| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | July 24, 2012 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 24, 2012 |
| Award Number: | 1217048 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Thyagarajan Nandagopal
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | February 1, 2013 |
| End Date: | January 31, 2017 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $450,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $450,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE CAMBRIDGE MA US 02139-4301 (617)253-1000 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge MA US 02139-4307 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): | Networking Technology and Syst |
| Primary Program Source: |
|
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
This project develops a theory for understanding the requirements for control overheads in wireless networks and mechanisms for reducing the amount of these overheads. Network control mechanisms, such as scheduling, routing, and flow control, ensure effective data transport in a communication network, but also require the exchange of network state information, such as channel conditions and queue-length information, which amounts to 'control overhead'. The project investigates the tradeoffs between the rate of sending such control information, and the ability to effectively control the network in terms of performance metrics such as throughput, stability, delay and network utility. The project takes a two-pronged approach: First, a rate-distortion framework is being developed for understanding the impact of degraded network state information on network performance. Second, mechanisms are being developed for reducing the amount of control overhead and the impact of these mechanisms on network performance is being investigated.
The project develops a fundamental understanding of the requirements for protocol overhead, which will lead to more efficient network control policies, with reduced overheads. Such improvements will have a significant impact on network performance, especially in wireless networks, which experience large overheads due to protocol inefficiencies. The results will be widely disseminated through publication in conferences, journals and the web to help advance the wireless networking field. The broader impacts include training of graduate and undergraduate students and technology transfer to industry and government laboratories.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Note:
When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external
site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a
charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from
this site.
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.
This project developed a theory for understanding the requirements for control overheads in wireless networks and mechanisms for reducing the amount of these overheads. Network control mechanisms, such as transmission scheduling, traffic routing, and flow control, ensure effective data transport in a communication network. Typically, these mechanisms take into account the state of the network, and necessitate the exchange of stateinformation such as buffer occupancy, congestion, communications channel quality, packet loss rates, etc. This information exchange amounts to “control overhead” that takes away from the available network capacity. Thus, understanding the role of control overheads in effective network control is important because they directly impact network performance.
This project developed a framework for understanding the role of control information in networks. In particular, the projected explored the tradeoffs between the rate of sending control information, and the ability to effectively control the network in terms of performance metrics such as throughput, and delay. This project also developed novel mechanisms for controlling the network using minimal amounts of control overhead. Our main contributions include:
1) A New Look at Wireless Scheduling with Delayed Information: We studied the impact of delay in channel information on network performance.
2) Controller Placement for Maximum Throughput Under Delayed CSI: We developed mechanisms for placing network controllers in the network to mitigate the effect of delay in state information.
3) Optimal Scheduling of Real-Time Traffic in Wireless Networks with Delayed Feedback: We studied the imapct of feedback delay on the ability to meet delay requirements in wireless networks.
5) Information Theoretic Lower-Bound on control Information: We developed a lower-bound on the required amount of control information needed for opportunistic scheduling.
6) Efficient Channel Probing mechanisms: We developed mechanisms for probing the wireless channel using the minimum amount of control overhead.
7) Universal Max-Weight Framework for Network Control: We developed a new framework for network control that can effectively control a network without needing to exchange queue-length information. Our new framework can control networks with Unicast, multicast, broadcast, and anycast traffic.
8) Research activities for undergraduates: We developed Senior Capston project enabling undergraduate students to engage in research in the field of wireless networks.
Last Modified: 04/08/2017
Modified by: Eytan Modiano
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
