ERI: Pushing the Limits of WiFi Technology for Non-Mission-Critical and Mission-Critical Applications

尽管WiFi（又名，802.11）设备，住宅和校园环境中使用的资源受限的物联网（IoT）设备难以满足必要的能效和通信延迟要求，以满足应用需求。此外，尽管WiFi提供的高数据速率可以满足工业自动化等关键任务应用的通信速率要求，但WiFi堆栈的复杂性和不可预测性使得新应用开发成为一项不切实际的任务。拟议的研究调查和开发新的方法，算法和软件框架，以促进新的基于WiFi的应用程序和服务的发展。这项研究针对两大类应用程序：（i）非关键任务系统，其中常规用户设备（例如，智能手机、笔记本电脑）和IoT设备（例如，摄像机、恒温器、烟雾探测器）共存，以及（ii）其中设备和控制器之间的确定性端到端延迟的关键任务系统（即，控制回路）必须强制执行。为了促进创新领域的WiFi通信和调查这些网络的运作，本研究提出了一个软件框架，可扩展和可编程的监控theWiFi堆栈。此外，一个参考的测试平台设计和流量表征和生成方法的开发，以建立测试平台，代表现实世界的部署方案。对于非关键任务系统，将开发新方法，以提高物联网设备在动态交通模式环境中的能效和通信及时性。具体而言，本研究引入数据包传输延迟预测作为开发用于改善设备的通信延迟和能量效率的方法的新方法。第三，对于工业自动化等关键任务应用，本研究将开发一个框架，该框架集成了WiFi堆栈的用户空间实现，并提供编程原语以促进确定性通信调度算法的开发。使用该框架，将开发调度算法，以在动态环境中强制执行端到端通信延迟保证。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持。审查标准。

Despite the ease of deployment and prevalence of WiFi (a.k.a., 802.11) devices, the resource-constraint Internet of Things (IoT) devices used in residential and campus environments struggle to meet the necessary energy efficiency and communication delay requirements to address applications’ demands. In addition, although the high data rates offered by WiFi can satisfy the communication rate requirements of mission-critical applications such as industrial automation, the complexity and unpredictability of the WiFi stack make new applications development an impractical undertaking. The proposed research investigates and develops new methodologies, algorithms, and software frameworks to facilitate the development of new classes of WiFi-based applications and services.This research targets two broad classes of applications: (i) non-mission-critical systems where regular user devices (e.g., smartphones, laptops) and IoT devices (e.g., cameras, thermostats, smoke detectors) coexist, and (ii) mission-critical systems where deterministic end-to-end delaysbetween devices and controllers (i.e., control loop) must be enforced. Towards facilitating innovation in the realm of WiFi communication and investigating the operation of these networks, this research proposes a software framework for scalable and programmable monitoring of theWiFi stack. In addition, a reference testbed design and traffic characterization and generation methods are developed to build testbeds that represent real-world deployment scenarios. For non-mission-critical systems, new methods will be developed to enhance IoT devices' energyefficiency and communication timeliness in environments exhibiting dynamic traffic patterns. Specifically, this research introduces packet delivery delay prediction as a novel approach to develop methods for improving devices' communication delay and energy efficiency. Third, for mission-critical applications such as industrial automation, this research will develop a framework that integrates a user-space implementation of WiFi stack and provides programming primitives to facilitate the development of deterministic communication scheduling algorithms. Using this framework, scheduling algorithms will be developed to enforce end-to-end communication delay guarantees in dynamic environments.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.