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The goal of this group is to fundamentally change the operation of
wireless communication systems. One hundred years of spectrum sharing
based on fixed frequency allocations have led to fracturing and poor
utilization. Due to the explosive growth of wireless communications over
the last decade, reliance on mobile telephones for daily voice and data
communication, and often for first contact in case of emergency, has
become pervasive. Present methods of frequency allocation combined with a
reliance on fixed infrastructure threaten to halt this growth. An
additional consequence is the deployment of fundamentally less robust
systems, prone to disruption in major disasters or overload. By enabling
the secondary use of spectrum on an opportunistic basis, ubiquitous,
robust and agile wireless systems can be realized that are able to
support further traffic growth and changing demands in traffic, while
ensuring operation in case of emergencies. As such, it will enable the
extension of wireless data-rates and coverage for many decades to come
and open the door for exciting new applications to emerge.
This group will lay the theoretical foundation, develop the necessary
systems knowledge, and demonstrate a prototype of a new kind of a
wireless system, which will operate in a very broad frequency spectrum
with bands of operation that can be dynamically allocated. Such a system
would be able to reuse the frequency bands that the primary users are not
using at a particular time and a particular location. Demonstration of a
wireless terminal, a prototype device, will be a centerpiece of this
program. This wireless terminal will replace today's mobile phone, and
will interoperate with a "connectivity broker", a device that will
ultimately replace today’s access points, to support a diversity of
radio technologies and innovative rules of cooperation to couple to the
wireless infrastructure. The terminal will be able to migrate from
infrastructure-supported operation to communication within a mesh
network, using either centralized frequency allocation or intelligent and
cooperative sensing of unutilized bands. The concept of secondary use of
the spectrum in combination with advanced cooperation between system
components is revolutionary, and is enabled by advances in fundamental
communications and networking theory and continued improvements in
integrated circuit technology.
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Projects
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