| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | August 25, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 25, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1619173 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ann Von Lehmen
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $350,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $350,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1850 RESEARCH PARK DR STE 300 DAVIS CA US 95618-6153 (530)754-7700 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
CA US 95616-5270 |
| 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 seeks an innovative approach to the design of very high-bandwidth and ubiquitous wireless networks exploiting the unique properties of RF-photonic signal processing and integrated photonics for emerging next-generation and high-bandwidth 5G technologies. The flexibility offered by the photonic and electronic system co-design has the potential to provide a 100-fold increase in bandwidth available for the mobile users, compared to what currently available with current technology. This project will exploit key enabling physical layer technologies, such as dynamic optical waveform generation and measurement (OAWG and OAWM) on silicon photonics (SiP), together with SiP lattice filters (SiPhaser) and photonic mixers. The combination of these technologies will provide a unique and efficient front-haul architecture to perform analog massive-MIMO beamforming at mm-wave frequencies without requiring any complex high-speed RF circuitry. The following topics will be investigated: (1) RF-Optical Networking architecture design and performance studies; (2) DSP, coding, and mmWave-MIMO algorithms development; (3) simulation studies of analog RF-optical beamforming by SiPhaser filters; (4) Proof-of-principle demonstration of SDM MIMO mmWave with RF-photonic processing.
Future Internet applications will exponentially increase the demand for ubiquity, mobility, and bandwidth through diverse platforms, in particular, rapidly expanding cloud data center infrastructures. Today's wireless networks are typically limited to 1~100 Mb/s connectivity with limited end-to-end throughput, latency, and reliability. While fiber optic networks provide 1~100 Tb/s capacity on each single-mode-fiber over thousands of kilometer distances, they are limited to wide area and metro networks, not readily accessible by mobile users. This project seeks to improve our nation's cyberinfrastructure by making additional bandwidth available to citizens with mobile devices. The project will also provide an exciting opportunity to train students in design, developing, and testing algorithms and physical layer technologies on a futuristic networking platform.
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.
The results and findings obtained during this research project paved the way for a new generation of scalable and elastic RF-photonic communication and networking (ERON) architectures that combine the benefits of radio and photonic communication technologies to bring mobility with high capacity and low latency to users? access networks. ERON delivers elastic RF-optical networking by deploying RF-photonic mmWave technologies leveraging high-bandwidth and energy-efficient silicon photonic integrated devices that process the optically generated RF signals directly in the optical domain. ERON resource management exploits elasticity in space-time-frequency domains in both optical and mmWave MIMO communications. The beneficial result is a new mobile networking technology with potentially > 10 Gb/s capacity to the mobile user with high end-to-end performance supported by elastic optical networking, joint SDM-FDM (space-division-multiplexing and frequency division-multiplexing) scheduling, robust hybrid precoding, and advanced RF-photonic signal processing. Under the support of this research award, the research team at UC Davis achieved the following key results:
- Designed new RF-photonic technologies and network architectures for seamless optical and wireless network interfaces.
- Designed, fabricated, and tested silicon photonic integrated circuits for RF-photonic signal processing.
- Developed an ERON radio access network user integrated simulator with an
,optical-wireless converged network resource allocation algorithm design for optimization of hardware resource utilization, network traffic throughput, and overall user quality of experience. - Achieved low-cost, low-noise, low-power, high-fidelity RF-photonic signal processing via silicon photonic integrated circuits replacing power-hungry mmWave electronic circuitry.
- Experimentally demonstrated elastic utilization of wireless and optical networking resources in space-time-frequency domains.
The progress in this project provided an opportunity for the students and faculties to gain an in-depth understanding of next generation access network architectures and the fundamental role that existing and emerging photonic technologies can play to deliver low-latency, energy efficient and high-capacity connectivity for the end users.
The research activities and results have been linked with education activities at UC Davis carried out by the PIs for both graduate and undergraduate classes as Optical Fiber Communications Technologies, and Optical Fiber Communications Systems and Networking.
The proposed project has provided an exciting opportunity to train students in designing, simulating, implementing, and testing architectures, devices, and algorithms for next-generation networking platforms, while developing a broad and interdisciplinary set of skills. Throughout the process, students had the opportunity to learn how to distribute their knowledge to their peers, attending and presenting the project results at international conferences and workshops, and publishing peer-reviewed papers. The research efforts carried out during this project led to the publication of one PhD student thesis as well as six papers in high-impact factor journals and top-level international conferences.
Last Modified: 12/13/2021
Modified by: S.J.Ben Yoo
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
