Unit 5

Reconfigurable Antennas and Cognitive Radio

Basic Cognitive Radio Architecture
Reconfiguration Mechanisms in Reconfigurable Antennas
Machine Learning Implementation on Hardware
Reconfigurable antennas and cognitive radio are two key technologies in the field of
wireless communications that play important roles in improving spectrum utilization,
flexibility, and efficiency. Let's briefly explore each of these concepts:

Reconfigurable Antennas:

Definition:
Reconfigurable antennas are designed to dynamically adjust their operating frequency,
radiation pattern, or polarization in response to changing environmental conditions or
communication requirements.

Benefits:
1. Frequency Agility: They can operate over a wide range of frequencies, allowing for
adaptability to different communication standards and bands.
2. Adaptive Radiation Patterns: The ability to change radiation patterns helps in optimizing
signal coverage and mitigating interference.
3. Polarization Control: Altering polarization can enhance signal quality and reduce multipath
interference.
Applications:
1. Multi-Band Communication: Reconfigurable antennas are suitable for devices
that need to communicate over multiple frequency bands.
2. MIMO Systems: Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems benefit
from antennas that can adapt their radiation patterns.
3. Cognitive Radio Networks: Reconfigurable antennas are often used in
conjunction with cognitive radio to enhance spectrum utilization.
Cognitive Radio:

Definition:
Cognitive radio is an intelligent radio communication system that can automatically and
autonomously adapt its parameters based on the surrounding radio-frequency (RF)
environment.

Key Features:
1. Spectrum Sensing: Cognitive radios are equipped with the ability to sense the available
spectrum in real-time.
2. Dynamic Spectrum Access: They can dynamically select the optimal frequency bands for
communication based on spectrum availability.
3. Adaptability: Cognitive radios can adjust modulation schemes, transmission power, and
other parameters to optimize communication performance.
Benefits:
1. Improved Spectrum Efficiency: Cognitive radios enable more efficient use of the radio
spectrum by dynamically allocating unused or underutilized bands.
2. Interference Mitigation: By sensing and avoiding occupied frequency bands, cognitive radios
can reduce interference and enhance communication reliability.
3. Enhanced Network Capacity: The dynamic use of spectrum and adaptability contribute to
increased overall network capacity.
Applications:
1. Wireless Communication Networks: Cognitive radio is applied in various wireless
communication systems, including cellular networks, Wi-Fi, and other wireless standards.
2. Public Safety and Emergency Communications: Cognitive radio can be instrumental in
providing robust and reliable communication during emergencies by utilizing available
spectrum efficiently.

In summary, the integration of reconfigurable antennas and cognitive radio technologies can
lead to more adaptive, flexible, and spectrum-efficient wireless communication systems,
particularly in the context of the ever-increasing demand for wireless connectivity and the
scarcity of available spectrum resources.
Basic Cognitive Radio Architecture
Figure 9.1 shows a view of a basic cognitive radio architecture that is capable of self-managing and self-reconfiguring
itself to match its RF environment while continuously self-learning from its past experience. In other words, this radio
goes beyond simply achieving dynamic spectrum allocation.
The main components of this architecture are
1. A cognitive engine;
2. A software-controllable reconfigurable antenna hardware;
3. A machine learning-controlled interface between the cognitive engine and the reconfigurable hardware.
To realize self-managing, self-reconfiguring, and self-learning capabilities in a radio, real-time reconfigurable antennas
can be controlled by a microprocessor with embedded machine learning algorithms.

The system can thus operate at various modes over a wide range of frequency bands, controlled by switches or
other reconfiguration mechanisms that are activated via a microprocessor.
Reconfiguration Mechanisms in Reconfigurable Antennas
The antennas need to be able to change their operating frequencies, radiation pattern, and polarization in response to changes
in the RF environmental conditions or system requirements in order to meet the real-time self reconfigurability requirements
of a cognitive radio.

To achieve these antenna functionalities, some kind of electrical switching components such as RF-MEMS, PIN diodes,
varactors, and optical or mechanical switching components can be utilized to redirect the antenna surface currents [16–20].

Another approach is to control the various materials that comprise the antenna. Figure 9.2 shows the various types of
reconfiguration mechanisms that can be employed to achieve reconfigurable antennas for a cognitive radio.
In most of the following examples the basic antenna component and its performance are related to the neural network model as
follows:
• Input layer: has N neurons, where N is the number of points required to reproduce the antenna reflection coefficient (S11
measured or simulated data) for all switch configurations.
• Hidden layer: a single hidden layer is used with a sigmoid or some other activation activation function. The number of
neurons in this layer is usually determined by some level of optimization that minimizes the total error.
• Output layer: the number of neurons in this layer is equal to number of switches or the appropriate dimensions of the antenna.
For every different reconfigurable antenna, once the neural network model is derived, this neural network is trained,
validated, and tested for accuracy.
During the training cycle, the collected (simulated or measured) antenna data are randomly divided into training, test, and
validation data sets.

More specifically, the three sets of samples are used for:

• Training: These samples are presented to the network during training, and the network is adjusted according to its error.
• Validation: These samples are used to measure network generalization and to stop the training when the neural network
exhibits no more generalization improvement.
• Testing: This set has no effect on the training and it is used to provide an independent measure of the neural network
performance during and after training.