The aim of this book, the first of two volumes, is to present selected research that has been undertaken under COST Action IC0902 ''Cognitive Radio and Networking for Cooperative Coexistence of Heterogeneous Wireless Networks'' (http://newyork.ing.uniroma1.it/IC0902/). COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is one of the longest-running European frameworks supporting cooperation among scientists and researchers across Europe. Written by leading researchers from both academia and major industrial research laboratories, this book will provide electrical, R&D electronic and communication engineers, as well as researchers, undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students with a unique and comprehensive overview of recent advances in cognitive radio (CR) and networks. The book will allow the reader to have access to avant-garde results, in the CR and cooperative heterogeneous coexistence field, in a thorough and detailed way. Topics covered by the book include newly developed techniques on spectrum sensing algorithms for cognitive white-space systems using either single or multiple antennas, and novel blind free-bands detectors exploiting cyclic autocorrelation function sparsity. The reader will also explore learning and optimization techniques and mechanisms based on biomimetic approaches for Self-Organization in Macro-Femtocell Coexistence; these methods are based on the recently developed ''Docition'' concept for cognitive networks. The book further includes extensive discussions regarding issues related to the implementation of the different steps of the cognitive cycle, and, in particular, on reasoning. Application of such concepts to cognitive networks allows defining a potential architecture for their integration into current TCP/IP networks. Indeed, using the cognitive paradigm represents a way toward (i) addressing the multiple timescales of operation of a network and (ii) gaining additional information on the cause-effect relationships between network configuration and performance. A very interesting chapter that describes how cognitive networking can be implemented to support green network operation, proposing a test case and demonstrating its potential in a 3G cellular context, is also included in the book. A complete description of the latest groundbreaking field trials is also available to the reader along with the current and future market requirements and so-called killer applications. Finally, in the last chapter, main conclusions and recommendations regarding the available test beds are reported.
