NeTS: Small: Protection and Restoration in Wireless Mesh Networks

该项目开发了通过无线网状网络进行可靠通信的机制，无线网状网络最近已成为提供最后一英里互联网接入的有前途的解决方案。这种网络在互联网的边缘运行，由无线路由器组成，提供用户可以访问互联网的主干。虽然有线网络是高度可靠的，但无线网络由于干扰、障碍、堵塞和移动性而非常不可靠。该项目的目标是在这一具有挑战性的环境中建立可靠的通信机制。特别是，该项目采用了一些已成功用于在有线网络中提供无线环境的可靠性的技术。本研究的一个重要方面是设计与无线传输介质紧密结合的保护和恢复机制，并考虑干扰的影响。这些机制包括沿着预先规划的备份路径的保护、沿沿着多条路径的分集路由以及用于提供可靠性保证的备用容量分配。 随机网络控制的方法将用于开发自主恢复算法，鲁棒优化领域的技术将用于设计可靠的网络架构。 该项目开发了使无线网络可靠的机制，从而与有线互联网紧密集成。 这种机制将有助于增加世界各地缺乏通信基础设施的地方的因特网接入。结果将通过在会议、期刊和网络上发表广泛传播。更广泛的影响包括培训研究生和本科生以及向工业和政府实验室转让技术。

The project develops mechanisms for reliable communications over wireless mesh networks, which have recently emerged as a promising solution for providing last-mile Internet access. Such networks operate at the edge of the Internet and consist of wireless routers that provide a backbone over which users can access the Internet. While wired networks are highly dependable, wireless networks are notoriously unreliable due to interference, obstructions, jamming, and mobility. The goal of this project is to develop mechanisms for reliable communications in this challenging environment. In particular, the project adapts some of the techniques that have been successfully used to provide reliability in wired networks to the wireless environment. An important aspect of this research is the design of protection and restoration mechanisms that are tightly integrated with the wireless transmission medium, and take into account interference affects. These mechanisms include protection along preplanned backup paths, diversity routing along multiple paths, and spare capacity allocation for providing reliability guarantees. Methods from stochastic network control will be used to develop autonomous restoration algorithms, and techniques from the field of robust optimization will be used to design reliable network architectures. This project develops mechanisms for making wireless networks reliable, and thus, tightly integrated with the wired Internet. Such mechanisms will help increase Internet access to locations worldwide lacking in communication infrastructure. The results will be widely disseminated through publication in conferences, journals and the web. The broader impacts include training of graduate and undergraduate students and technology transfer to industry and government laboratories.