CogART: the trade show
Cognitive and Self-Organizing Networks for Disasters Aftermath Assistance
Conventional fixed spectrum allocation cannot successfully cope with the scarcity of radio frequency spectrum. Cognitive radio is a novel technology, which improves the spectrum utilization by seeking and opportunistically utilizing radio resources in time, frequency and space domains on a real time basis. The cognitive radio technology poses many new technical challenges, and overcoming these issues becomes even more challenging due to non-uniform spectrum and other radio resource allocation policies, economic considerations, the inherent transmission impairments of wireless links and user mobility. Cognitive radio technology advances are based on interdisciplinary research, including among others: signal processing, information theory, communications engineering, artificial intelligence, game theory, economics and legal issues. This conference aims at publishing high quality research papers related to cognitive radio and its applications.
An important and emerging application of cognitive networks and self-organizing networks, in general, is to help in the aftermath assistance in case of natural or man-made disaster strikes. To give relief in the affected areas, the interested parties, i.e., relief and security groups, need communications support; therefore, a communication network needs to be established as quickly and as easily as possible in order to ensure that rescue and relief efforts are not further hindered. From a communication perspective, a disaster scenario can be characterized as having hazardous spatial environments (with the prevention of infrastructure deployment as a consequence) and possibly radio environments as well (with the impairment of the spectrum bands assigned to disaster relief services as a consequence). Cognitive and self-organizing networks come as a solution to implement disaster relief networks, the latter being infrastructure-less or not.