Realizing wireless networks with low complexity devices

本研究的目标是降低实现大规模、可靠无线网络的硬件和软件复杂性。无线设备尺寸的缩小使无线技术可以用于许多新的应用。这些设备的范围从连接身体上的生物医学设备到可以空中部署的网络传感器，以便监测和检测环境灾难。 为这些新应用提供可靠的无线连接的需求正在改变无线网络的设计方式。无线设备被部署在从没有现有无线基础设施的偏远位置到非常杂乱的环境中，在这些环境中，无线覆盖充其量是零星的。在这些场景中提供连接性的一种方式是允许无线设备形成多跳网状网络，其中节点充当否则将不具有覆盖范围的其他节点的中继站。即使在一对设备之间确实存在无线连接时，仍然可以添加中继节点，以通过使用协作传输来重复源节点信号来提高链路质量。 实现中继和多跳网络优势的障碍之一是引入网络的成本和复杂性。这个研究项目的重点就是直接解决这个复杂的问题。在设备级，将探索新的协作传输方法，显著降低中继节点的硬件成本和复杂度。在网络层面，优化技术将被用来通过在最优位置放置最少数量的中继节点来最小化总体网络成本。最后，用于在多跳网状网络上路由分组的协议的复杂性将被降低，以便它们更适合于简单的处理器。

The goal of this research is to reduce the hardware and software complexity of implementing large scale, reliable wireless networks. The shrinking size of wireless devices is allowing wireless technology to be used for a host of new applications. These range from connecting on-body biomedical devices to networking sensors that can be aerially deployed in order to monitor and detect environmental disasters. The need to provide reliable wireless connectivity for these new applications is changing how wireless networks are designed. Wireless devices are being deployed in areas ranging from remote locations with no existing wireless infrastructure to very cluttered environments where wireless coverage is sporadic at best. One way to provide connectivity in these scenarios is to allow the wireless devices to form a multi-hop mesh network where nodes serve as relays for other nodes that otherwise would not have coverage. Even when a wireless connection does exist between a pair of devices, a relay node can be still added to improve link quality by repeating the source node signal using cooperative transmission. One of the barriers to realizing the benefits of relays and multi-hop networking is the cost and complexity introduced into the network. The focus of this research program is to directly address this complexity issue. At the device level, new cooperative transmission methods will be explored that significantly reduce the hardware cost and complexity of relay nodes. At the network level, optimization techniques will be used to minimize overall network cost by placing a minimal number of relay nodes in optimal locations. Finally, the complexity of the protocols used to route packets across a multi-hop mesh network will be reduced so that they are more suitable for simple processors.