Abstract: Application of cognitive radio for smart grid will effectively address the problem of spectrum resource scarcity in the wireless communications．A cognitive radio network can serve as a robust and efficient communications infrastructure that can solve both the current and future energy management needs of the smart grid．Cognitive radio testbed for the smart grid is not only able to test the performance of application,but also can find more practical problems．An efficient and reliable communication architecture has great significance to support the two-way communication for the smart grid．The latest research progress of cognitive radio-based testbed and system architecture for smart grid is summarized,and,in this basis,this paper discusses the development trend of the next step.

Key words: Smart grid,Cognitive radio,Research progress,Development trend