NeTS-NBD: Cooperative Multi-Hop Wireless Communications and Networking: Joint Design of Error Control Coding, Medium Access, and Routing

协同多跳无线通信与网络：差错控制编码、介质接入和路由的联合设计蔡晓东多跳通信在许多新兴的无线网络中发挥着重要作用，如自组织网络、传感器网络、网状网络等。然而，当网络运行在具有复杂信道衰落和阴影的典型环境中时，现有的多跳通信方法在吞吐量、延迟、能效和鲁棒性等方面无法提供令人满意的网络性能。这是由于几个主要问题：1)在网络层，目前的路由算法没有任何机制来应对无线信道固有的衰落和阴影的有害影响，因为这些路由算法是基于无线信道的磁盘模型，考虑了路径损耗，但没有衰落和阴影。2)在数据链路层和物理层，目前的传输方案没有很好地挖掘无线传输的广播性，以提高链路的可靠性。3)缺乏跨网络、介质访问控制（MAC）和物理层的联合设计，使得网络性能难以优化。本项目旨在开发一种跨层协作通信框架，以大幅提高多跳无线通信的性能。具体来说，跨层设计框架提供了跨网络、MAC和物理层的统一方法，其中路由算法和MAC方案确保节点合作，而新颖的错误控制码（ECC）通过节点合作实现了最大的编码和分集增益。本项目开发的通信和网络方法有望显著提高采用多跳通信的无线网络的性能。

Cooperative Multi-Hop Wireless Communications and Networking: Joint Design of Error Control Coding, Medium Access, and RoutingAward 0626695Xiaodong CaiMulti-hop communication is instrumental in many emerging wireless networks such as ad hoc networks, sensor networks, mesh networks, etc. However, current multi-hop communication methods cannot provide satisfactory network performance in terms of throughput, latency, energy efficiency, and robustness, when the network operates in typical environments with complicated channel fading and shadowing. This is due to several major problems: 1) At the network layer, current routing algorithms do not have any mechanisms to cope with the detrimental effects of fading and shadowing inherent in wireless channels, since these routing algorithms are based upon a disk model for wireless channels that takes into account path loss, but not fading and shadowing. 2) At the data link and physical layers, current transmission schemes do not properly explore the broadcasting nature of wireless transmissions to improve link reliability. 3) The lack of a joint design across the network, medium access control (MAC), and physical layers renders it difficult to optimize network performance. This project aims to develop a framework of cross-layer cooperative communications to substantially improve the performance of multi-hop wireless communications. Specifically, the cross-layer design framework provides a unified approach across the network, MAC, and physical layers, where routing algorithms along with MAC schemes ensure node cooperation, while the novel error-control code (ECC) achieves maximum coding and diversity gain enabled by node cooperation. The communication and networking methods developed in this project are expected to significantly improve the performance of wireless networks employing multi-hop communication.