Configure Cognitive Radio using GNU Radio and USRP

Cognitive radio (CR) is considered as a potential solution to improve spectrum utilization via opportunistic spectrum implement. Using software defined radio (SDR) technology, a flexible radio platform can be potentially configured a cognitive engine (CE) to transmit and receive many different incompatible radio standards. In this paper, an interface between a cognitive engine and an SDR platform is described which modifies (i.e., configures) the radio's operation. The interface is based upon communicating information via extensible markup language (XML) data files that contain the radio's physical (PHY) parameters. The XML data files have been designed such that more development can be made to its structure as this research develops. Using SDR platform for an example to implementation cognitive radio PHY layer and MAC layer is considered.