Radio platform makes use of whitespace frequencies

Cambridge Consultants' Incognito cognitive radio platform enables developers to design radio products that transmit without interference over these frequencies. This in turn enables new applications such as extending the range of home area networks or increasing the accessibility of low cost, high speed wireless internet services. By using the vacant frequencies, the overall wireless bandwidth available to computers, WiFi hot spots and radio devices that use the unlicensed band around 2.4GHz, will be greatly increased. Luke D'Arcy from Cambridge Consultants said: "We've seen so much game changing innovation in the unlicensed 2/4GHz band, but I believe the Federal Communications Commission's decision to open up the whitespace radio frequencies for innovation promises even more. We will quickly see a wave of innovation in wireless products and services around 700MHz, bringing benefits both to consumers and to the innovative businesses that move quickly into the whitespace market." D'Arcy explained that, until now, highly complex cognitive spectral sensing radio has only been used in defence and security applications. He noted: "The InCognito platform enables whitespace radios to quickly and accurately detect and avoid other broadcasts." Cambridge Consultants predicts that the first cognitive radio enabled products will be available in mid 2010 and that the market could develop quickly.