CIF: Medium: Collaborative Research: On-demand Physical Layer Cooperation

无线接入正在迅速成为互联网的主要门户，导致对无线数据的需求呈指数级增长。这已经将当前的无线系统推向了极限，尽管为了满足日益增长的需求，在基础设施方面进行了大量投资。物理层协作可以实现对可用无线带宽的近乎最佳的利用。该方案通过引入按需无线协作方法从根本上重新考虑了物理层协作。可以说，(有线)互联网的成功是由其按需操作、利用适应、当地知识、反馈和尽力而为的服务模式实现的。值得注意的是，许多对等网络协议的成功与网络的按需信息传播和适配密切相关。这项提议的主要目标是将这一理念引入无线网络，在可实施系统的复杂性限制内实现无线网络带宽的近乎最佳的使用。该项目旨在通过在软件无线电试验台上进行概念验证部署来补充理论工作，并让行业合作伙伴参与影响下一代无线网络设计。该项目还通过一项建立独特的大学间教育和研究计划的计划促进研究工程师的培训，该计划将包括联合和合作的学生咨询和课程开发。大多数网络信息理论的基本假设是，人们可以构建在非常快的时间尺度上紧密协调关于无线信道、用户需求和网络拓扑的信息的估计和共享的体系结构，而不影响性能(速率、误差)。也就是说，不考虑学习非常动态的网络状态的成本。另一个隐含的假设是完全网络使用，即使用无线网络中的所有可用中继，而不适应用户需求。在许多情况下，这可能是非常浪费的，而且，不必要地使用继电器的成本也没有考虑在内。基于这些假设的许多突破性想法促进了集体理解，但要使物理层协作技术更接近实际网络，需要采取额外的步骤来超越这些假设。该项目结合了一个计划，该计划开发了按需网络运营的理论基础和实践，消除了这些假设。这需要运行满足目标速率的网络中继器(子网络)的特定子集，而不是使用所有网络中继器来实现可能的最佳性能。这个项目构建了如何根据需要选择、调整和操作这些子网络的理论理解，通过使用负责任的部分网络知识和使用反馈机制来增强对未知的信号适应。理论公式与将在试验台上验证的可实现协议紧密耦合。

Wireless access is fast becoming the primary portal to the Internet, causing an exponentially rising demand for wireless data. This has pushed current wireless systems to their limits, despite significant investment in infrastructure to meet the ever-growing demands. Physical layer cooperation can enable near-optimal usage of the available wireless bandwidth.This proposal fundamentally rethinks physical-layer cooperation by introducing an on-demand approach to wireless cooperation. It can be argued that the success of the (wired) Internet was made possible by its on-demand operation, using adaptation, local knowledge, feedback and a best-effort service model. Notably, the success of many peer-to-peer network protocols is closely tied to on-demand information propagation and adaptation of the network. The broad goal of this proposal is to bring this philosophy to wireless networks, enabling near-optimal usage of the wireless network bandwidth within the complexity constraints of implementable systems. This project aims to complement the theoretical work with proof-of-concept deployments on software radio testbeds, and also engage industry partners to impact next-generation wireless network designs. The project also promotes training of research engineers, through a plan to establish a unique inter-university education and research program, which will include joint and collaborative student advising and curricular development. The underlying assumption of most network information theory works is that one can build architectures which tightly coordinate the estimation and sharing of information about the wireless channels, the user requirements and the network topology, at a very fast time-scale, without impacting the performance (rates, error). That is, the cost of learning the very dynamic network state is not accounted for. Another implicit assumption is complete network usage, that all available relays in a wireless network are used, with no adaptation to user demand. This can be very wasteful in many situations, and again, the cost of unnecessarily using relays is not accounted for. The many breakthrough ideas based on these assumptions have advanced a collective understanding, but bringing physical layer cooperation techniques closer to practical networks requires additional steps to move beyond these assumptions. This project puts together a program that develops the theoretical foundations and practice of an on-demand network operation, that dispenses with these assumptions. This entails operating specific subsets of the network relays (sub-networks) that fulfill target rates, as opposed to using all network relays to achieve the best possible performance. This project constructs a theoretical understanding of how to select, adapt and operate these sub-networks on demand, by using accountable partial network knowledge and using feedback mechanisms to enhance signal adaptation to the unknown. The theoretical formulations are tightly coupled to implementable protocols that will be validated in test beds.