NeTS-ProWiN: Self-managing Wireless Networks: Bringing Order to Chaotic Wireless Deployments

直到最近，大多数密集的无线网络部署都是在类似校园的环境中，专家们仔细规划小区布局。最近廉价的802.11硬件和其他个人无线技术（无绳电话、蓝牙等）的快速部署，正在迅速改变无线领域。在诸如社区和购物中心的区域中的无线联网设备的所得到的密集部署在几个重要方面不同于校园式部署：（1）它们是无计划的，并且因此导致无线节点的高度可变的密度，以及（2）它们是未管理的，并且因此不能有效地执行配置、故障排除等。 本项目使用术语混沌部署或混沌网络来指代具有这两种特性的无线网络的集合。随着无线网络变得越来越普遍，越来越密集，越来越多的混沌部署将遭受严重的竞争，性能低下和安全问题。这将严重阻碍这些基础设施的部署和使用，否定无线网络提供的许多好处。这个项目探索通过使混沌网络自我管理来解决这个问题。例如，这包括开发使无线设备的配置和运行时管理自动化的技术。该项目正在探索当前无线系统（如802.11）和未来无线电技术（如需要更复杂配置的认知无线电）的这些问题。该项目的长期影响是，它提高了我们对如何使用未授权频谱的理解，并为未来如何管理此类频谱提供了更好的指导。

Until recently, most dense deployments of wireless networks were in campus-like environments, where experts carefully plan cell layout. The recent rapid deployment of inexpensive 802.11 hardware and other personal wireless technology (cordless phones, bluetooth, etc.) is quickly changing the wireless landscape. The resulting dense deployment of wireless networking equipment in areas such as neighborhoods and shopping malls, differ from campus-like deployments in several important ways: (1) they are unplanned and, therefore, result in highly variable densities of wireless nodes, and (2) they are unmanaged and, therefore, configuring, troubleshooting, etc. cannot be performed efficiently. This project uses the term chaotic deployments or chaotic networks to refer to collections of wireless networks with these two properties.As wireless networks become more common and more densely packed, more of these chaotic deployments will suffer from serious contention, poor performance, and security problems. This will seriously hinder the deployment and use of these infrastructures, negating many of the benefits offered by wireless networks. This project explores solving this problem by making chaotic networks self-managing. For example, this includes developing techniques that automate both the configuration and runtime management of wireless devices. This project is exploring these issues for both current wireless systems, such as 802.11, and future radio technologies, such as cognitive radios, which require more complex configuration. The long-term impact of this project is that it is improving our understanding of how unlicensed spectrum is used and providing better guidance on how such spectrum should be managed in the future.