Physical Layer Design for Improving Throughput and Security in Wireless Networks

互联网流量的增长引发了许多新的研究挑战。无线作为一种占主导地位的接入技术，对于应对这些挑战至关重要。共享无线频谱的用户数量不断增加，而用户需要更高的数据速率才能从新服务中受益。除了传统互联网接入的不断增长外，在所谓的物联网(IoT)中正在出现一种新的连接范式，需要在大量分布式节点之间进行无线连接。无线连接的瓶颈是频谱，这是一种稀缺的自然资源，除了价格上涨外，根本就没有足够的频谱可用。例如，在国家一级，2014年1月，在加拿大举行了一次68兆赫超高频(UHF)频谱(以前用于地面广播，也称为空白区域)的拍卖。8家加拿大公司赢得了拍卖，总价值为52.7亿美元。显然，对传统技术的微调将不足以应付未来的需要。这意味着需要取得突破才能从根本上改变这一格局。由申请者团队等人首创的全双工无线被广泛认为是这种颠覆性创新的引擎。本研究将致力于利用全双工传输的特点设计带内中继，实现分布式/协作组网，为认知无线传输提供新的方向，改善国防应用中的干扰和抗干扰性，提高点对点吞吐量和可靠性。另一种创新技术--“基于媒体的调制”，也是由申请人的团队开创的，将被用来揭示一些未探索的提高频谱效率的途径。另一方面，安全是广泛采用各种数据服务的重要组成部分。根据泄密级别指数，自2013年该指数开始对公开披露的数据泄露事件进行基准测试以来，已有近150亿条数据记录被曝光。这尤其令人担忧，因为只有4%的被泄露记录受到任何形式的加密保护。更糟糕的是，量子计算机正在出现，预计将提供前所未有的计算能力。加拿大总理的国家安全和情报顾问Greta Bossenmaier预测，到2026年，量子计算将削弱加密方法。这在无线网络中尤其令人担忧，因为由于无线的广播性质，任何传输的数据都可能被窃听者记录下来以供将来解密。该建议探索了利用相关传输介质的概率行为来生成和分发无条件安全(量子安全)加密密钥的方法。

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.