In Chapter 1 of his book entitled Cortex and Mind: Unifying Cognition, Fuster (2003) introduces a new term called the cognit, which is used to characterize the cognitive structure of a cortical network; it is defined as follows:

Towards the end of Chapter 1 of the book, Fuster goes on to say:

These two quotes taken from Fuster's book provide us with a cohesive statement on the cortical functions of cognition in the human brain; both are important. In particular, the second quotation highlights the interrelationships between the five processes involved in cognition: perception, memory, attention, language, and intelligence. Just as language plays a distinctive role in the human brain, so it is in a cognitive dynamic system where language provides the means for effective and efficient communication among the different parts of the system. However, language is outside the scope of this book.

Introduction

Dr Antony Rix

Weightless could be suitable for a wide variety of applications, from smart metering to healthcare and even asset tracking, as noted in Section 1.3. In this chapter we consider which application requirements fit well with Weightless, explore what is required to build a system that integrates with Weightless, and then look in more detail at example applications in automotive, energy, healthcare and consumer markets. This chapter is not a complete guide on building end-to-end services – substantial organisations exist with this as their main focus – but is intended to provide an informative introduction to some important considerations.

AlthoughWeightless is intended to be reasonably application-agnostic, it is important to understand that design decisions made in defining the standard, and the unlicensed nature of white space spectrum, place important limits on which applications will work best with a Weightless service. For example, while half-hourly readings from a utility meter could easily be sent over the Weightless system, video streaming would likely overload it.

Conversely, the requirements of some applications and business models do need to be addressed within the system, even potentially in the physical layer. Generally these requirements will be common to several markets, so the solutions are of quite generic benefit. Security is one of these requirements, and something which cellular networks address in detail. A topical example of why this is important could be the following. Consider a Weightless-connected diabetes monitor used by a celebrity. Machine IDs like MAC addresses are often assigned to manufacturers in ranges, each range to be used by a particular product to provide traceability, and thus identify not only the vendor but even the type of device. If the machine ID is sent unencrypted over the air, it might be possible for an attacker with a channel monitor to deduce that the celebrity has diabetes, track the celebrity’s movements, or even guess when the device is used. Appropriate security precautions in the system can make this difficult or infeasible.

What defines a machine?

Wireless communications are widespread, but tend to be used predominantly by people. Mobile phones allow people to talk or send emails, Wi-Fi systems allow people to surf the Internet from a laptop and Bluetooth links allow people to use cordless headsets. There is an entirely different class of applications for devices that do not directly have users and whose communications are not instigated by people. A good example of this is a smart electricity meter. It might send meter readings to a database every hour. It has no direct linkage with any person – although indirectly it makes their life somewhat better by enabling smart grids and automating the meter-reading process.

There are so many different applications and machines that a clear definition of one is not possible. Broadly, these are devices where transmissions occur due to the function of the machine rather than any person. They send information not to another person but typically to a database within the network from where it can be processed by other machines. Of course, sooner or later someone benefits from the service provided, but typically not from the radio transmission itself. Applications include automotive engine management updates, healthcare monitoring, smart city sensors and actuators, smart grids, asset tracking, industrial automation, traffic control and much more.

In my Point-of-View article, entitled “Cognitive dynamic systems,” Proceedings of the IEEE, November 2006, I included a footnote stating that a new book on this very topic was under preparation. At long last, here is the book that I promised then, over four years later.

Just as adaptive filtering, going back to the pioneering work done by Professor Bernard Widrow and his research associates at Stanford University, represents one of the hallmarks of the twentieth century in signal processing and control, I see cognitive dynamic systems, exemplified by cognitive radar, cognitive control, and cognitive radio and other engineering systems, as one of the hallmarks of the twenty-first century.

