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

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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 PIs' institutions. The PIs will interact closely with industry for possible transitioning of the research results.