MRI: Development and Deployment of an Operational and Programmable Diverse-Spectrum Access Network Project Proposed: This project, SPAN, a system for Spectrum-Programmable Access for Next-generation Deployments, proposes a novel instrument and testbed environment with wireless access in diverse spectral ranges, which is open, disruptive and unconstrained by any standard. This project will yield three key developments, including the SPANnode, SPANscope, and SPANnet, which include the wireless node, unique network scale monitoring systems, and a wireless networks, respectively. SPANnode is a programmable wide-band node, with a unique level of high performance, spanning 100 times more spectrum and aggregate multiple bands to yield 4 times greater transmission bandwidth than any currently available open-source platform. SPANnode will yield the world?s first full-duplex transit node and first multi-user beam-forming gateway. SPANscope is a unique network-scale monitoring tool across vast spectral, spatial, and temporal scales. Finally, SPANnet is a wireless network comprising SPANnodes, SPANscope monitors, SPANscope-compliant smartphones, and community-owned legacy 802.11 clients. SPAN enables research in - Spectrum Aggregation: The project will develop and experimentally evaluate an algorithmic toolkit that enables network operators to aggregate diverse spectral bands to best meet their service objectives. - Networked Multi-antenna Services: The project will exploit a novel multi-antenna features to develop new communication modes including multi-user beam-forming backhaul, full-duplex transit nodes, and enhanced security via a managed spatial footprint. - Network-Scale Energy Optimization: The project will study energy efficiency performance tradeoffs brought by dynamic spectrum access and multi-antenna transceivers to reduce the operational cost of high-performance wireless network infrastructure and improve the battery lifetime. Broader Impacts: This project, unique in its goals and expected results, carries potential for large broader impacts in the areas of spectrum policy, standards, industry, and the research community. The measured data sets collected by in the project will be shared with the broader research community. The researcher is potentially transformational. SPANnet will serve primarily Hispanic community, and the project includes outreach to high schools in the underserved community. The project team actively engages multiple Hispanic and under-represented Ph.D. students. All code will be open-source and proposed are the community events that will promote wide usability of the SPANnodes which will be made available to the research community.
