NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Transparent Cross-technology Communication in Wireless Networks

无线技术在过去十年中的成功扩散是由多种不同的技术(例如WiFi、蓝牙和ZigBee)带动的，以适应包括系统可靠性、及时性和能源使用在内的不同应用要求。然而，无线设备及其非合作行为导致了对稀缺无线频谱的严重低效利用。该项目采用一种名为跨技术通信(CTC)的全新方法开发了一个协作框架，可在不同的无线技术(例如蓝牙和WiFi)之间实现消息交换。该项目旨在实现两个目标：(I)解决资源利用不足的问题，以显著降低网络运营成本；(Ii)通过具有不同能力的不同实体之间的合作，实现独特和先进的网络功能。该项目的影响将通过以下方式进一步放大：1)通过与主要行业参与者的合作，将技术嵌入到大规模的现成系统中；2)通过改进课程项目来改进课程开发；3)通过备受瞩目的教程和开源网站传播研究成果；4)通过开放参观等外联活动，提高K-12学生和代表性不足的少数群体对技术的兴趣；以及5)支持有才华的女性和少数族裔博士生。该项目不同于文献中通常采用隐式频谱共享方法的广泛研究，而是独特地提出了一种通过启用CTC的显式方法。它使跨技术协作能够带来高级服务，从本质上探索共存的光明面。为了实现这一目标，该项目包括对CTC进行深入的系统研究，提出跨多个领域的新颖设计，包括：1)广泛的经验测量和模拟研究，以揭示CTC能力的实际和理论极限；2)探索CTC设计空间，以实现吞吐量、服务质量和兼容性方面的收益；3)通过CTC建立可扩展和可靠的异质网络；以及4)从跨技术通道协调、时间同步、本地化和能源管理之间的协作中受益于CTC支持的服务。

Successful proliferation of wireless technologies in the past decade was led by multiple and heterogeneous technologies (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee) to accommodate diverse application requirements including system reliability, timeliness, and energy usage. However, wireless devices and their non-cooperative behavior lead to critically inefficient utilization of scarce wireless spectrum. This project develops a collaboration framework taking a clean-slate approach called Cross-technology Communication (CTC) - enabling message exchange between heterogeneous wireless technologies (e.g., Bluetooth and WiFi). The project aims to achieve two goals: (i) address resource under-utilization to bring significant cost reduction in network operation, and (ii) enable unique and advanced network functions via collaboration among heterogeneous entities with different capabilities. The impacts of this project will be further amplified by 1) embedding the technology on massive off-the-shelf systems via collaborations with major industry players; 2) improving curriculum development with enhanced course projects; 3) disseminating research results through high-profile tutorials and open-source sites; 4) raising interest in technology among K-12 students and under-represented minority groups through outreach activities including open houses; and 5) supporting talented female and minority PhD students. The project departs from the extensive studies in literature that commonly take implicit spectrum sharing approaches, to uniquely propose an explicit approach by enabling CTC. It enables cross-technology collaboration to bring advanced services, essentially exploring the bright side of coexistence. To achieve the goal, the project includes in-depth systematic study on CTC, contributing novel designs across multiple domains including: 1) extensive studies on empirical measurement and simulation to reveal the practical and theoretical limits of CTC capacity; 2) exploration of CTC design space to achieve gains in throughput, Quality of Service, and compatibility; 3) building scalable and reliable heterogeneous networks via CTC; and 4) CTC-enabled services benefiting from collaboration between cross-technology channel coordination, time synchronization, localization, and energy management.