CAREER: A Low-Cost Efficient Wireless Architecture for Rural Network Connectivity

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该项目开发了基于wifi的农村扩展（WiRE），这是一种新的无线架构，可以以极低的成本为农村地区提供高带宽连接。WiRE是一种全面的农村连接解决方案，可以支持广泛的应用程序，具有性能、健壮性和功能保证。WiRE的设计解决了跨不同协议层的几个研究挑战，包括：(1)一个自适应的、高性能的统一介质访问控制层，可以无缝地工作在不同的网络环境中；(2)安全且可扩展的命名和寻址解决方案，以实现使用移动设备的蜂窝接入；(3)容错网络设计、故障恢复、网络管理和不可靠电源的鲁棒解决方案；(4)服务质量机制，提供可预测的端到端性能。该项目加强了对发展中国家网络和系统挑战的理解，可以为农村地区数十亿人带来巨大的社会效益。它在无线网络方面取得了根本性的进步，包括理解复杂的干扰相互作用、协议设计和移动应用。该计划的研究活动包括电气工程、经济学、公共卫生和可持续发展领域的跨学科合作。PI组织了几次重要的讲习班和会议，以提高对农村地区和发展中国家重要的计算机科学研究挑战的认识。该项目的教育计划包括为这一新兴领域开发新课程、跨学科教育、指导不同学科的学生以及培训农村地区代表性不足的群体。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project develops WiFi-based Rural Extensions (WiRE), a new wireless architecture that can provide high bandwidth connectivity to rural regions at extremely low costs. WiRE is a comprehensive rural connectivity solution that can support a wide range of applications with performance, robustness and functionality guarantees. The design of WiRE addresses several research challenges across different protocol layers including: (1) an adaptive, high-performance unified Medium Access Control layer that seamlessly works across different network environments; (2) a secure and scalable naming and addressing solution to enable cellular access using mobile devices; (3) robust solutions for fault-tolerant network design, failure recovery, network management and unreliable power; (4) Quality of Service mechanisms to provide predictable end-to-end performance. The project enhances the understanding of networking and systems challenges in the developing world and can have enormous societal benefits to billions in rural regions. It makes fundamental advances in wireless networks including understanding complex interference interactions, protocol design and mobile applications. The research activities in this program include cross-disciplinary collaborations in the areas of electrical engineering, economics, public health and sustainable development. The PI has organized several important workshops and conferences to increase the awareness of important computer science research challenges in the rural areas and the developing world. The education plan for this project includes new curricular development for this emerging area, inter-disciplinary education, mentoring students from various disciplines and training of underrepresented groups in rural regions.