Traditionally, there has been an isolation of responsibilities of physical layer (PHY) and higher layers of the network stack leading to severe inefficiencies in bandwidth-limited wireless networks. Remedying these inefficiencies requires rethinking and redesigning wireless protocols such that higher layers and PHY work in synergy. This project explores three schemes under the PHY-Informed Networking (PHY-IN) framework. 1) Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Notification (CSMA/CN) mechanism detects and aborts collisions, breaking away from the existing collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) based schemes such as 802.11. 2) Constellation BAsed Rate (CBAR) adaptation scheme jumps to the best feasible rate suitable for a varying channel. 3) Remap scheme permutes bit-to-subcarrier assignment for a retransmission to improve the chances of its success. The PHY-IN framework has the potential to impact the landscape of future wireless networking protocols. Apart from mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students into independent researchers, this project, involving an EPSCoR university and a research lab, will also help broaden the participation and industry collaboration.
