CAREER: Exploiting Interference in Wireless Networks

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this proposal is a fundamental redesign of wireless networks to systematically exploit interference to increase network capacity. Traditionally interference is considered harmful, hence current designs strive to avoid interference by scheduling concurrent transmissions in separate frequencies/time slots. Hence the only way to add more capacity is to add more spectrum. However spectrum that can be used for building wireless networks has mostly been allocated and is in use, thus imposing hard limit on the scalability of the current network design. This proposal makes a fundamental shift: instead of avoiding interference, it designs techniques that systematically encourage and exploit interference to increase network capacity. The key insight is that interference is not random noise, but has structure since it is a synthetic signal created by another transmitter. If transmitters and receivers are aware of the interference structure, they can exploit it to actively shape/code interference and better decode their own transmissions to cancel interference, and thus greatly increase capacity. The proposed research will produce techniques that can each have substantial impact of the design of wireless networks. This project will design single channel full duplex radios, a technical feat that has hitherto been considered impossible. Second, this research will produce rateless codes that can decode constituent packets from collisions, obviating the need for complex scheduling primitives and thus simplify PHY/MAC design. Finally, it will produce smart radios that can adaptively operate in dense radio neighborhoods and maximize throughput, and thus coexist in environments with a variety of interfering radios.