CAREER: Exploiting Interference in Wireless Networks

这项提议的目标是从根本上重新设计无线网络，以便系统地利用干扰来增加网络容量。传统上，干扰被认为是有害的，因此，当前的设计努力通过在分开的频率/时隙中调度并发传输来避免干扰。因此，增加更多容量的唯一方法是增加更多频谱。然而，可用于建设无线网络的频谱大多已分配并正在使用，因此对当前网络设计的可扩展性施加了硬限制。这一提议带来了根本性的转变：它不是避免干扰，而是设计系统地鼓励和利用干扰来增加网络容量的技术。关键的见解是，干扰不是随机噪声，而是有结构的，因为它是由另一个发射机产生的合成信号。如果发送器和接收器知道干扰结构，他们可以利用它来主动整形/编码干扰，并更好地解码它们自己的传输以消除干扰，从而大大增加容量。这项拟议的研究将产生对无线网络设计产生重大影响的技术。该项目将设计单通道全双工无线电，这是一项迄今被认为不可能实现的技术壮举。其次，这项研究将产生能够从冲突中解码组成分组的无速率码，从而消除对复杂调度原语的需要，从而简化PHY/MAC设计。最后，它将生产智能无线电，能够在密集的无线电社区自适应地工作，并最大限度地提高吞吐量，从而在有各种干扰无线电的环境中共存。

The goal of this proposal is a fundamental redesign of wireless networks to systematically exploit interference to increase network capacity. Traditionally interference is considered harmful, hence current designs strive to avoid interference by scheduling concurrent transmissions in separate frequencies/time slots. Hence the only way to add more capacity is to add more spectrum. However spectrum that can be used for building wireless networks has mostly been allocated and is in use, thus imposing hard limit on the scalability of the current network design. This proposal makes a fundamental shift: instead of avoiding interference, it designs techniques that systematically encourage and exploit interference to increase network capacity. The key insight is that interference is not random noise, but has structure since it is a synthetic signal created by another transmitter. If transmitters and receivers are aware of the interference structure, they can exploit it to actively shape/code interference and better decode their own transmissions to cancel interference, and thus greatly increase capacity. The proposed research will produce techniques that can each have substantial impact of the design of wireless networks. This project will design single channel full duplex radios, a technical feat that has hitherto been considered impossible. Second, this research will produce rateless codes that can decode constituent packets from collisions, obviating the need for complex scheduling primitives and thus simplify PHY/MAC design. Finally, it will produce smart radios that can adaptively operate in dense radio neighborhoods and maximize throughput, and thus coexist in environments with a variety of interfering radios.