IoT (Internet of Things) implies the interconnection of billions of cyberphysical entities, capable of communicating with each other, without the need lor human intervention, also relerred to machine-to-machine communication. However, the practical implementation of IoT requires also the development of electronic devices that are secure and efficient in terms of cost and energy consumption. They also need to be equipped with a certain level of intelligence giving rise lo the so-called smart devices/objects and autonomy, so that they can make decisions in real time, and locally, i.e. withoul being connected to remate servers.
The so-called Cognitive Radio (CR) technology allows communication systems to make a more efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum, by dynamically modifying its transmission and reception parameters according to the information sansed from the environment a technique also referred to as spectrum sensing. One of the direct consequences of the physical implementations of CR-based terminals is that the digitizers, i.e. the circuits responsible for transforming the signal from the analog to the digital domain, should be placed as clase as possible to the antenna, so that most of the hardware is digital and hence, it is easier to program vía software.
Another key technology enabler for the development of CR-based IoT nodes is the need to embed a certain degree of Artificial Intelligence (Al), so that they can set their specifications in an optimum and autonomous way, according to the environment conditions (communication coverage, spectrum occupancy, intereferences), battery status and energy consumption.
In this scenario, this project aims to address some of the design challenges for the increased in-coming digital-driven world directly linked to the Economía, Sociedad y Cultura Digitales, which is one of the priority challenges of the Plan Estatal 2017- 2020. To this end, AI-managed digitizers for CR-based IoT nodes will be developed in this project.