Physical Layer Design for Improving Throughput and Security in Wireless Networks

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The growth in Internet traffic has triggered many new research challenges. Wireless, as a dominant access technology, is vital to address these challenges. The number of users sharing the wireless spectrum is continually increasing, while users require higher data rates to benefit from new services. In addition to the escalating growth in conventional Internet access, a new connectivity paradigm is emerging in the so-called 'Internet of Things' (IoT), requiring wireless connections among a huge number of distributed nodes. The bottleneck in wireless connectivity is the spectrum, a scarce natural resource that in addition to its rising price, there is simply not enough of it available. As an example at national level, in January 2014, an auction for 68 MHz of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum (formerly used for terrestrial broadcasting, also known as white spaces) was held in Canada. Eight Canadian companies won the auction, with total value of $5.27bn. It is clear that fine-tuning of traditional techniques will not be sufficient to cope with future needs. This means breakthroughs are needed to fundamentally change this landscape. Full-duplex wireless, pioneered by the applicant's team among others, is widely believed to serve as an engine for such disruptive innovations. The proposed research will address this research problem focusing on exploiting features of full-duplex transmission to design an in-band relay, realize distributed/collaborative networking, provide new directions in cognitive wireless transmission, improve jamming and anti-jamming in defence applications, and enhance point-to-point throughput and reliability. Another innovative technique, media-based modulation', again pioneered by the applicant's team, will be used to unfold a number of unexplored paths for improving spectral efficiency. On the other hand, security is a vital component in the widespread adoption of various data services. According to the Breach Level Index, almost 15 billion data records have been exposed since 2013, when the index began benchmarking publicly disclosed data breaches. This is particularly concerning, since only 4 percent of the compromised records were protected by any form of encryption. To make the matters worse, quantum computers are emerging, expected to offer unprecedented computing capabilities. Greta Bossenmaier, National Security and Intelligence adviser to the Prime Minster of Canada, has predicted quantum computing will cripple encryption methods by 2026. This is particularly concerning in wireless networks, as, due to the broadcast nature of wireless, any transmitted data may be recorded by eavesdroppers to be deciphered in the future. This proposal explores methods to benefit from probabilistic behaviors of the relevant transmission medium to generate and distribute unconditionally secure (quantum safe) encryption keys.