Cognitive Radio, Spectrum, and Evolutionary Heuristics

Shortage of free spectrum is a critical problem in deploying new wireless systems, and no standard frequency assignment mechanism exists for cognitive radio systems at present. In this tutorial, we treat that problem in a holistic way, as a part of solving a puzzle of selection of changeable characteristics of system devices. The goal is to achieve best results, which implies matching to the local signal environment. We take into account both intended and incidental interactions, among the system devices and with their environment. We propose meta-heuristics that puts together the concepts of multidimensional space with elements of graph theory and genetic and linear programming algorithms. That approach is service- and technology-agnostic, applicable to non-cognitive systems too.