Author:
Jacques Palicot
Affiliation:
SUPELEC / Institut d' Electronique et de Télécommunications de Rennes, France
Keyword(s):
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Abstract:
Green Cognitive Radio (GCR) is a Cognitive Radio (CR) with intelligence-enhanced functionalities, which is aware of sustainable development (SD) for energy efficiency and takes it as an additional crucial
constraint in the decision making process of the holistic cognitive cycle. The Brundtland Commission of the United Nations (UN) defined SD as the development that "meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". From then, several United Nations’ Conferences (from Rio de Janeiro ‘92 to Durban ‘11) have confirmed this important issue. One of
the most obvious aspects and challenges of SD is the earth climate change and the ever-growing CO2 emission. Currently, 3% of the world-wide energy is consumed by the ICT (Information and
Communications Technology) infrastructure, which causes about 2 % of the world-wide CO2 emissions and surprisingly is comparable to the world-wide CO2 emissions by all commercial airplanes. These va
lues of
carbon footprint are extreme impressive. They have been confirmed by a lot of scientific studies and reported in many relevant international conferences and workshops. Generally, Green Radio is closely
related to reducing energy consumption, but Green Radio could also be envisaged in a more widespread sense, such as to optimize spectrum usage (Green spectrum), to decrease spectrum pollution (which may
have great consequences for astronomic observations), to reduce electromagnetic radiation/interference levels in order to enable harmonized coexistence of multiple wireless communications systems (i.e., less
interference) as well as a reduced human exposure to harmful radiations, to recycle and reuse ICT equipment, and in many other related contexts. The radio spectrum is also considered as a natural and public
resource, which should be carefully used, shared world-widely and economized efficiently. Therefore, in our point of view, what is classically meant for Green Communications should be fundamentally extended
and even reformed. Recently, we have claimed in that Cognitive Radio is a paradigm–shift enabling technology for realizing Green Radio. Basically, we proposed an intelligent solution based on CR approach,
keeping in mind the following key objective: "Decreasing the electromagnetic level by sending the right signal in the right direction with the right power, only when it is necessary, for achieving the same QoS by
taking advantage of advanced intelligence". This is the essential concept of Useful Radio Waves.
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