The key question is: How do we define cognition? In this book of mine, I look to the human brain as the framework for cognition. As such, cognition embodies four basic processes:

• perception–action cycle,

• memory,

• attention, and

• intelligence,

each of which has a specific function of its own. In identifying this list of four processes. I have left out language, the fifth distinctive characteristic of human cognition, as it is outside the scope of this book. Simply put, there is no better framework than human cognition, embodying the above four processes, for the study of cognitive dynamic systems, irrespective of application.

Security in general

Security is important in many machine applications. Smart grids must return accurate meter readings that cannot be modified. Network communications to instruct meters to change demand must not be modified or sent by a terrorist organisation. Financial-related transactions must be secure and it must be certain that they were received. Almost all machine communications have some level of security requirements.

To some degree these could be layered over the top of the Weightless network at the application layer. So a smart meter could encrypt its data stream before passing it to the Weightless radio embedded within it. The data would pass through the Weightless network in secure form and be decoded by the client in their central IT system. Indeed, this can be done even when Weightless has its own security to provide extra protection.

There are some functions that cannot be achieved at the application layer. These include authentication of the network by the Weightless device. Itwould be possible for a terminal to be ‘captured’ by a rogue base station and stay attached to it indefinitely. Authentication mechanisms are needed to prevent this occurring. Because of this, and because it prevented all applications having to build in their own security, it was decided to provide the Weightless standard with cellular-grade security mechanisms. However, as will be explained, some of the differences in message type and threat type mean that the same security mechanisms as are used in cellular cannot just be copied.

Shortly after our marriage my husband and I returned to the Madras Presidency. Our elder son, John Ferrier, was born at my parents' home in Coonoor, Nilgiris, 1st September, 1908. Nearly four years later our second son, Alan Mathison, was born at Warrington Lodge, Warrington Crescent, Maida Vale, London, on 23rd June, 1912. His christening took place at St. Saviour's Church, Warrington Avenue, on 7th July, 1912. We spent the following winter with our boys in Italy. My husband returned to India in the spring of 1913, while I followed in September, leaving both children at home with Colonel and Mrs. Ward at St. Leonards-on-Sea. Both boys grew very much attached to “Grannie” as they called Mrs. Ward. It had been intended to take Alan out to India, but owing to his having slight ricketts it was thought better to leave him in England. Despite his delicacy he was an extremely vivacious and forthcoming small child.

My letters to my husband when I was in England in the spring and summer of 1915, round about Alan's third birthday, give some idea of what he was like. I was not alone in my opinion when I wrote, “a very clever child, I should say, with a wonderful memory for new words,” for I reported that his uncle, Herbert Trustram Eve, maintained that he would do great things – this when Alan was nearly three. Here are extracts from letters at this time: “Alan generally speaks remarkably correctly and well. He has rather a delightful phrase, ‘for so many morrows,’ which we think means, ‘for a long time,’ and is used with reference to past or future.”

Interest in a new generation of engineering systems enabled with cognition, started with cognitive radio, a term that was coined by Mitola and McGuire (1999). In that article, the idea of cognitive radio was introduced within the software-defined radio (SDR) community. Subsequently, Mitola (2000) elaborated on a so-called “radio knowledge representation language” in his own doctoral dissertation. Furthermore, in a short section entitled “Research issues” at the end of his doctoral dissertation, Mitola went on to say the following:

Then, in Haykin (2005a), the first journal paper on cognitive radio, detailed expositions of signal processing, control, learning and adaptive processes, and game-theoretic ideas that lie at the heart of cognitive radio were presented for the first time. Three fundamental cognitive tasks, embodying the perception–action cycle of cognitive radio, were identified in that 2005 paper:

• radio-scene analysis of the radio environment performed in the receiver;

• transmit-power control and dynamic spectrum management, both performed in the transmitter; and

• global feedback, enabling the transmitter to act and, therefore, control data transmission across the forward wireless (data) channel in light of information about the radio environment fed back to it by the receiver.

