NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Efficient Spectrum Access for Gbps WLANs in a Crowd of Legacy Networks

下一代WLAN协议将在很大程度上依赖频谱聚合来实现Gbps吞吐量。但当与传统的窄带信道重叠时，聚合的宽带频谱可能会严重未得到充分利用，甚至会出现资源匮乏的情况。随着无线局域网协议的不断扩展和多样化，这种异质频谱共享变得越来越普遍，共存成为一个基本问题和实际问题。这项研究的目的是通过测量研究深入了解Gbps和传统WLAN的共存，开发优化驱动的协议以实现两者之间的高效频谱共享，并在中型软件无线电试验台上验证协议。提出的解决方案提高了MAC层对异质频谱共享的感知能力，并通过细粒度频谱接入和机会性频谱聚合实现了对物理层的智能控制。通过解决不同频谱共享的关键问题，建议的研究有助于加快Gbps无线局域网的部署，进而提高数十亿WiFi终端用户的体验质量。它还将培养具有理论和实践经验的平衡组合的研究生，并综合他们在计算机科学和通信工程方面的知识。本科生也将参与这一项目，并得到PI院校本科生研究项目的补充支持。私人投资总监将与业界密切互动，以便可能将研究成果转化为私营部门。

Next-generation WLAN protocols will rely heavily on spectrum aggregation to achieve Gbps throughput. But the aggregated wideband spectrum may be severely underutilized and even starved when it overlaps with legacy narrowband channels. As WLAN protocols continue their expansion and diversification, such heterogeneous spectrum sharing becomes increasingly prevalent, raising coexistence as a fundamental problem and practical problem. The objective of this research is to gain insights into coexistence of Gbps and legacy WLANs through measurement studies, develop optimization-driven protocols to enable efficient spectrum sharing between them, and validate the protocols in a medium-scale software-radio testbed. The proposed solutions improve the MAC layer's awareness of heterogeneous spectrum sharing, and enforce intelligent control over the PHY layer through fine-grained spectrum access and opportunistic spectrum aggregation. They have the potential to realize Gbps wireless networking even in a crowd of low-rate legacy networks/devices.By addressing the key issues of heterogeneous spectrum sharing, the proposed research helps accelerate the deployment of Gbps WLANs which will, in turn, improve the quality of experience for billions of WiFi end-users. It will also train graduate students with a balanced mix of theory and hands-on experiences, and synthesize their knowledge in both computer science and communications engineering. Undergraduate students will also participate in this project, with the complementary support from the undergraduate research programs in the PI's institutions. The PIs will interact closely with industry for possible transitioning of the research results.