Cooperative and self-organizing wireless networks for machine-to-machine communications

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The growth of the Internet will accelerate in the following decades thanks to the demand of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. Wireless networking technologies are a key enabler for future M2M networks. There are still several critical challenges of the growth of M2M wireless networks, including the scalability, reliability, complexity and efficiency concerns given the ever-increasing demand, limited wireless resources, limited energy and computing power of wireless devices, and unsustainable energy costs. ******To tackle these challenges, the proposed research is aiming to exploit new cooperative networking opportunities both horizontally and vertically, and develop scalable, flexible, reliable, efficient, and robust network solutions with self-organizing network (SON) functionalities for large-scale, high-density M2M wireless networks. With SON functionalities, wireless devices can automatically recognize the network environment, exchange information with other devices, adjust and optimize their protocol configurations and parameters to ensure coverage, service quality, and energy and spectrum efficiency in a cooperative fashion. Horizontal cooperation is among multiple communicating peers and vertical cooperation refers to a cross-layer approach to designing and optimizing reconfigurable protocols in various layers of the network protocol stack. The SON architecture facilitates advanced cooperative networking solutions, and the combination of them will lead to a new paradigm of how future wireless networks will be built, managed and used. ******Specifically, we will investigate and develop new solutions in (a) cooperative and topology-aware modulation and physical-layer network coding supporting self-optimization, (b) cooperative and adaptive topology control and routing supporting self-organization, and (c) reconfigurable medium access control (MAC) for high-density, cooperative M2M networks. During the research, in addition to the widely-employed queueing theory and stochastic optimization tools, we will leverage and further develop analytical tools in stochastic geometry, percolation theory, modern control and optimization. Experiments will be conducted using a combination of simulation, emulation, and prototyping testbeds to validate the analysis and investigate the feasibility and performance of the proposed solutions.******The proposed multi-disciplinary research will provide a rich environment for the students and researchers involved to learn and further create new knowledge and networking research tools that will be useful by other researchers and engineers. The proposed cooperative and self-organizing networking solutions will contribute to the success of future machine-to-machine networks that can underpin many new services and applications, and thus improve the competitive edge of the Canadian economy.**