The self-growing concept - A novel framework developed by the FP7 CONSERN project

The CONSERN project (COoperative aNd Self growing Energy awaRe Networks) develops the novel SelfGrowing concept. It is part of the European Commission’s FP7 research initiative focusing on the following two major research directions: i) Solutions for optimised energy and power consumption in a small scale, purpose-driven network through balancing autonomic and cooperative approaches and ii) mechanisms for the self-evolvement of the network towards a large-scale, multi-purpose network. This paper will detail mechanisms developed within CONSERN that allow an on-going integration of existing networks in an ever-growing, complex environment, applying continuous self-optimization mechanisms and guaranteeing a minimized level of power-consumption, resource usage efficiency. KeywordsCognitive Radio (CR), Energy Efficiency, SelfGrowing Mechanism