NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Cooperative Interference-Embracing Communication in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

While the proliferation of wireless devices and their Internet-centered applications has brought forth numerous wireless services, current wireless technologies are unable to meet the increasing communication demand caused by the huge number of wireless devices and the scarcity of available radio spectrum. The proposed research will make a concrete step toward bridging this gap by developing new communication algorithms and protocols for wireless networks, specifically multi-hop wireless networks. Multi-hop communication brings many benefits such as enlarged network coverage, reduced radio transmit power, and relaxed requirements for network infrastructure, yet interference severely degrades network performance. This project investigates this fundamental issue by developing practical approaches to managing interference in multi-hop wireless networks, with the objective of maximizing their throughput performance. The success of this project will advance the field's knowledge of wireless system design and implementation, significantly improve network throughput performance, and enlarge the network communication coverage, yielding ubiquitous high data rate wireless services. The project will also provide opportunities for research training for underrepresented students at undergraduate and graduate levels, and project results will be widely disseminated through high-profile tutorials, talks, publications, software toolkits, and open-source sites. The goal of this project is to develop novel, practical, and foundational interference-embracing solutions to improve the throughput of multi-hop wireless networks by leveraging recent advances in physical layer techniques, and to evaluate such solutions using real-world implementations. Focusing on theory, protocol design, and system prototyping for interference management technologies, this project presents a comprehensive solution for advanced interference management in multi-hop wireless networks, including interference cancellation, interference alignment, and interference neutralization. In addition to significantly advancing interference management techniques for multi-hop wireless communications, this project will provide training opportunities for students spanning signal processing, optimization, algorithmic development, and networking infrastructure research; support talented female and underrepresented Ph.D. students in the completion of their doctoral studies; result in the dissemination of research results through high-profile tutorials, talks, publications, software toolkits, and open-source sites; and integrate research results into the development of new courses at both the University of Louisville and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.