The title of Li’s award-winning paper is “Cognitive Radio Networking and Communications: An Overview,” published in the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology in September 2011 (vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 3386-3407). The paper addresses the fact that more and more applications, such as smart phones, require high-speed wireless communications while radio spectrum is limited. Cognitive radio (CR) is the enabling technology for supporting dynamic spectrum access and can improve spectrum efficiency. The paper gives a systematic overview on CR networking and communications that will provide researchers and practitioners with a cross-layer view on designing CR networks.

Sharing in this award with Li are his coauthors Ying-Chang Liang, of the Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore; Kwang-Cheng Chen, National Taiwan University; and Petri Mahonen, of RWTH Aachen University (Germany).