NeTS: Medium: Collaborative Research: Cooperative Beamforming for Efficient and Secure Wireless Communication

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(Public Law 111-5)提供资金的。“人们对无线网络的需求日益增长，这些网络能够维持高数据速率，对干扰很强，有效利用电池资源，并提供安全通信。该项目引入了协作波束形成(CB)，这是一种新技术，能够以安全的方式实现高吞吐量和高功率效率的通信。CB由两个阶段组成。在第一阶段，信源通过低功率通信与相邻节点共享数据。考虑了用于这种信息共享的各种方法，其目标是最小化排队延迟、节约能量和实现高吞吐量。在第二阶段，协作节点对在第一阶段期间接收到的信号施加权重，并发送。权重是这样的，使得特定的客观标准(例如，在目的地的信号干扰比)最大化。在CB中，虽然每个节点都使用低功率，但所有节点一起可以向遥远的目的地提供高功率。功率的增加抵消了由于传播衰减而导致的功率降低。CB可以被视为多跳传输的替代方案，并且与多跳传输不同，它不会耗尽其他节点的功率资源。由于CB可以实现远距离通信，因此可以找到新的路径来提高网络的整体性能。此外，CB通过避免窃听来提高网络安全性；与在较高层运行且对传输介质的广播性质敏感的传统基于密码的协议不同，CB提高了物理层的安全性。CB将在硬件网络试验台上实施，以演示所开发的技术如何为无线通信带来革命性的变化。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."There is a growing need for wireless networks that can sustain high data rates, are robust to interference, make efficient use of battery resources, and offer secure communications. This project introduces cooperative beamforming (CB), a novel technique that enables high throughput and power efficient communications in a secure manner. CB consists of two stages. In the first stage, the sources share their data with neighboring nodes via low-power communications. Various approaches for such information sharing are considered, with a goal to minimize queuing delays, conserve energy, and achieve high throughput. In the second stage, the cooperative nodes apply a weight to the signal received during first stage, and transmit. The weights are such that a specific objective criterion (e.g., signal to interference at the destination) is maximized. In CB, although each node uses low power, all nodes together can deliver high power to a faraway destination. This increase in power offsets power reduction due to propagation attenuation. CB can be viewed as an alternative to multihop transmission and, unlike multihop transmission, does not deplete the power resources of other nodes. Since CB can achieve long distance communication, new paths can be found to improve the overall network performance. Also, CB improves network security by avoiding eavesdroppers; unlike traditional cryptographic-based protocols that operate at higher layers and are sensitive to the broadcast nature of the transmission medium, CB improves security at the physical layer. CB will be implemented on a hardware network testbed to demonstrate how the developed techniques can revolutionize wireless communications.