Communication networks with a simple physical topology and smart-city technologies

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***With the grand vision of connecting sensors, devices, infrastructure, and humans, the proposed research program will investigate a new paradigm of network protocols, which takes advantage of a simple physical topology of nodes. My trainees and I will study fundamental aspects of the new protocol paradigm and seek mathematical relations between the protocol design variables and performance metrics. The program will also seek how to best utilize the physically distributed processors for the case in which the nodes are each a combined unit of a sensor and a processor. The research results will provide a guide on how to configure protocol parameters to maximize energy efficiency and how to design network applications under a given constraint of limited communication capacity.******The proposed research is important because, in future applications, a very large number of devices, sensors, machines, vehicles, and buildings will be connected and networked through widely different kinds of channels. The proposed research will increase fundamental knowledge about these massive networks for future network designers. In particular, the idea of utilizing a special physical topology is anticipated to provide new insights in the field of wireless protocol design. Also, energy efficient network protocols and network control and planning methodologies will significantly contribute to reducing energy consumption of future systems. The research will create fundamental knowledge applicable for realizing the vision of smart cities and even broader smart infrastructure. In particular, network protocols that take advantage of linear physical arrangements of sensors will be applicable for monitoring and managing Canada's large-scale assets such as railroads and oil pipelines.