Space-air-ground integrated networks for ubiquitous connectivity and mobile computing experience

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Tremendous success in the development of wireless communications and mobile computing technologies has been achieved in the last few years. Notable examples include the rollout and deployment of 5G wireless cellular networks, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications, dense low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and cloud/edge computing technologies in many countries around the world. However, existing wireless networks are still far from delivering truly ubiquitous and immersive connectivity and computing experience across the entire planet and efficiently supporting many emerging civilian and military applications and use cases such as wireless virtual/augmented reality, holographic communications/telepresence, and real-time multi-sensory communications. Development of enabling technologies for effective resource management, operation, and coordination of different network segments of the space-air-ground integrated network (SAGIN) to address these challenges has therefore received great interests from academia and industry. This is also the focus of this research program. The long-term objective of this research program is to develop enabling technologies for the SAGIN that provide ubiquitous wireless connectivity and mobile computing experience. Toward this end, the research program will address the following short-term research objectives: 1) UAV placement/trajectory control and resource management for UAV-assisted networks with wireless backhauls; 2) Advanced radio resource allocation and network control for the terrestrial-aerial network segments leveraging multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communications, and intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS) technologies; 3) Resource management and routing for efficient coordination of the terrestrial, aerial, and spatial network segments of the SAGIN; and 4) Resource allocation, computation offloading, and network management for the SAGIN. This research program will contribute to shape the future broadband and ubiquitous communication and mobile computing eco-system to efficiently enable and support both civilian and military application/service sectors. Therefore, it will have significant contributions and impacts in both technical and economic viewpoints and it will help maintain the leadership of Canada in the international landscape and contribute to advance Canadian security. In particular, the research conducted in this research program will lead to innovative wireless, satellite communications, and computing technologies to realize many emerging applications and provide ubiquitous communications and computing services. In addition, the proposed research will enable to train Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) in the well-sought and critical technology domains.