Excellence in Research: Research Capacity and Partnerships Building in Next-Generation Communication Ecosystems with Vertical Intelligence

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The evolution of next-generation wireless communications known as the sixth generation (6G) will enable not only super-fast and ultra-reliable communications services, but also new use cases and intelligence to benefit society and redefine how we live and work. In this project, a team of researchers and educators from two HBCUs, Prairie View A&M University and Texas Southern University, collaborating with the team of the University of Houston, propose a comprehensive plan to enhance research capacity in the next-generation communications ecosystem with vertical intelligence and to build strong partnership. The proposed project will leverage the research capabilities and existing collaborations among the three participating institutions, and greatly enhance the research capacity and educational excellence at all institutions. Partnerships with industry and government will engage HBCUs in future critical 6G and beyond infrastructure and maintain diversity in the workforce. The proposed research will explore theoretical advancement as well as experimental design. If successful, the proposed research will help accelerate the development and commercialization of promising technologies for 6G and ensure continued U.S. leadership in the telecommunications industry. The education goals include enabling broad participation of underrepresented minorities in cutting-edge research, building a pipeline to attract and retain them to pursue careers in STEM, and training future workforce in critical areas especially 6G for the nation.The proposed research will target integration of 6G terrestrial cellular networks with aerial access networks (AANs) with many satellites, high altitude platforms (HAPs), and unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) through integrated sensing, communications, and computing to gain vertical intelligence in the next-generation communications ecosystem. Three research thrusts are proposed: 1) Novel dynamic, stochastic and distributed optimization methods will be investigated for robust resource planning and allocation and mobility management; 2) A hierarchical sensing architecture will be designed to provide mutual benefits between communications and sensing; 3) Efficient privacy-preserving edge computing and computation offloading strategies will be studied to jointly optimize communications and computing. The proposed framework and strategies will not only optimize resource usage but also integrate sensing, communications, and computing seamlessly, while protecting user privacy and data security. The proposed methods will be validated through extensive simulations and experiments using USRPs and the NSF POWDER, COSMOS and AERPAW testbeds. This project will significantly enhance research, education, and outreach in all participating institutions and enable broad participation of underrepresented minorities in advanced research, and provide the much needed diversity of the next-generation workforce in 6G and beyond.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.