Roa Alharbi, University of Western Ontario, Canada

In this survey, smart environment wireless networks are reviewed. The focus is on using the Cognitive Radio (CR) technology and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in these smart networks. Therefore, the reviewed research papers are studying the Cognitive Radio usage in smart homes and hospitals wireless networks. The main objectives of using CR in wireless networks are providing the flexibility in networks allocation, managing wireless networks efficiently and saving time and cost for communications. In addition, the papers include how the Radio Frequency Identification technology is merged with the Cognitive Radio to produce a smart environment. Although new technologies like CR and RFID have advantages, they also have disadvantages such as network interferences, network allocation and users’ priorities management. For this reason, recent studies are describing the challenges that facing CR and RFID technologies and new ways to solve them.

SDR, Cognitive Radio