Advances in Cognitive Radio Sensor Networks

Advances in wireless communication have changed the customs and the living style of people today, and the demand for wireless communication with high speeds and ubiquitous connectivity continues to increase. Currently a number of different wireless networks, for example, cellular networks and wireless local area networks, are in place to support mobile services but still new emerging applications require more support to meet communication requirements. Cognitive radio (CR) networks have emerged in response to the demand of these emerging applications as one form of several new wireless networks. A variety of new challenges and issues have also arisen with these new networking technologies, which have created many new research opportunities. While designing these emerging networks, it is not only important to realize innovative applications, but also crucial to investigate how to achieve the optimum bandwidth and energy efficiency, due to the scarcity of the network resources (bandwidth, channel, energy, storage, and so on). Such investigation requires a multidisciplinary effort that encompasses areas of signal processing, communication, control, and information theory. The major focus of this special issue is investigating how to achieve efficient use of spectral resources with low power consumption in the cognitive radio networks.