NeTS: Small: Large-Scale Opportunistic Data Crowdsourcing and Dissemination in Device-to-Device (D2D) Networks

当今绝大多数无线通信系统工作在3 GHz以下的微波频谱上，这是一个严重短缺的资源，已经成为一种拥挤的资源。为了应对移动宽带流量1000倍增长的挑战，我们为下一代(5G)蜂窝系统确定了工作频率在20 GHz到300 GHz之间的毫米波(毫米波)频段。虽然毫米波频段的使用满足了更多无线频谱的迫切需求，但它也带来了一系列新的独特的技术挑战，例如严重的路径损耗和不希望看到的覆盖空洞。为此，设备到设备(D2D)网络被提出使用短距离无线链路来在移动用户之间建立机会连接。在这个项目中，研究人员将探索D2D中的各种面向应用的问题，最终形成有助于下一代移动通信系统发展的新的基本理论和先进技术。该项目将有效地促进广泛领域的多学科合作，包括人类学、通信、计算机科学、经济学、公共卫生、人口学和社会学。它还将通过实施和实验活动有效地丰富课程，为学生提供实践经验。拟议的研究包括两个研究重点，以设计、实施、评估和原型新的协议和算法，以支持D2D中高效的数据收集和传播。首先，一类应用程序涉及从移动设备收集大规模数据。尽管众包近年来一直在讨论，但由于独特的非确定性网络范式，众包与D2D的结合带来了新的有趣的研究问题。研究人员将调查支持基于D2D的众包的几个维度，包括针对延迟敏感型应用的基于竞争的参与者招募方案，以及用于交付众包请求的有效Quest算法。其次，在许多D2D应用中，高效的数据分发是不可或缺的。与以往集中于从一个源到一组给定接收方的经典多播不同，研究人员建议研究一个独特而有趣的问题，其中接收方是未知的。在这种情况下，一种自然的方法是在一些存储库分发数据，这些存储库根据请求进一步将内容交付给感兴趣的数据消费者。在这一框架下，研究人员将设计算法来选择最优的托管机构，以最大化总利润，并开发新的激励计划，以实现有效的传播。与这些研究推力相辅相成的是实验原型和验证轨道，通过实验研究、评估和改进各种设计选择和备选方案。

The vast majority of today's wireless communication systems operate in the microwave spectrum below 3 GHz, which is experiencing severe shortage and has become a crowded resource. To meet the 1000x growth challenge in mobile broadband traffic, the millimeter wave (mmWave) band, operating at frequencies between 20 and 300 GHz, has been identified for next-generation (5G) cellular systems. While the use of mmWave band addresses the pressing needs of more wireless spectrum, it brings a new set of unique technical challenges such as severe path loss and undesired coverage holes. To this end, Device-to-Device (D2D) networks are proposed to employ short-range wireless links to establish opportunistic connections between mobile users. In this project, the researchers will explore a diversity of application-oriented problems in D2D, culminating in the formulation of both new fundamental theories and advanced technologies that contribute to the development of next-generation mobile communication systems. This project will effectively stimulate multi-disciplinary collaboration across a broad spectrum of fields, including anthropology, communications, computer science, economics, public health, demography, and sociology. It will also effectively enrich courses by implementation and experimental activities, providing students with hands-on experience.The proposed research includes two research thrusts to design, implement, evaluate, and prototype new protocols and algorithms, in support of efficient data gathering and dissemination in D2D. First, a class of applications involve large-scale data gathering from mobile devices. Although crowdsourcing has been discussed in recent years, the marriage of crowdsourcing and D2D creates new, interesting research problems, due to the unique non-deterministic network paradigm. The researchers will investigate several dimensions in support of D2D-based crowdsourcing, including a competition-based participant recruitment scheme for delay-sensitive applications and an effective quest algorithm to deliver crowdsourcing requests. Second, efficient data dissemination is indispensable in many D2D applications. In contrast to the prior work that focuses on classical multicasting from a source to a given set of receivers, the researchers propose to investigate a unique and interesting problem where the receivers are not explicitly known. In such settings, a natural approach is to distribute data at some depositories, that further deliver the content to interested data consumers upon requests. Under this framework, the researchers will devise algorithms to choose optimal depositories for maximizing the total profit and develop new incentive schemes to enable efficient dissemination. Complementing these research thrusts is an experimental prototyping and validation track, with various design choices and alternatives experimentally studied, evaluated and refined.