A platform for the integration and management of cognitive systems in future networks

The success of future generation networks will be driven by the provision of ubiquitous, personalized services that can offer an enhanced user experience. In order to support the provision of more and better services to users, and at the same time deal with the complexity of the infrastructure of network operators (NOs), advanced management functionality needs to be introduced in wireless systems, which will enable optimum, end-to-end operation. Numerous schemes for co-operative, reconfigurable and cognitive systems have been developed as a means for addressing many of the requirements of future networks. However, the vast majority of the corresponding implemented platforms and test beds are proprietary, custom solutions that focus only on some aspects of cognitive systems, e.g. on dynamic spectrum management capabilities. This paper presents a platform for the integration and management of cognitive systems (IMaCS) that aims at smoothing the progress of introducing various cognitive schemes in future networks. More specifically, building on past achievements, the IMaCS platform presented in this paper not only comprises various cognitive management schemes, thus enabling efficient end-to-end operation, but also targets the abstraction of the complexity of the underlying infrastructure. A service-oriented design approach has been followed with the goal of realizing an open, scalable platform that will allow the addition, removal or enhancement of components (cognitive management schemes, devices, network elements) in a "plug and play" manner. The paper presents indicative results on the performance of the IMaCS platform.