This cutting-edge resource offers practical overview of cognitive radio - a paradigm for wireless communications in which a network or a wireless node changes its transmission or reception parameters. The alteration of parameters is based on the active monitoring of several factors in the external and internal radio environment. This book offers a detailed description of cognitive radio and its individual parts. Practitioners learn how the basic processing elements and their capabilities are implemented as modular components. Moreover, the book explains how each component can be developed and tested independently, before integration with the rest of the engine. Practitioners discover how cognitive radio uses artificial intelligence to achieve radio optimization. The book also provides an in-depth working example of the developed cognitive engine and an experimental scenario to help engineers understand its performance and behavior