Collaborative Research: SII-NRDZ: SweepSpace: Enabling Autonomous Fine-Grained Spatial Spectrum Sensing and Sharing

本项目研究减轻无线电频率干扰的方法。研究小组将实施新的方法，这是必要的，因为传统的电磁（射频）频谱监测方法正在失去效力。无线通信的持续增长要求更有效地使用有限的可用频谱。为了更紧密地封装无线系统，发射机和接收机正在发展使用可以避开干扰的定向天线。定向传输意味着单个位置的传感器不再依赖于检测所有附近的传输，并且当传感器确实观察到传入信号时，它无法轻松预测其他设备或位置受到影响。SweepSpace试图克服这些限制，并提供新的空间和方向信息，从而能够安全地增加通信和感知能力，而不会增加频谱成本。该项目通过分析、实验室测试和有限的现场实验来评估新方法和SweepSpace原型。该项目将通过吸引研究生、本科生和高中生，包括来自代表性不足群体的学生，为无线通信和频谱科学的下一代劳动力提供培训。基于低成本软件定义无线电的SweepSpace传感器套件将用于研讨会，演示和教室。SweepSpace是一种广义频谱感知架构，旨在报告空间频率体积中的所有时空活动。完整的传输知识需要部署密集的传感器网络;它需要每个传感器检测到所有传入信号的频率范围很广;它需要每个传感器识别所有传入信号的方向。在宽带上快速扫描3D空间使具有单个中等带宽接收器的低成本传感器能够频繁地对宽范围内的每个通道进行采样，并通过扫描相控阵天线频繁地对所有入射方向进行采样。该团队将研究使用现成的组件来开发低成本的SweepSpace节点原型。他们将研究1）从空间，时间，频率和入射方向上稀疏的样本重建完整的时空活动图; 2）提高单个传感器的方向精度; 3）优化的位置和参数化;以及4）识别时空孔以安全插入新活动。他们还将研究单传感器问题，如最小可检测性界限，漏检和误报的风险，以及最佳调度策略，并将表征传感器网络的漏检概率。该项目包括风险缓解工具的开发，其他人可以使用这些工具为他们的用例定制SweepSpace。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project investigates methods to mitigate radio-frequency interference. The research team will implement new approaches, which are needed because traditional electromagnetic (radio-frequency) spectrum monitoring approaches are losing effectiveness. The continuing growth of wireless communications requires the limited available spectrum to be used ever more efficiently. To pack wireless systems more tightly, transmitters and receivers are evolving to use directional antennas that can steer away from interference. Directional transmissions mean a sensor at a single location can no longer rely on detecting all nearby transmissions, and when the sensor does observe an incoming signal, it cannot easily predict what other devices or locations are impacted. SweepSpace seeks to overcome these limitations and provide new spatial and directional information that enables safely increasing communications and sensing capacity without increasing spectrum cost. This project evaluates the new methods and the SweepSpace prototype through analysis, laboratory tests and limited field experiments. The project will provide training for the next-generation workforce for wireless communications and spectrum science by engaging graduate, undergraduate, and high-school students, including students from underrepresented groups. SweepSpace sensor kits, based on a low-cost software defined radio, will be created for use in workshops, demonstrations, and classrooms. SweepSpace is a generalized spectrum sensing architecture designed to report all spatio-temporal activity in a spatial-frequency volume. Complete knowledge of transmissions requires the deployment of a dense network of sensors; it requires each sensor to detect all incoming signals across a wide range of frequencies; and it requires each sensor to identify the direction of all incoming signals. Rapid sweeping across 3D space over a wide band enables a low-cost sensor with a single moderate-bandwidth receiver to frequently sample every channel in a wide range and to frequently sample all incident directions via a sweeping phased array antenna. The team will investigate the use of off-the-shelf components to develop a prototype low-cost SweepSpace node. They will investigate 1) reconstruction of a full spatio-temporal activity map from samples that are sparse across space, time, frequency, and incident direction; 2) enhancing the directional precision of individual sensors; 3) optimizing the placement and parameterization of the; and 4) identifying spatio-temporal holes for safe insertion of new activity. They will also investigate single-sensor questions, such as minimum detectability bounds, risk of missed detections and false positives, and optimal scheduling policies, and they will characterize the probability of missed detections by a network of sensors. The project includes development of risk mitigation tools that can be used by others to tailor SweepSpace for their use cases.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.