Protocol reference model, security and inter-operability in a cognitive communications system

A cognitive radio communications system, comprising:

• a cognitive device, the device including:
• a Data Plane including Physical (PHY) and Media Access Control (MAC) Layers operatively coupled to one another;
• a Management Plane having one or more management entities for configured to interface with the PHY and MAC Layers, and at least one of a Station Management Entity (SME) and a Network Control and Management System (NCMS) configured to control operation of the system;
• and
• a Cognitive Plane having a Spectrum Manager (SM), a Spectrum Sensing Function (SSF), a Geolocation (GL) Function, and one or more Security Sublayers between the SM and the Management Plane, the Cognitive Plane configured to interface with at least one of the one or more management entities and determine whether additional resources including a wireless spectrum are available to enable communication, wherein the SSF is for detecting signals in a given channel, and the GL function is for providing geolocation information, and the SM determines whether to transmit information on the given channel based on at least one of sensing information received from the SSF and geolocation information received from the GL function;
• and
• at least one of a Service Access Point (SAP) and/or an informal interface separating the Cognitive Plane from the Management Plane and the Data Plane, such that the Cognitive Plane and its functions are partitioned from and implemented separately from the Management Plane and the Data Plane, thereby allowing interoperability between cognitive devices and non-cognitive devices such that a non-cognitive device may receive information on spectrum access from a cognitive device.

A cognitive radio communications system, comprising:

• a cognitive device, the device including:
• a Data Plane including Physical (PHY) and Media Access Control (MAC) Layers operatively coupled to one another;
• a Management Plane having one or more management entities configured to interface with the PHY and MAC Layers, and at least one of a Station Management Entity (SME) and a Network Control and Management System (NCMS) configured to control operation of the system;
• a Cognitive Plane having a Spectrum Manager (SM), a Spectrum Sensing Function (SSF), a Geolocation (GL) Function, and one or more Security Sublayers between the SM and the Management Plane, the Cognitive Plane configured to interface with at least one of the one or more management entities and determine whether additional resources including a wireless spectrum are available to enable communication, wherein the SSF is for detecting signals in a given channel and at least one of clustering of the sensing information and signal classification, and the GL function is for providing geolocation information, and the SM determines whether to transmit information on the given channel based on sensing information received from the SSF and geolocation information received from the GL function;
• at least one of a Service Access Point (SAP) and/or an informal interface separating the Cognitive Plane from the Management Plane and the Data Plane, such that the Cognitive Plane and its functions are partitioned from and implemented separately from the Management Plane and the Data Plane, thereby allowing interoperability between cognitive devices and non-cognitive devices such that a non-cognitive device may receive information on spectrum access from a cognitive device;
• a Policy Engine for defining system and network policies;
• and
• a Learning and Reasoning Module for keeping track of at least one of signal behavior, user behavior, system behavior, friendly operators, and malicious operators.