The research studies the design of agile wireless networks that
accommodate time variations in the communication channels, the
information sources, and the network topology.
The research will lead to design principles that, in addition to
enabling more efficient use of the current cellular and PCS bands, will
allow
exploitation of frequency bands in the 10-100 GHz range to provide
high-speed
multimedia services for both indoor and outdoor applications. While the
basic
cellular paradigm of wireless access to a high-speed communication and
computing backbone will be adhered to, nearly every other assumption
in existing second-generation and projected third-generation cellular
and PCS networks will be reexamined. Some of the significant differences
from current designs are as follows. A dense network of base stations
will provide connectivity despite the high path losses
and sharp shadowing at higher frequency bands. Cells with
well-defined boundaries may no longer exist, and mobile terminals will
see a rapidly varying network topology. A variety of traffic classes,
such as voice, data, and video, with diverse requirements regarding
delay, loss, quality of reproduction, and number of potential receivers
will be considered.
The integrated research effort is being conducted by five overlapping
research teams of University of Illinois faculty investigators and
their students, organized around the following interdisciplinary projects:
(1) Concept Systems, Modeling, and Performance Limits,
(2) Design Principles for Wireless Packet Networks,
(3) Design for Time-Varying Channels,
(4) Jointly Optimized Source Coding, Channel Coding, and Estimation, and
(5) VLSI Algorithms, Architectures, and Bounds.
The investigators are applying their expertise in digital signal
processing, communication systems, networking, circuit design and control.
A diverse array of methods will be applied, including modeling
and simulation, application of adaptive and universal algorithm
methodologies, exploitation of antenna arrays and polarization for
diversity and beamforming, algebraic coding techniques, linear and nonlinear
optimization techniques, information theory, and laboratory
implementation and measurement.
|
