CRII: CNS: Towards Spectrum and Energy Efficient Large-scale IoT Communications: A Cross-layer Optimization Approach

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公共法律117-2)。尽管5G极大地提高了网络容量和频谱效率(SE)，但物联网(IoT)的爆炸性增长需要更多的频谱和能源资源来支持高设备密度和海量流量。据估计，仅eHealth Care IoT如果只访问频谱，则至少需要5.2 GHz的带宽，或者即使使用动态共享策略也需要1.3 GHz的带宽。显然，频谱资源短缺是物联网普及成功的一大瓶颈。另一方面，当前的物联网设备使用蓝牙、LORA、Sigfox、窄带物联网(NB-IoT)或Zigbee等标准，这些标准需要振荡器和转换器等耗电的有源射频组件。电池驱动的物联网设备即使使用不频繁的传输和优化的低功耗协议，也很难维持多年的生命周期目标。因此，可持续能源消费是另一个挑战。到2030年，随着数百亿物联网渴望连接，迫切需要同时应对SE和能效(EE)挑战，以适应这种密集的物联网网络。本研究旨在提高SE和EE的性能，同时为大规模物联网提供有保证的服务质量(Qos)，从而为海量物联网时代提供可行和实用的连接解决方案。该项目的成果可以带来以下影响：1)物联网混合和合作的通信架构师，结合了主动和被动模式的好处；2)研究和课程设计的整合，为本科生和研究生提供顶尖项目；3)为主要的本科生机构(PUI)提供尖端研究经验。核心方法是使物联网设备具有无线供电的混合通信结构，该结构不仅可以通过从环境信号中收集能量来最大限度地减少能量占用，还可以通过用户合作将协调的被动和主动通信集成在一起，以支持多样化的Qos需求和高效的频谱利用。该项目提供了一个整体解决方案，以实现以下创新。1)提出了一种新的物理层传输架构师。它结合了一个受生物启发的共生无线电来协调过度干扰。从物理层资源分配的角度介绍了SE和EE指标的优化问题。2)共同设计了MAC层协议，以确保适当的用户和资源协调。将引入两个协议，一个用于实现最高性能，另一个用于降低复杂性。3)通过软件和硬件实施进行系统验证。广泛的实验验证旨在系统地验证所建议的方案和算法的性能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Although 5G has dramatically improved network capacity and spectrum efficiency (SE), the explosive growth of Internet of Things (IoT) demands for more spectrum and energy resources to support high device density and massive traffics. It is estimated that at least 5.2 GHz bandwidth is required for just eHealth Care IoT if spectrum is accessed exclusively, or 1.3 GHz even with dynamic sharing strategy. It is clear that shortage of spectrum resources is a major bottleneck for the success of IoT popularity. On the other hand, current IoT devices use standards such as Bluetooth, LoRA, Sigfox, narrow-band IoT (NB-IoT), or Zigbee, which require power-hungry active radio frequency components like oscillators and converters. Battery-driven IoT devices can hardly sustain years of life-cycle goal even with infrequent transmission and optimized low-power protocols. Thus, sustainable energy consumption is another challenge. With tens of billions of IoTs desire for connectivity by 2030, there is a pressing need to address both SE and energy efficiency (EE) challenges to accommodate for such densified IoT networks. This research seeks to improve SE and EE performance while providing guaranteed quality of service (QoS) for IoTs at large-scale, thereby providing a feasible and practical connectivity solution in massive IoT era. Outcomes from this project can bring following impacts: 1) a hybrid and cooperative communication architect for IoTs, which combines benefits from both active and passive mode; 2) integration of research and curriculum design, capstone projects to both undergraduate and graduate students; 3) cutting-edge research experiences to a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI). The core approach is to enable IoT device with a wireless-powered hybrid communication structure that can not only minimize energy footprint with energy harvesting from ambient signals, but also integrate coordinated passive and active communication to support versatile QoS needs with efficient spectrum utilization through user cooperation. This project offers a holistic solution to deliver following innovations. 1) A novel PHY transmission architect. It combines a bio-inspired symbiotic radio to coordinate excessive interference. Optimization problems for SE and EE metrics are introduced from PHY resource allocation perspective. 2) The co-designed MAC layer protocol to ensure proper user and resource coordination. Two protocols will be introduced, one for maximum performance and the other for lower complexity. 3) System validation with software and hardware implementations. Extensive experimental verification is designed to systematically validate the performance of proposed schemes and algorithms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.