The Turing family is of Norman extraction and the family tree goes back to 1316 AD, the family motto being Fortuna audentes Juvat. Having arrived in Scotland the members settled in Angus in a barony of that name, whence they removed to Aberdeenshire early in the fourteenth century and came into possession of Foveran, which remained the family seat until recent times. The name was variously spelled Turyne, Thuring, Turin, Turing. William Turin received the honour of knighthood from James VI of Scotland (James I of England) and thereafter Sir William added the final “g” to the name.

John Turing of Foveran was created a baronet by Charles I in 1639 for loyal service, and was at the battle of Worcester; but his loyalty cost him the loss of lands which had been in the family for 300 years. Records show Turings holding positions of trust and responsibility in the County of Aberdeen.

By the eighteenth century some Turings were venturing further a field. Thus Sir Robert Turing (Bart.), born in 1744, was a doctor and amassed a considerable fortune in the East Indies and then retired to Banff in Scotland where he made himself very useful and popular. One kinsman in the Honourable East India Company took part in the defence of Seringapatam. Others in the nineteenth century lived in Holland; two, father and son, were successive British Consuls in Rotterdam. Some of their descendants have now become domiciled in Holland. Alan's great grandfather, presumably through this Dutch connection, had some occupation in Batavia, maybe in some shipping concern.

This book has introduced the Weightless standard, setting out the need for a wide-area wireless machine communications network and explaining how the advent of white space spectrum has provided the last piece of the puzzle needed to make such a network reality. However, the mix of very particular requirements for machine communications and the need to operate under complex rules and challenging interference within white space has led to the need for a bespoke new technology. Chapters in this book, and the standard, set out in detail the design decisions for Weightless, the specifics of the network, the base stations, the medium access layer and the physical layer. Subsequent chapters demonstrate how Weightless could be deployed in a nationwide network and the coverage, capacity and business case that would result from such a deployment. Finally, we concluded by looking at some of the key applications for Weightless and how they could be served by the standard.

Weightless is a unique technology. It could enable smart energy, smart cities, healthcare solutions to allow people to live at home longer and much more. It can generate excellent returns for those that make and deploy the technology and those that deliver applications using it. And, by providing the enablers to address climate change and the aging population, it might just save the world.

Defining white space

Most of the spectrum below 10GHz across most of the world is allocated for particular applications and assigned to certain users. These include broadcasters, mobile phone network operators, defence departments and many, many more. The net result is that there is little obviously spare spectrum, particularly in the preferred frequency bands between around 300MHz and 3GHz where propagation is favourable but antennas are conveniently small. However, measurements of the actual utilisation of this assigned spectrum suggest that it is typically only used in around 20% of the locations. Such measurements undoubtedly underestimate usage but nevertheless it is clear that there is some potential for more efficient use of the spectrum.

One way to visualise where there might be underused spectrum is to plot on a map the strength of signal from the licensed user of that band. If colours are used to represent signal strength then those parts with no coverage at a given frequency will be uncoloured and appear white on a black and white map. Hence the term ‘white space’ for areas where there is potential for others to use the spectrum.

This book contains almost all the essential material for the biography of a very remarkable man, who died tragically in June, 1954, in the prime of his life and in the middle of research which may still prove to be even more original and important than the finished work which had brought him so much honour and fame. Alan Turing's mother, who has assembled and written this record of his childhood and his mature achievements, believes that his death was accidental. The explanation of suicide will never satisfy those who were in close touch with Alan during the last months and days of his life, however much the available evidence may point to it, and in the future the possibility of accident will be considered by those in a better position perhaps to decide the truth. But even if his death was not chosen by him, he was a very strange man, one who never fitted in anywhere quite successfully. His scattered efforts to appear at home in the upper middle class circles into which he was born stand out as particularly unsuccessful. He did adopt a few conventions, apparently at random, but he discarded the majority of their ways and ideas without hesitation or apology. Unfortunately the ways of the academic world which might have proved his refuge, puzzled and bored him; and in return that world sometimes accepted him wholeheartedly (I remember ShaunWylie's saying “He was a lovely man: never a dull moment”) but often felt puzzled by his remoteness.