A vast array of broadcasting protocols has been developed to alleviate the Broadcast Storm Problem for single-radio single-channel and single-rate wireless networks. The emergence of Multi-radio Multi-channel and Multi-rate Mesh (M4) networks, however, brings a lot of new challenges, such as channel assignment, adjacent-channel interference, and network capacity. This project focuses on the design, analysis, and implementation of distributed broadcasting protocols for M4 networks. Challenges such as channel assessment and assignment, interference-aware metric design, transmission rate control, broadcasting tree construction, etc., are to be considered. In-depth theoretical analysis, simulations, and real-world network experiments are also conducted to evaluate the broadcasting protocols. This project also explores several educational innovations. These include the development of a novel three-layer teaching structure, efficient pedagogical approaches, and effective means of incorporating research into learning and education. As one important component of this project, outreach activities are developed for underrepresented minorities from local high schools with the aim of improving their academic performance.
This research advances knowledge and understanding in the areas of wireless mesh networks, network optimization, and information dissemination. The problems studied are pragmatically and intellectually important and their solutions are critical to several areas such as the modeling of wireless communication links, networking traffic theory, and network performance analysis. The techniques developed in this project will benefit a broad spectrum of applications, including homeland security and military network deployment. Research results will be disseminated through a number of channels including international conferences, academic journals, seminars, workshops, and websites.
