The "Sensorial Radio Bubble" for Cognitive Radio Terminals

We present in this paper the "Sensorial Radio Bubble" (SRB) for Cognitive Radio (CR) terminals. The bubble relies on a plurality of sensors based on several signal processing elements. It gives to communication systems the ability to explore the radio environment in order to provide knowledge of the spatial and spectrum environment, and some context awarereness. Such a CR system knows all about the signals coming inside and going outside its bubble, as well as the state of many parameters inside the bubble. This permits the terminal to securely transmit its communications with a guaranteed QoS, taking into account the state of all these parameters. That is why we also speak about the "security bubble". Two analogies, with the human bubble, are detailed to explain simply the concept. One of the contribution of the SRB is to manage spectrum resources with more efficiency. The context of a global hand-over is considered. A spectrum and a spatial map are generated to manage a double mobility, both in space and in frequency. This approach aims at providing prediction on the environment evolution, so that the CR terminal can anticipate with smartness the changes in order to take good decisions of reconfiguration at the appropriate time.