| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 27, 2010 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | February 28, 2012 |
| Award Number: | 1012831 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Darleen Fisher
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2010 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,800,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,832,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2011 = $16,000.00 FY 2012 = $16,000.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
6100 MAIN ST Houston TX US 77005-1827 (713)348-4820 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
6100 MAIN ST Houston TX US 77005-1827 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
Special Projects - CNS, NETWORK SCIENCE & ENGINEERING |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001112DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001213DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
While the research community has long recognized and advanced the benefits of diverse spectrum access, to date, urban-scale wireless access networks, both research and commercial, retain legacy design decisions and performance of single-band operation. The goal of a community-driven Urban-Scale Polymorphic Wireless Network was achieved with an approach that capitalized on the urban community within Houston; Pecan Park, an underserved community. We have complemented our role as researchers by serving as the community wireless network service provider, the network equipment and protocol designer, and community-technology educators and advocates.
The project deployed dynamic spectrum access prototype nodes in the Technology For All wireless testbed. The network, which operates in an under-resourced community in Houston, Texas, spans from 500 MHz DTV bands to 5 GHz, a range previously achieved only in laboratory settings. Different spectral bands have vast differences in their propagation range and usage. Consequently, dynamic band selection allows both network operators and clients to adaptively select the band to improve performance, robustness, and energy efficiency. Lower frequencies have improved range and penetration through obstacles such as trees and walls. However, this same increased range can lead to over-utilization from many interferers if spectrum is not managed. The research team has developed new dynamic spectrum access tools targeting highly mobile urban access with a focus on underserved and developing regions.
The project designed and deployed a dynamic spectrum access node serving a residential user in Pecan Park, an under-resourced community in Houston, Texas. A local resident was the first to transmit on UHF from her home. This deployment in a low-income community provides access to information technologies for its residents. It has produced lessons and insights for future deployments of wireless infrastructures in other urban communities, including underserved ones, both nationally and internationally. The project’s unique use of spectrum is informing spectrum policy.
The project developed the novel downlink Multi-User MIMO sounding protocol called MUTE. This protocol decouples the sounding set selection used to collect Channel State Information (CSI), from the transmission set selection in order to minimize or even eliminate the overhead associated with sounding, while maximizing user selection performance. To this end, MUTE exploits channel statistics to all the different users to predict whether a particular user’s channel will remain sufficiently stable, thereby allowing the access point to preclude channel sounding before a MU-MIMO transmission. The project team analyzed the overhead associated with sounding in indoor MU-MIMO WLANs and proposed the sounding protocol MUTE. The protocol relies on historical CSI obtained via previous soundings to predict the variation in channel magnitude and phase given the amount of time that has passed since the last measurement for a specific user was collected. Using testbed experiments and measurement-driven emulation, we showed that MUTE can significantly reduce sounding overhead without incurring meaningful rate penalties.
The project produced LiveLab, a methodology to measure real-world smartphone usage and wireless networks with a reprogrammable indevice logger designed for long-term user studies. The team researched the challenges of privacy protection and power impact in LiveLab. As a solution, the team developed, an iPhone 3GS based deployment of LiveLab with 25 users intended for one year. Results from the data collection demonstrated the feasibility and capability of LiveLab. LiveLab, a network and user measurement research tool is freely available online.
The project has provided research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of disciplines. The project produced educational content that will significantly enrich our curricula in multiple disciplines. Our project has produced 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.
Last Modified: 09/06/2016
Modified by: Edward W Knightly
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