SpecEES: Efficient Monitoring and Spectrum Utilization in Multi-Layer Wireless Networks

随着无线应用和设备的激增，对无线数据的需求以及因此对无线带宽的需求呈指数增长。不幸的是，这些不断增长的需求需要通过可用的无线电频谱来满足，而可用的无线电频谱是有限的，因此必须在各种无线系统和设备之间有效地共享。有效的频谱共享需要无线设备的增强功能和提高智能，能够通过多种无线电接入技术（RAT）在多个频段上运行;由于工业领域的不断进步，这正在成为现实。因此，全球互联的无线网络正在演变成一个大规模的系统，同时支持数十亿用户和数万亿设备，并在各个方面表现出巨大的异质性。该方案的目标是在这个巨大的、动态的、异构的系统中实现高效的频谱和能量利用。与现有的方法相比，在这个项目中采取了一个新的角度，以多层的方式利用多RAT，多频带环境的丰富性和复杂性，以我们的优势，从而实现资源利用率和系统性能的显着改善。预期的结果将对无线行业的所有参与者以及受益于无线创新的国民经济的所有部门都有价值。这项跨学科的研究，自然有助推动跨学科教育，为未来的资讯科技人才提供全面的培训。建议的研究包括四个重点：（i）获取和分析实时频谱活动，以构建多层频谱快照，我们称之为SpecSnap，（ii）建立基本框架，以原则性方式在具有多RAT的异构环境下构造分布式和时间/能量高效的频谱分配算法，用于对基础设施的单跳接入和用于设备到设备（D2 D）通信的多跳接入，（iii）研究如何在多层频谱环境中实现快速会合，以及（iv）探索多层网络中的大量机会，以通过层内和层间拓扑设计进行有效的成对和广播通信。主要的挑战在于频谱占用的极端异质性和在宽范围的时空尺度上具有不同信道特性的不同频带上操作的设备的服务质量要求。建议的研究将通过理论分析，数值和网络模拟，原型实现，并在真实的测试beds.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

With the proliferation of wireless applications and devices, the demand for wireless data, and hence for wireless bandwidth, is growing exponentially. Unfortunately, these growing demands need to be met via the available radio spectrum, which is limited and therefore has to be efficiently shared among various wireless systems and devices. Effective spectrum sharing demands enhanced capability and increased intelligence at the wireless devices, capable of operating over multiple frequency bands through multiple radio access technologies (RATs); this is becoming a reality thanks to the continuous advances in the industrial sector. Therefore, the globally interconnected wireless networks are evolving into a large-scale system that simultaneously supports billions of user and trillions of devices and exhibits huge heterogeneity in all aspects. The goal of this proposal is to realize efficient spectrum and energy utilization in this huge, dynamic and heterogeneous system. In contrast to existing approaches, a new angle is taken in this project that exploits the richness and complexity of the multi-RAT, multi-band environments to our advantage, in a multi-layer fashion, so as to achieve dramatic improvement in resource utilization and system performance. The expected outcome will be valuable to all players in the wireless industry, as well as to all sectors of the national economy that benefit from wireless innovation. The inter-disciplinary nature of the proposed research will naturally help promote cross-disciplinary education and well-rounded training of the future information technology workforce.The proposed research is comprised of four thrusts: (i) acquisition and analytics of real-time spectrum activities to build multi-layer spectrum snapshots, which we call SpecSnap, (ii) building a fundamental framework to construct distributed and time/energy-efficient spectrum allocation algorithms under heterogeneous environments with multi-RAT in a principled manner, both for single-hop access to infrastructure and multihop access for device-to-device (D2D) communications, (iii) studying how to achieve fast rendezvous in multi-layer spectrum environments, and (iv) exploring abundant opportunities in multi-layer networks for efficient pairwise and broadcast communications via intra- and inter-layer topology design. The main challenge lies in the extreme heterogeneity of spectrum band occupancy and quality-of-service requirement of devices operating on diverse frequency bands with different channel characteristics over a wide range of spatio-temporal scales. The proposed research will be evaluated through theoretical analysis, numerical and network simulation, prototype implementation, and experimentation on real testbeds.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.