Our research will radically transform spectrum access through new availability and coordination methods. Consequently, this project targets to impact spectrum policy and the FCC via demonstration of novel usage cases of spectral bands exploiting data base control and multi-user MIMO. This project will impact industry through demonstration of these results coupled with the PI’s extensive collaborative industry network. Finally, the project includes an inter-disciplinary education plan and the team includes multiple Ph.D. students from under-represented groups.
Impact on society beyond science and technology:
- Our project’s outcomes will be a catalyst for spectrum policy decisions by impacting a wide spectral range and demonstrating new foundations for spectrum availability.
- The development and operation of experimental platform capable of MU-MIMO from 300 MHz to 5.8 GHz will give us valuable opportunities to develop experimental modules for teaching wireless communication.
Impact on development of the principal discipline:
- Our project advances the concepts of MU-MIMO by demonstrating the successful operation of our protocol on custom MIMO SDR front-end platforms. Specifically, we explore the regimes in which our opportunistic channel sounding protocol pushes the performance gains of MU-MIMO closer to those predicted by prior theoretical works. Our platform also enabled the first characterization of mobile multi-user channels in UHF bands.
Impact on knowledge and technique:
- The research team has developed CUiC a new wireless network protocol. CUiC is a (Concurrent Uplink Control) a sequential CSI feedback and ACK messaging system with a design that achieves parallel transmission. Using testbed experiments and measurement-driven emulation, our research showed that CUiC demonstrated throughput gains of more than 100% compared to 802.11ac.
- We have also developed a real-time software-defined radio (SDR) data network streaming remote video and broadband internet utilizing the Wideband UHF Radio daughter-Card (WURC), a new open platform for large-scale broadband data networks utilizing TV-band White Spaces.
Impact on technology transfer:
- Our project’s research will not only bring new research directions into both UHF communication and MU-MIMO networking, but will also contribute to a major shift in the research methodology of wireless networking.
- Our project will leverage the platform provided by the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education (CEEE) at Rice to promote underrepresented populations in wireless research at a national level.
Impact on information resources that form infrastructure:
- Our project’s development of an open-access repository with the hardware design, source code for its operational software, and an open-source toolkit will be preserved and publicly available.
Impact on the development of human resources:
- The project is providing research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of disciplines. Our research team includes women and minority students.
- The EARS project provided data for the Master’s degree research of Kumail Haider, MS Engineering, Rice University. Thesis: “BeamRAP: Joint Beamforming and Rate Adaptation Protocol for 60 GHz Wireless Networks.”
- The EARS project provided data for the Postdoctoral degree research of Naren Anand Ph.D. Engineering, Rice University. Ph.D. dissertation: “MU-MIMO WLANs in Diverse Bands and Environments.”
- The EARS project provided data for the Postdoctoral degree research of Oscar Bejarano, Ph.D. Engineering, Rice University. Ph.D. dissertation: “Protocol Design and Experimental Evaluation for Efficient Multi-User MIMO Wireless Networks.”
- The EARS project provided the opportunity for ndergraduates, Aneesh Sampath, Rice University, Gustavo Alvesreche, University Sao Paulo, Yuqiang Ethan Heng, Rice University and ChuHan Gao, Tsinghua University, China to complete research internship at the RNG Lab and TFA testbed. Projects include: Evaluation of Rate Adaptation protocols for MU-MIMO systems in UHF band and TV band white space testing.
- The EARS project provided data for the Postdoctoral degree research of Robert LiKamWa Ph.D. dissertation, 2016; “MoodScope: Building a Mood Sensor from Smartphone Usage Patterns.”
- The EARS project provided data for the Postdoctoral degree research of Clay Shepard Ph.D. dissertation, 2017; “Argos: Practical Many-Antenna MU-MIMO Systems.”