This project will develop theory and techniques for supporting densely deployed wireless devices. The project outcome will meet the urgent need for new wireless technologies enabling the Internet of Things (IoT) that facilitates important applications in healthcare, transportation, smart city, and public safety, to name a few. With limited radio spectrum, the key is to design an efficient system to support wireless massive access, where many devices are small and battery-powered. Specifically, this project will study the fundamental limits of wireless massive access under realistic assumptions and develop practical designs that approach those limits.
This project pushes the envelope of communications, information theory, and signal processing by studying models with a massive number of users beyond the existing theory for multiuser systems. This project will focus on two main technical challenges: 1. To develop a theory for communication systems in the regime of a massive number of devices. Important practical issues such as asynchrony and channel uncertainties will be addressed at the fundamental level rather than as an afterthought. 2. To design scalable codes that are resilient to various channel uncertainties. Learning techniques will be applied to exploit device idiosyncrasies to reduce uncertainties. Key design concepts will be evaluated through experimentation with software-defined radios.
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.
