NeTS:Small:Collaborative Research: An Integrated Environment-Independent Approach to Topology Control in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。无线自组织网络中的每个节点可以选择其进行传输的功率，从而控制网络的拓扑。虽然在研究文献中对拓扑控制问题进行了很好的研究，但在很大程度上，拓扑控制问题只在理想的无线环境中被考虑，并且孤立地作为图论抽象而被考虑。本项目致力于在实际无线环境中，在多径衰落、链路故障、高误码率和许多其他无线电不规则性存在的情况下，为降低能量消耗、减少干扰和提高容量而设计拓扑控制算法。该方法遵循两个关键的哲学目标：(I)与环境无关的方法，其不对无线环境做出约束性假设(而不是试图在假设中实现与现实的近似)；以及(Ii)一种集成方法，其不仅抽象出与路由和链路调度分离的拓扑控制问题，而且在一开始就将这些纳入设计中。这项研究还探索了与环境无关的拓扑控制的基本限制。该项目的直接影响是新的算法策略，它加快了节能高性能无线自组织网络的实际部署，使许多已知应用受益。更广泛的影响是新的通用分布式算法，可以在无线自组织网络之外的环境中使用，各种教育活动，包括课程增强和参与NSF RET计划，为高中教师。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Each node in a wireless ad hoc network can choose the power at which it makes its transmissions and thus control the topology of the network. Though well-studied in the research literature, the problem of topology control has been largely considered only in idealized wireless environments and in isolation as a graph-theoretic abstraction. This project focuses on the design of topology control algorithms for reduced energy consumption, reduced interference and higher capacity in real wireless environments in the presence of multipath fading, link failures, high error rates and many other radio irregularities. The methodology follows two key philosophical goals: (i) an environment-independent approach which makes no constraining assumptions about the wireless environment (as opposed to trying to achieve approximations of reality in the assumptions), and (ii) an integrated approach which does not merely abstract out the problem of topology control separated from routing and link scheduling but embraces these into the design at the outset. This research also explores the fundamental limits of environment-independent topology control. An immediate impact of this project is new algorithmic strategies that speeds up the actual deployment of energy-efficient high-performance wireless ad hoc networks with benefits to many known applications. A yet broader impact is new generalized distributed algorithms that can be employed in contexts beyond wireless ad hoc networks a variety of educational activities including course enhancements and participation in NSF RET programs for high-school teachers.