NeTS-NEDG: Toward Service Predictability under Uncertain Resource Availability in 802.11 Like Networks

无线产品的爆炸性增长和ISM频段的创新使用导致了非常拥挤的频谱空间。当密集部署时，可能会经历从更高的延迟和更低的数据速率到饥饿和服务中断等严重的性能下降。要解决共存问题，需要解决两个关键挑战。首先，在频道质量、用户位置和人口以及共存的设备和网络方面存在先天的不确定性。其次，许多在ISM频段使用无线电技术的新兴应用需要高可用性和可预测的服务，而不是大的接入带宽。因此，本项目的重点是开发稳健的资源管理的理论模型和算法，其目标是在802.11类网络中不同的资源可用性下最大限度地减少所需服务水平的中断和/或中断。这项工作将导致：i)用于推断宽带无线网络的内部和外部条件的新方法和测量程序；ii)作为资源管理决策稳健性的可量化度量的有效裕度的新概念；以及iii)设计具有离散和连续约束的稳健资源管理的优化框架。拟议的活动是解决工业、商业和医疗领域无线共存问题的基本构件，在这些领域，严重的干扰可能会造成巨大的经济损失并夺走人的生命。这项研究的跨学科性质自然有助于在本科生和研究生水平上结合工程和科学课程开发，并带有重要的实验部分。

Explosion of wireless products and innovative use of the ISM bands lead to a very crowded spectrum space. When densely deployed, significant performance degradation may be experienced ranging from higher latency and lower data rate to starvation and service disruption. To tackle the co-existence problems, two key challenges need to be addressed. First, there exists innate uncertainty in channel quality, user location and population as well as coexisting devices and networks. Second, many emerging applications using radio technologies in the ISM bands require high availability and predictable services instead of large access bandwidth. The focus of this project is thus to develop theoretical models and algorithms for robust resource management that target at minimizing the outage and/or disruption of desired service level under varying resource availability in 802.11 like networks. This work will result in i) new methods and measurement procedures for inferring internal and external conditions of broadband wireless networks; ii) novel concept of effective margin as a quantifiable metrics for the robustness of resource management decisions; and iii) design of an optimization framework for robust resource management with both discrete and continuous constraints. The proposed activities serve as fundamental building blocks to address wireless co-existence issues in industry, commercial and medical domains, where severe interferences can possibly cause tremendous economic loss and claim human lives. The interdisciplinary nature of this research lends naturally to a combine engineering and science curriculum development at both undergraduate and graduate levels with a significant experimental component.