Restructuring wireless systems using PHY information

Опубликовано 12 августа 2016, 0:15

Wireless networks are mostly architected on the principles of modularity and layering. Emerging software radio platforms are beginning to blur the layer-boundaries, exporting PHY layer information to the MAC. Protocol designers are beginning to harness PHY layer functionalities, and as a consequence, understanding the network-wide implications of PHY-aware protocols. The PHY layer community, in turn, is beginning to receive feedback on practical constraints from the networking systems community. Such a holistic approach is enabling researchers to question long-standing assumptions, conceive disruptive ideas, and test their feasibility on actual systems. In our research, we have been performing such exercises. For instance, while traditional MAC protocols perform contention resolution in the time domain (also called backoff), we find that OFDM based systems can migrate this process into the frequency domain, thereby eliminating a long-standing source of inefficiency. In another example, we show that collision detection (implemented in wired Ethernets) may be feasible even in wireless networks. Beyond wireless capacity, we find that PHY information not only encode bits but also contains rich information about the ambience and hence can be exploited as a sensor -- benefitting pervasive mobile computing applications. We exemplify this research vision by demonstrating how ambient PHY sensor can lead to precise indoor localization. We will close not only with challenges we are struggling with, but will also look into what may lie ahead under the broader umbrella of PHY layer enabled systems.