SGER: Virtualization Techniques to Multiplex Experiments on a 802.11 Wireless Facility

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

This goal of this project is to research and implement techniques to multiplex experiments on a 802.11 wireless facility. The project will achieve this goal by defining mechanisms to virtualize a wireless network. Two different approaches to virtualization of the wireless medium, in particular, and the wireless network in general, are being studied --- one partitions resources in the time domain and the other in the frequency domain --- to meet this objective. While the potential scope of this work can be fairly broad, in this one year effort, the PI is limiting their activities to one 802.11 based platform and studying two specific approaches for virtualization. This work is being done in close collaboration the ORBIT team at Rutgers University (orbit-lab.org). In particular, this project is using the 802.11 component of the ORBIT platform to demonstrate the virtualization capabilities. All of the developed functions are being integrated in the ORBIT testbed software platform. A successful illustration of this virtualized 802.11 based wireless networks will be just the beginning of a continued line of research in wireless virtualization. In addition, by its very nature, this project is directly affecting the broad research community in the areas of wireless and mobile networking. The proposed activity is significantly enhancing the capability of the ORBIT facility and is going to allow a large set of researchers to better utilize this community resource. It can potentially serve as the underlying platform for GENI's wireless facility. Overall, this should help lower the barrier for experimental researchers in this field and make such facilities more accessible to a greater set of users.