PFI: Wireless Grid Innovation Testbed

Syracuse University, Syracuse NY

Investigators

Abstract

This Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) project--a Type II (A:B) partnership between Syracuse University, an NSF PFI graduate (0227879, initiated at Tufts University), and Virginia Tech University, which is currently a research site of another NSF-supported partnership program: I/UCRC Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT) (0809036)--is focused on the creation of the first national Wireless Grid Innovation Testbed (WGiT). The project integrates prior knowledge and technology. Scientists at universities will work with a consortium of private organizations in a laboratory with the resources to support open innovation and user-created innovations in a system that supports their capture, documentation, and improvement. The intellectual merit of this project lies in the innovative combination of grid networking and wireless networking. The ultimate vision of the wireless grid is that of an adaptive network with secure, inexpensive, and coordinated real-time access to dynamic, heterogeneous resources, across geographic, political and cultural boundaries without forsaking stability, transparency, scalability, control and flexibility. Better assessment of wireless grids technology, network performance, and user behavior will inform design, manufacturing and commercialization of next generation information and resource sharing innovations. The test bed will support training and courses related to innovation, wireless grids technologies and business/social impact opportunities. Students within a variety of courses from middle school through doctoral levels, as well as community workforce training programs, through work at the associated labs and in the field, will be given the opportunity of hands-on experience in the use of the wireless grid beta applications as they become available. Students will have the opportunity to develop their own wireless grid applications, building upon the open platform provided. New knowledge will be generated both on innovation models and entrepreneurial ecosystems, and on wireless grids. The broader impact of wireless grid connectivity specifications developed with WGiT support will be determined ultimately by their utility to user and device communities. Open source developers interested in wireless grids distributed collaboration and network mash-up features will be significant early users. A wide range of new applications is expected across industry sectors and social communities. Businesses, government agencies and private individuals will have new options for interacting within and across regions. The testbed will provide students, faculty, firms, and representatives of government an opportunity to learn from and participate in the growth of this new market. Partners at the inception of the project are Academic Institutions: Syracuse University (lead institution), Virginia Tech University, Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Instituto Superior Technico (IST), Lisbon, Portugal; Private Sector Organizations: Center for Advanced Engineering & Research, Inc. (CAER); Clear Channel Radio; MOD-ECO; Qualcomm, SenSyr LLV; Syracuse Research Corporation (SRC); Wireless Grids Corporation (WGC); Governmental and Intergovernmental Organizations: Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Portugal; and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), France.