CAREER: Exploiting Antenna Capabilities in Wireless Mesh Networks: Theory, Protocols, and Practice

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The edge of the internet continues to grow rapidly over the wireless medium. Sustaining this growth rate is not trivial. The vagaries of the wireless channel, in conjunction with the distributed nature of large scale networks, raises diverse challenges in capacity, scalability, reliability, and security. Every new opportunity has to be maximally exploited to cope with the escalating end-user demands. Emerging antenna capabilities offer one such opportunity. Crucial advances have been made in antenna systems, as well as in the wireless protocol design community. Early evidence shows that significant end to end performance benefits can be extracted by effectively integrating antenna-awareness into the network protocol stack. However, such inte- gration is not trivial, and entails a rich set of research challenges. This project, named Spotlight, is oriented to achieve this goal, through theory, protocols, and a prototype demonstration. Instead of attempting all- encompassing solutions, the project categorically targets wireless mesh network architectures. Spotlight takes an active step towards integrating independent innovations from diverse research disciplines. Specifically, it brings the two communities of antenna systems and wireless networking closer to each other. Research results is being disseminated through technical publications, seminars, and tutorials. Moreover, the project is committed to tightly integrate research and educational plans. Techniques from Electrical Engi- neering is being unified with algorithms from Computer Science, and presented in new courses for graduates as well as undergraduates. Hands on experiences are integral components of these courses, enabling stu- dents to appreciate the translation of theory to real life systems. PI: Romit Roy ChoudhuryECE, Duke University