The present invention provides a radio architecture that contains a main radio path and a sensing path. The parameters of the main radio path are controlled by a cognitive engine. The main radio path is tuned to a desired frequency band. The sensing path is used to monitor the spectrum around the desired frequency band. To minimize effects of undesired non-linearity on sensing, sensing path may have a lower gain setting. The cognitive engine determines the optimal setting of the main RF front-end with respect to the current state of the spectrum.