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

在连接传感器、设备、基础设施和人类的宏伟愿景下，拟议的研究计划将研究一种新的网络协议范例，它利用节点的简单物理拓扑。我和我的学员将学习新协议范例的基本方面，并寻求协议设计变量和性能指标之间的数学关系。该程序还将寻求如何在每个节点都是传感器和处理器的组合单元的情况下最好地利用物理分布的处理器。研究结果将为如何配置协议参数以最大化能量效率以及如何在有限通信容量的给定约束下设计网络应用程序提供指导。 这项拟议的研究非常重要，因为在未来的应用中，大量的设备、传感器、机器、车辆和建筑物将通过广泛不同的渠道进行连接和联网。拟议的研究将为未来的网络设计人员增加关于这些大规模网络的基础知识。特别是，利用特殊物理拓扑的想法有望在无线协议设计领域提供新的见解。此外，高能效网络协议以及网络控制和规划方法将大大有助于降低未来系统的能源消耗。这项研究将创造适用于实现智慧城市乃至更广泛的智能基础设施愿景的基础知识。特别是，利用传感器的线性物理布置的网络协议将适用于监测和管理加拿大的大型资产，如铁路和石油管道。

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.