The emergence of ubiquitous high-bandwidth networked services has prompted the exploration of using ever-increasing bands of spectrum, often in demanding environments and over bandwidth portions that are already in use for legacy systems. This trend, which we loosely label ultra-wideband (UWB), poses significant challenges for networking, communications design and hardware development. Our goal is to provide a network that makes best use of the resources available in terms of nodes, energy and bandwidth. To that end, we are signaling- agnostic. Rather than propose a signaling scheme and construct a network architecture predicated on that specific scheme, we propose a testbed built upon an agile architecture that provides the network the most useful control capabilities under varying operating conditions. The researchers propose an integrated approach for UWB networks that considers networking, communications design and hardware development jointly. The integration of these design components requires significant cross-layer interaction. Due to the new opportunities of ultra- wideband systems and its properties, network layers above the Physical Layer can take full advantage and design a network with superior performance. Thus, we will explore Network Layer protocols that make its routing decisions based on the time-varying UWB link states and dynamic traffic demands; Transport Layer protocols that deals with errors and congestion in much more efficient manner and an integrated architecture that is jointly optimized across-layers.
Intellectual merit: The intellectual merit of our proposed work is in the following areas: A network architecture and testbed that make use, in an agile manner, of different communication configurations. The first attempt at integrating ultra-wide-band into a networked system, an important and necessary step in the development of this technology The development of a cross-layer approach to optimize network performance with parsimonious but effective visibility into lower layers. The dual development of time-domain and frequency-domain communication systems allowing the network to adapt the signaling scheme to the specific environment in terms of fades, bandwidth and energy. The challenges of these systems lie in the efficient and high performance implementation of these nodes in CMOS and demonstrate co-existence in the network .
Broader impact: Our proposed activity couples research and educational development closely and will integrate communication theory, networking and hardware design in a natural and unique fashion. We will introduce a quantitative, systematic and, we believe, fundamental approach to UWB networked communications. In particular, our approach will allow the field to move beyond an arbitrary and inflexible signaling-centric approach, and move towards architectures based on network requirements and fundamental communications considerations. The educational impact of our approach will be in both classroom education and cross- disciplinary research for graduate and undergraduate students. The researchers have already begun an extensive educational effort to bring wireless technology into the classroom. First, two of the researchers are developing a graduate-level wireless communication course. Secondly, one of the researchers is incorporating wireless hardware in undergraduate digital design laboratory coursework at MIT. Finally two of the researchers have begun a joint graduate-level teaching project combining application and analysis of networking.
