WiFiUS: Collaborative Research: Ultra-low latency and High Reliability for Wireless IoT

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

The emerging Internet-of-Things (IoT) offers the promise of a wide range of new applications including control of critical infrastructure, mobile health-care, and industrial control. A key challenge for supporting many of these applications is to enable wireless networks to provide ulta-low latency and high reliability services. This project is developing new approaches to meet this challenge by furthering fundamental understanding of the control of wireless networks. As part of WiFiUS, the project is strengthening ties between the United States and Finland. Through the involvement of graduate students and the incorporation of results from the research into courses, the project is helping to develop the next generation of researchers. This project is developing a new framework for supporting ultra-low latency and high reliability network services for emerging Internet-of-Things applications. These emerging applications often impose stringent requirements on both latency and reliability that cannot be met with existing techniques. The main idea behind this project is that latency and reliability are inherently coupled and must be addressed not just at the physical layer but also at higher network layers. The project's comprehensive research agenda addresses latency and reliability at various time scales, ranging from packet time scale and MAC layer scheduling to network deployment and the economics of their services. Specific tasks being targeted include: 1)Packet time scale optimization: Issues here include how messages are divided into packets, the length of time-slot used to send packets, and various physical layer parameters; 2)MAC time-scale optimization: The focus here is on scheduling traffic across different flows so as to meet the latency and reliability requirements of IoT tasks; 3)Network level time-scale: The focus here is on end-to-end reliability over a multi-hop network, by exploiting network diversity to ensure an adequate level of reliability; and 4)Network planning time-scale: Issues here include how networks are deployed and how sharing agreements are formed among network operators to enhance network diversity and reliability.