Collaborative Research: CNS Core: Small: Adaptive Smart Surfaces for Wireless Channel Morphing to Enable Full Multiplexing and Multi-user Gains

合作研究：CNS 核心：小型：用于无线信道变形的自适应智能表面，以实现完全复用和多用户增益

• 批准号: 2107613
• 负责人: Dinesh Bharadia
• 金额: $ 33万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2107613&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; CNS; Core; Small

The connectivity solutions need to scale up massively to support unprecedented exponential growth in data rates and the number of devices. The primary approach to meet the demands has been to upgrade the infrastructure, such as adding base stations with multiple antennas and/or upgrading clients. Unfortunately, these approaches have fallen short of their goal as in practice, the channels between users and base stations have limited scattering or richness to enable spatial multiplexing, and users are not sufficiently separated in the spatial domain. This proposal will shape the channel to unlock the full potential of wireless networks without requiring updating the base station or user device at a low cost in terms of power and expense. The proposed research aims to adaptively modify and morph the wireless medium using smart passive reflector surfaces to materialize the spatial multiplexing gains. The underlying idea is to use smart reflectors to create additional channel diversity to manipulate the received signal before reflecting it to minimize interference at the receivers. The research brings together PIs and techniques from communications theory, networked system design, and antenna design to build scalable and low-cost wireless networks. The project also proposes a synergistic educational and outreach plan that leverages the technical work to build exciting demos for undergraduate and K-12 classrooms. For example, a smart surface-based demo, which increases the data rate and coverage of current Wi-Fi devices, will introduce students to the wonders of engineering in a pragmatic yet compelling way, with the hope of increasing diversity in STEM-related education environments.The proposal would develop smart surface designs capable of morphing the channel, and develop the hardware prototype and algorithms to provide coverage and multiplexing gains to support massive numbers of users and the exponential increase in data rates. The designed smart surface with fine-grained control would allow us to morph the wireless channel or environment to increase the diversity and multiplexing gains as deemed necessary during optimization. We further establish smart surface placement theory and algorithms and quantify the performance-size trade-offs. We develop low-overhead channel estimation and low-latency optimization algorithms for the base station to support temporal channel changes and improve the data rate and connectivity. The proposed effort would develop the theory and algorithms for multi-user setups to ensure scalability with smart surfaces. The proposed work would enable the first low-cost, practical smart surface and algorithms supporting high-mobility users with significant data-rate improvements.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.

连接解决方案需要大规模扩展，以支持数据速率和设备数量的前所未有的指数增长。满足需求的主要方法是升级基础设施，例如添加具有多个天线的基站和/或升级客户端。不幸的是，这些方法没有达到它们的目标，因为在实践中，用户和基站之间的信道具有有限的散射或丰富度以实现空间复用，并且用户在空间域中没有充分分离。该提案将塑造信道，以释放无线网络的全部潜力，而不需要在功率和费用方面以低成本更新基站或用户设备。建议的研究旨在自适应修改和变形的无线介质，使用智能无源反射器表面，实现空间复用增益。其基本思想是使用智能反射器来创建额外的信道分集，以在反射接收信号之前对其进行处理，从而最大限度地减少接收器处的干扰。该研究汇集了通信理论，网络系统设计和天线设计的PI和技术，以构建可扩展和低成本的无线网络。该项目还提出了一个协同教育和推广计划，利用技术工作为本科生和K-12教室建立令人兴奋的演示。例如，一个基于智能表面的演示，它增加了当前Wi-Fi设备的数据速率和覆盖范围，将以一种务实而引人注目的方式向学生介绍工程学的奇迹，希望增加STEM相关教育环境的多样性。该提案将开发能够变形通道的智能表面设计，并开发硬件原型和算法，以提供覆盖和复用增益，从而支持大量用户和数据速率的指数增长。设计的具有细粒度控制的智能表面将允许我们改变无线信道或环境，以在优化期间根据需要增加多样性和多路复用增益。我们进一步建立了智能表面布局理论和算法，并量化了性能和尺寸的权衡。我们为基站开发了低开销的信道估计和低延迟优化算法，以支持时间信道变化并提高数据速率和连接性。拟议的工作将开发多用户设置的理论和算法，以确保智能表面的可扩展性。这项工作将使第一个低成本，实用的智能表面和算法，支持高移动性用户的显着数据速率的改进。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。