Collaborative Research: Resource Allocation for Time-Critical Communications in Wireless Networks

诸如车载网络、机器人系统、实时监控和网络控制等无线网络的时间关键型实例化需要对分组传输提出严格的截止日期要求。这些新兴网络要求在不可靠、时变的无线介质上进行可靠且可预测的传输，以支持警告消息、语音呼叫和视频流等应用。尽管在过去的二十年里，具有最大吞吐量和低延迟的无线网络的设计取得了显著的进步，但无线网络中具有硬截止日期的通信仍然是一个具有挑战性的开放问题。现有的关于无线网络延迟性能的研究大多集中在降低平均延迟上，而不是保证硬截止日期。该项目的目标是开发用于在无线网络中传输具有硬截止日期的分组的基本理论和分布式算法，用于时间关键型应用。该项目的技术进步将有助于改进无线系统中的时间关键型通信，包括所谓的物联网、网络物理系统、应急响应无线网络和传感器网络。由于网络的容量区域是与到达相关的，而分组截止日期会导致特殊类型的空间和时间相关性，因此在自组织无线网络中支持具有硬截止日期的通信是非常具有挑战性的问题。本课题主要研究无线网络中时间关键型通信的综合资源分配方案，利用以下四种新技术：(1)虚拟链路方法实现空时资源分配以保证端到端的硬截止时间；(2)截止期感知的随机接入算法；(3)虚帧方法处理分组之间的无限时间相关性；(4)截止期感知的PHY/MAC资源分配。通过利用这些变革性的技术方法，该项目将(1)为任务关键型无线网络设计分布式算法，(2)为超越冲突模型的物理层模型设计支持硬端到端截止日期的资源分配算法，(3)为端到端截止日期约束的多跳业务流设计联合路由/调度算法。教育是该项目的核心组成部分。在这个项目的过程中，研究和教育将通过将这个项目中开发的新理论和算法纳入研究生水平的课程而被整合。将尽一切努力让本科生和来自代表不足学生的学生参与这个项目。

Time-critical instantiations of wireless networks such as vehicular networks, robotic systems, real-time surveillance, and networked control require stringent deadline requirements on packet transmissions. These emerging networks demand reliable and predictable transmissions over an unreliable, time-varying wireless medium to support applications such as warning messages, voice calls and video streaming. Despite remarkable progress in the design of wireless networks with maximum throughput and low delays over the last two decades, communications with hard deadlines in wireless networks remains a challenging open problem. Most existing works on delay performance in wireless networks focus on reducing average delays rather than guaranteeing hard deadlines. The goal of this project is to develop fundamental theories and distributed algorithms for transmitting packets with hard deadlines in wireless networks for time-critical applications. Technical advances in this project will contribute to the improvement of wireless systems for time-critical communications, including the so-called internet of things, cyber-physical systems, emergency response wireless networks, and sensor networks.The problem of supporting communications with hard deadlines in ad hoc wireless networks is very challenging because the capacity region of the network is arrival-dependent, and packet deadlines induce special types of spatial and temporal correlation. This project focuses on a comprehensive resource allocation solution for time-critical communications in wireless networks by utilizing the following four novel techniques: (1) a virtual link approach to achieve spatial-temporal resource allocation to guarantee end-to-end hard deadlines, (2) a deadline-aware random access algorithm, (3) a virtual frame approach to deal with the infinite temporal correlation among packets, and (4) deadline-aware PHY/MAC resource allocation. By exploiting these transformative technical approaches, the project will (1) design distributed algorithms for mission-critical wireless networks, (2) design resource allocation algorithms for supporting hard end-to-end deadlines for physical layer models beyond the collision model and (3) design joint routing/scheduling algorithms for multihop traffic flows with end-to-end deadline constraints. Education is a core component of this project. During the course of this project, research and education will be integrated by including new theories and algorithms developed in this project into graduate-level courses. Every effort will be made to involve undergraduates and students from under-represented students in this project.