NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: A Service Centric Architecture for Efficient Spectral Utilization in Wireless Networks

William Marsh Rice University, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project will begin by questioning the basic design paradigms of wireless networks, where there are limited spectral resources for a large population of users needing a diverse set of services. The ultimate goal of the project is to expand the application base of wireless networks from wireless Internet, to include scalable mobile healthcare, first-responders, security applications, transportation, factory automation and robotics. The main strength of the project will be to bring theoretical foundations, as well as system level designs and algorithms to develop a realizable network. The PIs plan to work closely with their industrial partners to ensure that project outcomes impact next-generation wireless networks. This research presents a fundamentally novel approach to address spectrum efficiency that reflects the shifting nature of networking philosophy as networks migrate from the classical paradigm of well-defined users and operators to the notion that networking is a tool for the provision of services. Then the primary objective of future service centric networks is to distribute content and to provide fresh information about on-going processes. Over the last few years, the rise in the number of different wireless services has put unprecedented pressure on providers' networks, to the point that current architectures cannot scale to meet the exponential growth of users' demands and the dissimilarities in the services. To confront the crisis, this research meets the required paradigm shift away from a static view of users' needs and in accord with a vertically integrated architecture to harness features of the services. The driving vision in this project is to architect a wireless network with a prevailing service centric philosophy. The concept of network-wide cognition is introduced in this endeavor to explore attributes and disparities of these services as well as heterogeneity of network nodes. Exercising 'true cognition' at the physical layer, nodes in the network will be assumed to operate with flexible radios and that the network is agnostic to the radio access technology; however, the network will be designed to exploit this flexibility. Therefore, the concept of network- wide cognition substantiates across several layers of wireless network design and revisits core network foundations in two coupled thrusts one on scheduling for service centric networking and the other on network provision for delay sensitive services.