NeTS: Medium: Collaborative Research: Cooperative Beamforming for Efficient and Secure Wireless Communication

“这项奖励是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。”对于能够维持高数据速率、抗干扰能力强、有效利用电池资源并提供安全通信的无线网络的需求日益增长。本项目引入合作波束形成（CB），这是一种新颖的技术，能够以安全的方式实现高吞吐量和节能通信。CB包括两个阶段。在第一阶段，源通过低功耗通信与相邻节点共享数据。考虑了用于此类信息共享的各种方法，其目标是最小化排队延迟、节约能源和实现高吞吐量。在第二阶段，合作节点对第一阶段接收到的信号施加权重，然后发送。权重是这样的，一个特定的客观标准（例如，信号到目的地的干扰）是最大化的。在CB中，虽然每个节点的功耗都很低，但所有节点一起可以向遥远的目的地提供高功率。这种功率的增加抵消了由于传播衰减而导致的功率降低。CB可以看作是多跳传输的一种替代方案，并且与多跳传输不同，它不会耗尽其他节点的电力资源。由于CB可以实现长距离通信，因此可以找到新的路径来提高整体网络性能。此外，CB通过避免窃听来提高网络安全性；与传统的基于加密的协议不同，后者在更高层运行，对传输介质的广播性质很敏感，而CB提高了物理层的安全性。CB将在硬件网络测试平台上实现，以演示所开发的技术如何彻底改变无线通信。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."There is a growing need for wireless networks that can sustain high data rates, are robust to interference, make efficient use of battery resources, and offer secure communications. This project introduces cooperative beamforming (CB), a novel technique that enables high throughput and power efficient communications in a secure manner. CB consists of two stages. In the first stage, the sources share their data with neighboring nodes via low-power communications. Various approaches for such information sharing are considered, with a goal to minimize queuing delays, conserve energy, and achieve high throughput. In the second stage, the cooperative nodes apply a weight to the signal received during first stage, and transmit. The weights are such that a specific objective criterion (e.g., signal to interference at the destination) is maximized. In CB, although each node uses low power, all nodes together can deliver high power to a faraway destination. This increase in power offsets power reduction due to propagation attenuation. CB can be viewed as an alternative to multihop transmission and, unlike multihop transmission, does not deplete the power resources of other nodes. Since CB can achieve long distance communication, new paths can be found to improve the overall network performance. Also, CB improves network security by avoiding eavesdroppers; unlike traditional cryptographic-based protocols that operate at higher layers and are sensitive to the broadcast nature of the transmission medium, CB improves security at the physical layer. CB will be implemented on a hardware network testbed to demonstrate how the developed techniques can revolutionize wireless communications.