This paper provides a brief overview of standardization activities in the IEEE and the International Telecommunications Union in the areas of advanced radio systems (including cognitive radio systems) and advanced concepts in spectrum management such as dynamic spectrum access.

This paper provides a technical overview of a high frequency (HF) channel simulation system that is applicable to either narrowband or wideband HF channels. Although narrowband models of the HF channel have existed for many years, they are applicable only to a limited set of actual narrowband channel conditions. The need for an HF channel model that is valid for both narrow and wide bandwidths over a more extensive range of channel conditions motivated the research reported in this paper. Wideband propagation, noise, and interference models have been developed and implemented in a real-time digital simulator that utilizes state-of-the-art signal processing hardware with a throughput in excess of 1 mega samples/s. The simulator architecture has the flexibility to permit its application to future simulator designs as faster signal processing components become available. The current simulation system can be used for simulating radio channels other than HF because the propagation, noise, and interference models are implemented in software. This flexibility results in a very powerful test instrument.

A summary of prior work in the field of microwave line-of-sight (LOS) channel propagation measurements, channel models, and channel simulators is presented. The objective of these efforts is the reliable prediction of digital microwave radio performance on any specified link. Many digital radio outage prediction techniques are predicted upon the use of m-curves, which characterize a digital radio's performance in a simulated fading environment. These m-curves are generated by subjecting the radio under test to simulated multipath fading. This requires the use of a channel simulator that accurately emulates the fading conditions found on real LOS links. All parameters of an ideal channel simulator should be based on a model that has been validated through propagation measurements on a number of different paths. Although much progress has been made, some issues remain for further investigation. New channel propagation measurement, modeling, and simulation results that are directly applicable to these issues are given.>