Configurable protocol design and optimization for ubiquitous networks

我们见证了互联网的爆炸性增长，它成为了一种无处不在的有线和无线混合链路的信息传输基础设施。然而，当前的网络协议遇到了来自新应用和新兴通信技术的根本挑战。例如，许多富媒体应用，如互联网协议电视，对服务质量(Qos)要求很高，对网络资源要求很高；未来的车载网络需要传递对时间和位置都至关重要的紧急消息；水下、地下和深空网络依赖于与地面网络显著不同的通信信道。我们建议开发可以灵活配置的网络协议，以利用新兴的通信技术在混合网络上支持不同的应用。具体地说，我们将开发a)可由软件配置以支持差异化服务的物理层技术；b)适应不断变化的网络环境和应用的媒体访问控制和路由协议；以及c)具有可配置控制参数的传输层协议。本研究的创新点和预期贡献主要体现在三个方面。首先，在不放弃分层网络架构的情况下，建议的可配置协议可以是可扩展的、健壮的和增量部署的。其次，利用所提出的可配置协议固有的自适应性，我们可以优化协议参数，不仅可以提高系统性能，还可以提供传统协议无法提供的新服务。第三，支持服务差异化的可配置物理层的工作将为传统信息理论带来新的曙光。所提出的协议将在带有软件定义的无线电外围设备的无线测试床上实施和测试。我们研究的成功将有助于泛在网络服务，这些服务将支持商业、制造业、教育、医疗保健等许多行业的进步和改革，并促进天气预报、自然资源勘探、灾害预警和环境保护。

We have witnessed the explosive growth of the Internet, which becomes a ubiquitous information transport infrastructure with hybrid wired and wireless links. However, the current network protocols encounter fundamental challenges from both new applications and emerging communication technologies. For example, many media-rich applications such as Internet Protocol Television have stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements and are very demanding in network resources; future vehicular networks need to deliver emergency messages which are both time and location critical; underwater, underground, and deep-space networks rely on communication channels significantly different from the terrestrial ones. We propose to develop network protocols that can be flexibly configured to support heterogeneous applications over hybrid networks with emerging communication technologies. Specifically, we will develop a) physical layer technologies configurable by software to support differentiated services; b) medium access control and routing protocols that adapt to changing network environments and applications; and c) transport layer protocols with configurable control parameters. The innovation and expected contributions of the proposed research lie in three aspects. First, without abandoning the layered network architecture, the proposed configurable protocols can be scalable, robust, and incrementally deployed. Second, with the inherent adaptiveness of the proposed configurable protocols, we can optimize protocol parameters to not only improve system performance, but also enable new services that are not possible with the traditional protocols. Third, the work on a configurable physical layer supporting service differentiation will shed new light on traditional information theory. The proposed protocols will be implemented and tested in the wireless testbed with software defined radio peripherals. The success of our research will contribute to ubiquitous network services that will underpin advances and reforms in many industry sectors such as commerce, manufacturing, education, health care, and facilitate weather forecasting, natural resource exploration, disaster warning, and environment safeguarding.