A realisation of broadcast cognitive pilot channels piggybacked on T-DMB

This paper considers the realisation of a broadcast out-of-band cognitive pilot channels (CPC) piggybacked on a Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) platform. The solution satisfies the requirements of coverage-based CPC schemes. The main goal of these is the enabling of the information transfer to mobile terminals of available knowledge of the wireless network environment, including available radio access networks, frequency bands, network policies and such like information. The proposed CPC solution is first contextualised within the range of CPC concepts, which have been and are being researched. Then, a three-layer 'CPC over T-DMB' system architectural design is set out. A prototype of the scheme is realised and implemented on a testbed, the design of which is outlined, and through which the key technological concepts are validated and their technical performance evaluated. The results of these system evaluations are presented and discussed.