NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Towards Scalable and Energy Efficient Cellular IoT Communication

随着智能传感设备成为我们互联世界中无处不在的一部分，支持涉及物联网（IoT）设备的大规模通信的需求正在成为现实。物联网流量需要通过蜂窝网络传输，因为它是主要的广域无线通信基础设施。然而，目前的3GPP架构和协议效率低下，难以扩展，即使所有物联网设备中有一小部分是移动的，并且必须通过互联网可寻址/访问。此外，目前使用的链路层操作、流量调度和传输协议不太适合典型的短周期和突发物联网通信模式。该项目旨在通过重新设计蜂窝网络上物联网数据通信所涉及的核心操作和协议来解决这些限制。该项目将解决的问题不仅是当前3G/4G和未来5G网络高效运营的核心问题，而且必须得到解决，才能实现物联网的宏伟愿景。通过行业合作伙伴的参与，该团队将最大限度地提高研究与实践的相关性和外延性。pi将让本科生参与他们的研究，并将研究结果整合到研究生课程中，并鼓励代表性不足的学生参与。解决蜂窝网络上物联网数据通信的局限性具有挑战性，因为它需要支持对有限功能（如低功耗）终端系统的严格要求，并且在每个设备的基础上仅在蜂窝网络中维持少量状态。为了应对这些挑战，该项目将研究通过利用典型物联网移动模式的局部性和将位置与身份分离的协议功能来消除蜂窝网络隧道的新机制。其次，该项目将研究无线电资源控制（RRC）配置自适应优化的跨层机制，以实现终端设备能效和网络中信息交换开销之间的理想平衡。第三，该项目将研究通过空中接口进行有效交通调度的新机制。最后，该项目计划设计一种新的传输方式，可以根据物联网应用需求动态调整，并且足够灵活，可以有效地处理不同大小的数据传输。这些解决方案将考虑到物联网通信中的特定属性。

With smart sensing devices becoming a ubiquitous part of our connected world, the need to support large-scale communication involving Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices is becoming a reality. IoT traffic needs to be carried over cellular networks as it is the primary wide-area wireless communication infrastructure. However, the current 3GPP architecture and protocols are inefficient and difficult to scale, even if a small fraction of all IoT devices are mobile and have to be addressable/reachable through the Internet. In addition, link layer operations, traffic scheduling, and transport protocols currently in use are not well suited for typical short, periodic and bursty IoT communication patterns. This project aims to address these limitations by re-designing core operations and protocols involved in IoT data communication over cellular networks. The issues that the project will address are not only central to the efficient operation of current 3G/4G and future 5G networks, but must be solved to make the grand vision of the Internet-of-Things a reality. Through participation by industrial partners, the team will maximize the relevance and outreach of research to practice. The PIs will involve undergraduate students in their research, and integrate findings from this research into graduate courses, and encourage participation of under-represented students.Addressing the limitations of IoT data communication over cellular networks is challenging, as it requires supporting stringent requirements on limited capability (such as low power) end-systems, and maintaining only small amounts of state in the cellular network on a per-device basis. To address these challenges, the project will investigate novel mechanisms to eliminate cellular network tunnels by leveraging the locality of typical IoT mobility patterns and the capabilities of protocols that separate location-from-identity. Second, the project will investigate cross-layer mechanisms for adaptive optimization of Radio Resource Control (RRC) configurations towards attaining an ideal balance between end-device energy efficiency and information exchange overhead in the network. Third, the project will investigate new mechanisms for efficient traffic scheduling over the air-interface. Finally, the project plans to design a new transport that can dynamically adapt based on IoT application requirements, and is flexible enough to effectively handle the varying size of data transfers. The solutions will take into account the specific properties in IoT communication.