Physical Layer Design for Improving Throughput and Security in Wireless Networks

互联网流量的增长引发了许多新的研究挑战。无线作为一种占主导地位的接入技术，对于应对这些挑战至关重要。共享无线频谱的用户数量不断增加，用户需要更高的数据速率来享受新的业务。除了传统互联网接入的不断增长，一种新的连接模式正在所谓的“物联网”（IoT）中出现，它需要在大量分布式节点之间进行无线连接。无线连接的瓶颈是频谱，这是一种稀缺的自然资源，除了价格不断上涨外，可用的频谱还远远不够。作为国家一级的一个例子，2014年1月，加拿大举行了68兆赫特高频频谱（以前用于地面广播，也称为空白频段）的拍卖。8家加拿大公司赢得了此次拍卖，总价值为52.7亿美元。显然，对传统技术进行微调将不足以应付未来的需要。这意味着需要突破才能从根本上改变这种局面。全双工无线，由申请人的团队和其他团队首创，被广泛认为是这种颠覆性创新的引擎。本研究将重点利用全双工传输的特点，设计带内中继，实现分布式/协同组网，为认知无线传输提供新方向，改善国防应用中的干扰和抗干扰能力，提高点对点吞吐量和可靠性。另一项创新技术，“基于媒体的调制”，同样由申请人的团队首创，将用于揭示一些未开发的途径，以提高频谱效率。另一方面，安全性是广泛采用各种数据服务的重要组成部分。根据数据泄露水平指数，自2013年该指数开始对公开披露的数据泄露进行基准测试以来，已有近150亿条数据记录被泄露。这一点尤其令人担忧，因为只有4%的泄露记录受到了任何形式的加密保护。更糟糕的是，量子计算机正在兴起，有望提供前所未有的计算能力。加拿大总理的国家安全和情报顾问格蕾塔·博森迈尔预测，到2026年，量子计算将削弱加密方法。这在无线网络中尤其值得关注，因为由于无线的广播性质，任何传输的数据都可能被窃听者记录下来，以便将来破译。本提案探讨了利用相关传输介质的概率行为来生成和分发无条件安全（量子安全）加密密钥的方法。

The growth in Internet traffic has triggered many new research challenges. Wireless, as a dominant access technology, is vital to address these challenges. The number of users sharing the wireless spectrum is continually increasing, while users require higher data rates to benefit from new services. In addition to the escalating growth in conventional Internet access, a new connectivity paradigm is emerging in the so-called 'Internet of Things' (IoT), requiring wireless connections among a huge number of distributed nodes. The bottleneck in wireless connectivity is the spectrum, a scarce natural resource that in addition to its rising price, there is simply not enough of it available. As an example at national level, in January 2014, an auction for 68 MHz of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum (formerly used for terrestrial broadcasting, also known as white spaces) was held in Canada. Eight Canadian companies won the auction, with total value of $5.27bn. It is clear that fine-tuning of traditional techniques will not be sufficient to cope with future needs. This means breakthroughs are needed to fundamentally change this landscape. Full-duplex wireless, pioneered by the applicant's team among others, is widely believed to serve as an engine for such disruptive innovations. The proposed research will address this research problem focusing on exploiting features of full-duplex transmission to design an in-band relay, realize distributed/collaborative networking, provide new directions in cognitive wireless transmission, improve jamming and anti-jamming in defence applications, and enhance point-to-point throughput and reliability. Another innovative technique, `media-based modulation', again pioneered by the applicant's team, will be used to unfold a number of unexplored paths for improving spectral efficiency. On the other hand, security is a vital component in the widespread adoption of various data services. According to the Breach Level Index, almost 15 billion data records have been exposed since 2013, when the index began benchmarking publicly disclosed data breaches. This is particularly concerning, since only 4 percent of the compromised records were protected by any form of encryption. To make the matters worse, quantum computers are emerging, expected to offer unprecedented computing capabilities. Greta Bossenmaier, National Security and Intelligence adviser to the Prime Minster of Canada, has predicted quantum computing will cripple encryption methods by 2026. This is particularly concerning in wireless networks, as, due to the broadcast nature of wireless, any transmitted data may be recorded by eavesdroppers to be deciphered in the future. This proposal explores methods to benefit from probabilistic behaviors of the relevant transmission medium to generate and distribute unconditionally secure (quantum safe) encryption keys.