Intellectual Merit. This project will develop the world?s first urban polymorphic wireless access network, a network that can radically transform its basic properties on-the-fly. A key step is deployment of infrastructure and client nodes that can access diverse spectral ranges spanning from MHz to GHz. This unique capability in spectrum access enables revisiting the foundations of network assessment, design, and access. This experimental approach capitalizes on an unprecedented opportunity in an urban community within Houston: In Pecan Park, an underserved community, the project team will serve as researchers, the wireless network service provider, the network equipment and protocol designers, and community-technology educators and advocates. In a coordinated effort using this urban testbed, the project addresses the following three inter-related research thrusts:
CACTUS: cross sectional assessment of community and technology usage: development of a first-of-its-kind network assessment tool that integrates three new methods with existing network trace collection capabilities: (i) sociological assessment of community-technology wireless access objectives from perspectives of both usage and contribution to a collective good; (ii) in-situ user experience assessment via end-user reporting; and (iii) concurrent in-situ client performance tests instantiated remotely by the network operator.
PAWN: polymorphic architecture for wireless networks: employing an urban deployment of nodes that can access spectrum spanning an order of magnitude from 5 GHz to 500 MHz in the Digital TV white spaces range, the project will (i) develop foundations and tools for dynamic network architecture based on assessment of community objectives and usage; (ii) develop foundations and tools for ?green wireless,? energy-efficient architectures which power down low-usage nodes but retain coverage through spectrum adaptation; and (iii) develop foundations and tools for spectrum-driven mobility management, in which highly mobile clients exploit nodes with large spatial footprints (enabled by low spectral ranges) to obtain a performance-velocity profile that was previously impossible.
CODA: context-driven network access: exploiting CACTUS and context awareness, the project will (i) develop context-driven quality estimation of current and future association choices to a polymorphic wireless network and devise client-directed policies for a client to optimize efficiency, performance, and mobility of association; and (ii) design and realize a polymorphic aggregate network interface that dynamically aggregates packets from multiple network interfaces of multiple spectral bands. Using this mechanism and context-awareness, we will study interface selection and traffic allocation for a client to obtain its required performance with unprecedented efficiency.
Broader Impact. With a strong interdisciplinary nature, this project will develop new research methods and yield foundational findings for areas spanning wireless networking to social sciences. The deployment in a low-income community provides access to information technologies for its residents. It will produce lessons and insights for future deployments of wireless infrastructures in other urban communities, including underserved ones, both nationally and internationally. The unique use of DTV white spaces can guide future FCC policy decisions. The project will provide research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of disciplines. It will also produce educational content that can significantly enrich our curricula in multiple disciplines. The project will continue to produce publicly available data sets that have already been utilized by researchers world-wide. The data sets are unique in that they provide unprecedented access to all system components from the end-user to the network.
