NeTS: Small: Toward High-Performance WLANs: Bridging the Physical Layer Divide

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Actof 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project architects high-performance wireless local area networks (WLANs) by understanding the impact of physical layer attributes on performance and incorporating them in the design and control of next generation WLANs. The research is comprised of three parts. The first part develops models of spatial diversity, the dominant physical layer feature, that help understand and predict the performance of infrastructure mode WLANs. The second part integrates spatial diversity with cross-layer protocol analysis that allows evaluation of the influence of physical layer attributes on both lower- and higher-layer protocols. The third part investigates new network controls that harness opportunities provided by spatial diversity that help mitigate, and in some cases, transcend their detrimental performance effect including unfairness and throughput degradation. The control dimension extends to large-scale WLANs covering city blocks and campuses that inject complex spatial coupling. The project employs a combination of simulation, experimentation, and analysis to achieve its goals. The broader impact of this project lies in narrowing the performance gap between wireless and wired networks, which facilitates ubiquitous high-speed Internet access. The project also helps educate students in the fundamentals and intricacies of wireless communication. The results from the project will be disseminated at conferences, seminars, and through the project web site where data and tools are made publicly available.