CORNET 3D provides a unique view of the radio spectrum, aiding education and research related to wireless communications, spectrum use, and cognitive radio.

Virginia Tech has announced the top ten teams in the first phase of its Spectrum-Sharing Radio Contest (Spectrum-ShaRC).

The first round of Spectrum-ShaRC, an adaptive and cognitive radio design contest for students, tested the submitted entries in signal environments generated by the contest organizers.

Students from Virginia Tech’s Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering work on developing a smart radio.

Each team developed source code for a controller that adapts settings of a radio–such as frequency, power level, digital modulation format, and error-correction coding–to allow the radio to transmit data to another radio in challenging interference environments. Each submitted design was tested using the CORNET (cognitive radio network) testbed at Virginia Tech. Radio/controller combinations were first tested in a scenario that included ambient interference and noise. The combinations were then put through twelve additional scenarios that included deliberately introducing interference signals with a variety of characteristics.

Because each team’s radio design was tested separately, designs were declared a tie if the differences in their scores were not statistically significant. Future phases will emphasize different aspects of radio performance, and a final competition will be held at the Wireless @ Virginia Tech Symposium June 1-3, 2016.

Top Ten Teams in Spectrum-ShaRC Phase 1

Cognitive radios are similar to intelligent cell phones that can determine the best way to operate in any given situation. Instead of blindly following a set of predefined protocols, like regular radios, cognitive radios can configure to their environment and their user’s needs.

The new cognitive radios are similar to living creatures in that they are aware of their surroundings and understand their own and their user’s capabilities and the governing social constraints.

The contest, which was open to all students worldwide, was organized by Wireless @ Virginia Tech and supported in part by a $30,000 Motorola Solutions Innovation Generation grant from the Motorola Solutions Foundation. The grant supplied the prize money for the first, second and third place winners, and travel support for participants in the final competition.