ICE-T: RC: Towards Highly Reliable Low Latency Broadband (HRLLBB) Communications over Wireless Heterogeneous Networks

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

Driven by the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), next-generation wireless networks will witness a radical departure from the rate-centric designs of yesteryear, toward an ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) paradigm. While current URLLC research has been primarily guided by the need to deliver very short IoT sensor packets, the advent of new IoT applications such as the tactile Internet, is rapidly disrupting this original URLLC premise. Such emerging IoT applications can be classified as highly reliable, low latency broadband (HRLLBB) services as they require joint uplink and downlink transmission of variable-length packets, while guaranteeing high reliability, low latency, and broadband data rates. The goal of this research is, thus, to initiate one of the first concerted US-EU efforts focused on developing the fundamental science needed to seamlessly integrate HRLLBB services into tomorrow's cellular networks. In particular, the proposed research will provide novel analytical tools to facilitate the modeling, design, analysis, and optimization of wireless networks that can cater to HRLLB services. This, in turn, will enable a broad range of novel wireless services with significant societal impacts, ranging from haptics to autonomous systems. The research is further coupled with an extensive US-European Union (EU) educational plan that includes new curriculum development and extensive training of US and EU students and researchers on interdisciplinary research at the boundary of wireless networking, economics, and network optimization. K-12 outreach events will be organized to involve minority students in hands-on URLLC IoT activities thus attracting them to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and wireless careers. Broad international dissemination will be ensured via joint US-EU events such as tutorials and workshops. The proposed research will introduce a holistic framework for expediting the introduction of emerging HRLLBB services over wireless networks. Through a collaboration between the US, Denmark, and Finland, this research will yield a number of transformative outcomes that include: 1) Rigorous reliability metrics that leverage novel frameworks from statistics and economics to characterize the achievable HRLLBB quality-of-service, jointly over uplink and downlink, under extreme network conditions, 2) Fundamental characterization of the wireless tradeoffs governing the rate-reliability-latency performance of HRLLBB services, 3) Novel, dynamic orthogonal and non-orthogonal multiple access designs coupled with anticipatory HRLLBB handover schemes that enable a seamlessly co-existence of heterogeneous services, 4) Disruptive online algorithms that will enable HRLLBB services to optimize their rate-reliability-latency performance by leveraging fog computing functions while effectively managing, in real-time, their communications and computing resources, and 5) Validation using practical experiments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.