The workshop forum will bring together approximately 25 leading researchers working at the intersections of communications, information theory, signal processing and networking (with emphasis on the lower layers) to explore future directions, potential initiatives and long-term goals of the NSF CISE-CIF program. The workshop will assess the current status of each of the respective disciplines, identify emerging areas of important research, near and long-term goals, future challenges and opportunities, and lay out a five-year vision, in the context of what will it take to get there. The workshop will also produce a report detailing consensus findings and recommendations that will serve as a guide to the research community.
The workshop seeks to realize the high synergistic potential for cross-fertilization of ideas among the intersecting fields of communications, information theory, signal processing and physical layer networking. The forum will address the need for dramatic changes in conventional paradigms brought on by the ubiquity of small, mobile, energy-efficient sensing, processing and communicating devices. The forum will also address the need for new theory and technology to harness the tremendous potential of large, decentralized, and complex networked systems. The areas of research fostered by this workshop, as an outgrowth of the findings and recommendations on future directions and challenges, will support the development of enabling technologies critically important to the growth of the technological base of the nation.
