Cooperative Wireless Networking

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With the rapid proliferation and penetration of various wireless networking technologies, future mobile terminals will be equipped with multiple radio interfaces for network access, e.g., popular smart phones already have built-in Wi-Fi interface in addition to regular cellular radio. Therefore, heterogeneous wireless networks should cooperate with each other to deliver broadband services seamlessly in an anywhere, anytime, and anyhow fashion. Wireless cooperative networking will enhance multimedia service experiences of mobile users, improve resource utilization of all the networks, and reduce network energy consumption for green communications. In this research program, we will investigate efficient cooperation strategies by proposing a cross-layer cooperative networking solution for heterogeneous wireless networks. In specific, we will focus on four fundamental issues: 1) medium access control, which specifies how each user contends for and share available resources with its neighbouring users; 2) cooperative resource allocation and multi-path routing, which design policies and protocols that will enable multimode devices to seamlessly roaming among different networks; 3) cooperative multi-radio and multi-homed transport layer protocol design to ensure end-to-end information delivery over multi-path routing; and 4) information security support, which enables the reliable and secure operations of cooperative wireless networks. We will address significant technical challenges due to network heterogeneity, mixed user population, multihop end-to-end transmission, and dynamic network attachment. We will develop theoretical tools to guide the development of wireless cooperative networking and effective incentive mechanisms for cooperation. This cutting-edge research program is expected to generate new knowledge and create new ideas and approaches on how to effectively and efficiently provide ubiquitous, reliable, efficient, and secure multimedia services and applications to mobile users among heterogeneous wireless networks. The research outcomes will also be disseminated through publications in archival journals, premier conference proceedings, and invention disclosures and patents.