CROWN (Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks) is funded under FET-Open scheme within the Seventh Farmework Programme, consisting of six partners co-ordinated by Queen's University of Belfast, working towards the realistic implementation of Cognitive Radios for better, more spectrally and financially efficient wireless communications. This interdisciplinary project will take a significant step forward towards the new communication paradigms and experimental facilities for future mobile networks. Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks (CROWN) is a three year (May 2009 to April 2012) pan European Consortium project.

The main purpose of the CROWN project is to understand the technical issues of Cognitive Radios, through a proof of concept demonstrator. CROWN is a Framework Program 7 (FP7) Future Enabling Technologies (FET) programme. Such programmes are classified as High Technical Risk but with High Potential reward.

The techniques branded as “Cognitive Radio” (CR) enable concepts such as dynamic spectrum licensing,  where the reconfigurable spectrum radio is able to sense whether a particular band is being used or not and, to utilise the spectrum without interfering with the transmission of other licensed users. The CROWN project’s aspirations place it in a high-risk/high-return regime; it will help to revolutionize the spectrum licensing and efficiency landscape for personal wireless communications.

The Consortium partners are:

Queens University Belfast (QUB) (UK, Co-ordinator)

Athens Information Technology (AIT) (Greece, Technical Lead)

EURECOM (EUR) – Graduate University (France)

Darmstadt University of Technology (TUD) (Germany)

Infineon  (IFX) (France)

QinetiQ (QQ) (UK)

Office of Communications (Ofcom) (UK – advisor – Dr William Web)

Institute for Inforcomm Research (I2R) (Singapore – advisor – Dr Ying-Chang Liang)