IUCRC Planning Grant Virginia Tech: Center for Wireless Innovation towards Secure, Pervasive, Efficient and Resilient Next G Networks (WISPER)

拟议中的无线创新中心面向安全、普及、高效和弹性的下一代网络（WISPER），将协调学术界、工业界和政府，为关键垂直行业开拓变革性下一代（NextG）无线技术。我们的任务包括：(1)提高美国下一代无线网络的创新能力；(2)促进突破性的竞争前研究，实现NextG无线通信；(3)促进新兴的北美下一代无线网络愿景；(4)为标准化机构和合作伙伴提供指导；(5)培养一支准备好应对复杂的下一代无线挑战的员工队伍。弗吉尼亚理工大学WISPER团队将通过定义产生即时和前瞻性影响的问题和解决方案，推动NextG系统的研究和创新。该团队将探索NextG系统的一系列潜在研究方向，包括安全性、网络自主性和智能，以及新兴技术，如非地面网络、联合通信和传感以及量子网络。该团队将寻求通过开放和安全的NextG和人工智能平台展示其NextG用例，并应用基于项目的学习模型来定义NextG系统、自主性和安全性交叉点的劳动力发展计划。拟议中的WISPER中心将为该国未来的通信基础设施做出重大贡献，对多样性和包容性、劳动力发展和技术转让产生更广泛的影响。政府将成立多元化及共融委员会，检讨现时的多元化及共融情况，并制订具体措施及计划，鼓励代表性不足的团体参与。WISPER将使学生熟练掌握NextG技术，从而使无线劳动力准备状态发生变革性变化。WISPER将使该中心的新发现无缝集成到NextG无线系统中，加速技术转让，增强工业成员的能力，并为国家在NextG技术方面的领导地位做出贡献。根据标准的机构安全和隐私实践和政策，本项目中产生的所有数据、软件和工件将被存档和保存至少五年。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The proposed Center for Wireless Innovation towards Secure, Pervasive, Efficient, and Resilient Next Generation Networks (WISPER) will coordinate academia, industry, and government to pioneer transformative next generation (NextG) wireless technologies for key industry verticals. Our missions include: (1) growing the U.S. innovation capacity in the next-generation wireless networks; (2) catalyzing breakthrough pre-competitive research for enabling NextG wireless communications; (3) contributing to the emerging North American vision for the next generation wireless networks; (4) providing guidance to standardization bodies and cooperation partners; and (5) producing a workforce prepared to tackle complex next-generation wireless challenges.The Virginia Tech WISPER team will drive research and innovation into NextG systems by defining problems and solutions that yield immediate and forward-looking impact. The team will explore a range of potential research directions into NextG systems that span security, network autonomy and intelligence, and new and coming technologies, such as non-terrestrial networking, joint communication and sensing, and quantum networking. The team will seek to showcase its NextG use cases through open and secure NextG and AI platforms and apply the project-based learning model to define workforce development programs at the intersection of NextG systems, autonomy, and security.The proposed WISPER Center will contribute significantly to the country's future communication infrastructure, with broader impacts on diversity and inclusion, workforce development, and technology transfer. A Diversity & Inclusion Committee will be formed to review the current diversity and inclusion profile and develop specific measures and plans for inspiring the participation of underrepresented groups. WISPER will prepare students to become proficient in NextG techniques, leading to transformative changes in the state of wireless workforce preparedness. WISPER will enable seamless integration of the center's new discoveries into NextG wireless systems, accelerating technology transfer, enhancing the competence of the industrial members, and contributing to the Nation’s leadership in NextG technologies. All data, software, and artifacts produced in this project will be archived and preserved, according to standard institutional security and privacy practices and policies, for at least five years.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.