Conclusions

The realization of the alluring vision of a cognitive radio requires novel and disruptive RF circuit architectures, and innovative circuits. This has motivated a deluge of exciting research in this area in the past decade, and will continue to spur further research into the next. At this time, a highly reconfigurable RF architecture seems feasible by employing new wideband circuits that have recently been developed. However, the realization of the ideal cognitive radio, with the level of versatility described by early descriptions (Mitola, Cognitive radio: an integrated agent architecture for software defined radio dissertation, 2000), requires further innovation, probably spanning the next decade.