Wireless networks are indispensable; they provide the means for mobility, city-wide Internet connectivity, distributed sensing, and outdoor computing. Current wireless implementations, however, suffer from severe limitations in throughput and do not scale to dense large networks. This project explores a new architecture that significantly increases the throughput of wireless networks. In addition to forwarding packets, routers mix (i.e., code) packets to increase the information content of each transmission. The new design is rooted in the theory of network coding. Prior work on network coding is primarily theoretical. This project aims to bridge theory with practice; it addresses the common case of unicast traffic, dynamic and potentially bursty flows, and practical issues facing the integration of network coding in the current network stack.
If successful, this project can enable high-throughput dense wireless networks. Specifically, the PIs expect the project to produce new protocols that provide large improvements in the throughput of wireless networks, facilitate mobility, allow opportunistic routing without node-coordination, and maintain throughput gains in the presence of malicious wireless nodes. The results will be disseminated to the research community and industry via publications, collaborations, and the educational process.
