Compute-and-Forward for Next Generation Wireless Networks

智能手机、笔记本电脑和其他移动的设备的普及从根本上改变了我们社会的各个部门，包括卫生、教育和公共服务。与此同时，它创造了无线数据流量的前所未有的增长。为了跟上无线数据使用的大规模增长，已经提出了几种下一代无线网络架构（例如5G），吸引了政府和电信行业的大量投资。 这些新架构中的许多都具有一个共同的功能：小型基站的密集部署。这些小站，通常称为小小区，具有许多优点。他们将有限的频谱资源瞄准需求高的地方（例如城市热点）和需要覆盖的地方（例如偏远村庄）。它们允许非常低的发射功率，从而降低能耗并延长电池寿命。尽管有这些明显的优势，但由于其密集部署，小型小区容易受到来自附近小区的干扰。为了释放小型小区的全部潜力，需要高效的干扰管理。 拟议的研究计划旨在从一个新的角度来解决这个具有挑战性的问题，利用计算和转发（C&F），在信息理论的最新突破。C&F代表了处理干扰的范式转变。C&F不是避免干扰或将其视为噪声，而是利用干扰，使无线设备能够直接从干扰信号计算发送数据包的线性函数。这样，干扰就不再是敌人，而是朋友。可以实现比传统上认为可能的更好的性能。 尽管C&F具有巨大的潜力，但其理论发展与实际应用之间存在着严重的差距。大多数先前的工作都集中在信息论分析上，而没有考虑无线网络的重要实际限制，例如信道变化、小小区之间的有限合作以及数据流量的突发性。本研究的目的是弥合理论与实践之间的差距，使C&F的下一代无线网络的使能技术。研究方法将包括（i）开发新的理论模型，以纳入重要的实际约束，（ii）设计新的通信算法和网络协议，以及（iii）在无线测试平台上实现这些新的算法和协议。该研究计划不仅将推动C&F领域的发展，还将培养一批专门从事信息理论和无线网络的工程师，他们有能力在对加拿大至关重要的领域进行创新。

The proliferation of smartphones, laptops and other mobile devices has fundamentally transformed our society in diverse sectors, including health, education, and public services. At the same time, it has created an unprecedented increase in wireless data traffic. To keep up with the massive growth of wireless data usage, several next-generation wireless network architectures (such as 5G) have been proposed, attracting a significant amount of investment from governments and telecommunications industries. Many of these new architectures share a common feature: a dense deployment of small base stations. These small stations, often called small cells, have many advantages. They target limited spectrum resources to where the demand is high (such as an urban hotspot) and where coverage is needed (such as a remote village). They allow for very low transmit powers, resulting in lower energy consumption and longer battery life. Despite these distinct advantages, small cells are susceptible to interference from nearby cells due to their dense deployment. In order to unlock the full potential of small cells, highly effective interference management is needed. The proposed research program aims to tackle this challenging problem from a new angle by leveraging compute-and-forward (C&F), a recent breakthrough in information theory. C&F represents a paradigm shift in handling interference. Rather than avoiding interference or treating it as noise, C&F harnesses interference, enabling wireless devices to compute linear functions of transmitted packets directly from the interfering signals. In this way, interference is no longer a foe, but a friend. Significantly better performance can be achieved than traditionally thought possible. Despite the great potential of C&F, there is a critical gap between its theoretical development and its real-world use. Most prior work focuses on information-theoretic analysis without consideration of the important practical constraints of wireless networks, such as channel variations, limited cooperation among small cells, and the bursty nature of data traffic. The objective of this proposed research is to bridge the gap between theory and practice, making C&F an enabling technique for next-generation wireless networks. The research methodology will consist of (i) developing new theoretical models to incorporate important practical constraints, (ii) designing novel communications algorithms and network protocols, and (iii) implementing these new algorithms and protocols on a wireless testbed. The research program will not only advance the field of C&F, but also train a group of engineers who are specialized in information theory and wireless networking, having the ability to innovate in an area of crucial importance to Canada.