Is cognitive radio ready for standardization?

What’s the best way for innovators in the communications technology industry to make money?  There seem to be two basic approaches.  One is to create a proprietary solution and strive for differentiation and customer loyalty.  The other is to collaborate with others to create a standard that enables rapid growth and consumer acceptance, often as a result of declining costs through modularization and economies of scale. 

Apple’s iPhone is an example of the former.  Apple has created a tightly bundled system that gives its customers a complete multimedia experience.  IEEE 802.11 (or Wi-Fi) is an example of the later.  Wi-Fi has been a huge success, making millions for many, but is now a commodity component of larger systems.  Nonetheless, it has enabled a wide variety of higher value services that need network connectivity to perform.

 

So what about dynamic spectrum access and cognitive radio?  Microsoft is developing a white space appliance that presumably will be mostly proprietary.  On the other hand, Motorola is investing heavily in a number of cognitive radio standardization activities.  Which approach is best?  It will be interesting to watch