens to thousands of IoT devices requires both fundamental research on wireless networks and an understanding of the applications that will be supported by these future networks. Our Intelligent Digital Communications Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Team thus focuses on research on, applications for, deployment of, and experiments with cognitive networks in a large-scale testbed. The testbed is the football stadium at Georgia Tech and the intense ISM band traffic in the stadium that is generated during games by: 50,000+ fans that have smart phones; medical, security, media, and venue personnel; and, the teams' coaches, players and support staff. The applications we are currently researching and implementing include: security en-hancement by localization of jammers and unauthorized drones; collecting data on spectrum usage and congestion; and machine learning to enable real-time characterization of RF spectrum usage. This paper reports on the research that motivates this work, the progress to-date on the testbed, and goals for the future.