NeTS: Small: Collaborative: Infrastructure Mobility

移动计算传统上意味着连接到静态基础设施的移动客户机。该项目打破了这一观点，并设想了将移动性注入基础设施的可能性。pi设想了一个车轮上的WiFi接入点，该接入点可以移动以优化所需的性能指标。运动不一定要在家里或办公室的地板上到处都是，它们也不需要电池供电，也不需要无线上网。在家里，他们可以在小范围内（也许在书房桌子下面）移动时，保持与电源和以太网插座相连。在未来的办公室里，也许ap可以在安装在假天花板上的轨道上移动。云计算也许可以根据用户在环境中的移动方式，或者网络中流量和干扰的变化来协调他们的移动性。该项目探索了这一愿景的可行性，并将从各种家庭/办公环境中进行全面的测量。在住宅和企业环境中使用移动WiFi接入点的初步测量显示出前景。分析发现，室内环境复杂的多径特性，即使天线在一英尺尺度内移动，也会造成链路质量的较大波动。移动ap可以通过重新定位到一个像素来利用这种空间变化，这个像素对它自己的客户端来说是强的，但对它的干扰来说是弱的。当多个ap由一个中心控制器协调时，需要对ap的运动路径进行联合规划，以优化全局网络参数。将开发启发式方法，首先假设AP位置的知识；基于这个启发式的结果，假设可以放宽。该项目还将考虑客户端移动性以及ap如何适应它们，这可能是基于当前WiFi卡中信道状态信息（CSI）提供的信道变化质量。如果在当前技术进步的情况下，移动性被证明能带来额外的收益，那么机器人无线网络可能会成为未来一个重要而令人兴奋的方向。

Mobile computing has traditionally implied mobile clients connected to a static infrastructure. This project breaks away from this point of view and envisions the possibility of injecting mobility into infrastructure. The PIs envision a WiFi access point on wheels that moves to optimize desired performance metrics. Movements need not necessarily be all around the floor of a home or office, neither do they have to operate on batteries, or connect wirelessly to the Internet. At homes, they could remain tethered to power and Ethernet outlets while moving in small areas (perhaps under the study table). In offices of the future, perhaps APs could move on tracks installed on top of false ceilings. The cloud could perhaps coordinate their mobility based on how users move within the environment, or how traffic and interferences change in the network. This project explores the viability of this vision and will present thorough measurements from various home/office environments.Initial measurements with moving WiFi APs in residential and enterprise environments exhibit promise. Analysis finds that complex multipath characteristics of indoor environments cause large fluctuations in link quality even when the antenna moves in the scale of one foot. Mobile APs can leverage this spatial variation by relocating to a pixel that is strong for its own clients and yet weak from its interferers. When multiple APs are coordinated by a central controller, the motion paths of the APs need to be jointly planned to optimize global network parameters. Heuristics will be developed that first assume the knowledge of AP locations; based on the outcome of this heuristic, the assumption might be relaxed. The project will also consider client mobility and how APs adapt to them, perhaps based on the quality of channel changes available from channel state information (CSI) in today's WiFi cards. If mobility proves to offer additional gains despite the advances in current technologies, robotic wireless networking might become an important and exciting direction of the future.