Periodic Reporting for period 3 - WiSHFUL (Wireless Software and Hardware platforms for Flexible and Unified radio and network controL)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2017-01-01 al 2018-04-30
The WiSHFUL project aims to reduce the threshold for experimentation in view of wireless innovation creation and by increasing the realism of experimentation. More specifically, the WiSHFUL objectives are:
1. To offer open, flexible & adaptive software and hardware platforms for intelligent radio and network control allowing rapid prototyping of innovative end-to-end wireless solutions and systems in different vertical markets (manufacturing, smart cities, home, office, healthcare, transportation, logistics, environmental monitoring, etc.).
2. To design and realize a software framework for supporting intelligence based on decomposing cognitive radio network operation into individual data processing tasks.
3. To offer advanced wireless test facilities that follow the current de facto standards in FIRE, set by the FED4FIRE project and extend them.
4. To offer portable facilities that can be deployed at any location allowing validation of innovative wireless solutions in the real world (with realistic channel propagation and interference characteristics).
5. To extend the WiSHFUL facilities with additional testbeds, hardware and software modules, offering complementary or novel radio hardware/software platforms, supporting experimentation with new technologies such as mmWave (WiGig 60GHz and IEEE802.11ad) full duplex radio, IoT testbeds, smart antennas, etc.
6. To attract and support experimenters for wireless innovation creation targeting different classes of experimenters via different open call mechanisms tailored to the specific classes (industrial relevance for SME versus level of innovation for academia).
1. To offer open, flexible & adaptive software and hardware platforms for intelligent radio and network control allowing rapid prototyping of innovative end-to-end wireless solutions and systems in different vertical markets (manufacturing, smart cities, home, office, healthcare, transportation, logistics, environmental monitoring, etc.).
2. To design and realize a software framework for supporting intelligence based on decomposing cognitive radio network operation into individual data processing tasks.
3. To offer advanced wireless test facilities that follow the current de facto standards in FIRE, set by the FED4FIRE project and extend them.
4. To offer portable facilities that can be deployed at any location allowing validation of innovative wireless solutions in the real world (with realistic channel propagation and interference characteristics).
5. To extend the WiSHFUL facilities with additional testbeds, hardware and software modules, offering complementary or novel radio hardware/software platforms, supporting experimentation with new technologies such as mmWave (WiGig 60GHz and IEEE802.11ad) full duplex radio, IoT testbeds, smart antennas, etc.
6. To attract and support experimenters for wireless innovation creation targeting different classes of experimenters via different open call mechanisms tailored to the specific classes (industrial relevance for SME versus level of innovation for academia).
During the 3 years of WiSHFUL, multiple important milestones were achieved following the initial planning of the project, surpassing it in many cases. The architecture of the WiSHFUL control framework was designed and implemented; supporting hierarchical, centralized or complete decentralized approach allows the user to select the design that fits best in each scenario under test. The definition and implementation of UPIs to support control of heterogeneous devices was completed and tested in 22 showcases over a wide range of supported devices and scenarios, 8 of them being publicly demonstrated in major events like INFOCOM, EUCNC etc. Wi-Fi, LTE, ZigBee, SDR based implementation, GNU based SDR implementations, MAC engines like TAISC and WMP, configurable antennas are all supported and the user can now control all of the above hardware or software platforms from within the same programming environment offered by WiSHFUL. On top of the WISHFUL UPIs, the intelligence framework was designed and implemented to support employment of AI approaches over the UPIs in order to close the control loop and support run time intelligent reconfiguration of a network device. In the last year of the project, WiSHFUL consolidated this AI approach, exploited co-simulation and brought solutions to real networks to battle problems like interference classification, predict performance of MAC schemes, inter-technology channel sharing and rate control. The Intelligence Repository has been made public to allow experimenters and innovators to reuse the intelligent models that were produces from WiSHFUL for further research and exploitation.
WiSHFUL is now used in 7 testbeds (all FED4FIRE compliant), supports 13 different hardware platforms, 3 operating systems, and 5 software platforms. Amongst them, the Portable Testbed that was designed and implemented to offer the ability for real world experimentation, supporting the complete list of hardware offered by WiSHFUL. The integration of a wireless backbone unleashes the potential for deploying the portable testbed in any environment without the need for any wired infrastructure. 5 Open Calls were launched over the 3 years of the project, attracting 66 proposals for experiments and funding 27 of them. Also 9 extensions were funded to improve the range of support of WiSHFUL to wireless technologies and AI models.
Multiple results from WiSHFUL are finding their way towards enhanced or completely new products from core partners but also third party (Open Call) partners. Standardization efforts were also made towards ETSI NTECH and IETF to align but also further evolve the related standardization activities.
Last but not least, some WiSHFUL numbers: 46 peer-reviewed publications at high quality conferences, 10 peer-reviewed Journals, 3 invitations for keynote speakers, 7 tutorials, 77 participants in training, 9 exhibitions, 22 showcases
WiSHFUL is now used in 7 testbeds (all FED4FIRE compliant), supports 13 different hardware platforms, 3 operating systems, and 5 software platforms. Amongst them, the Portable Testbed that was designed and implemented to offer the ability for real world experimentation, supporting the complete list of hardware offered by WiSHFUL. The integration of a wireless backbone unleashes the potential for deploying the portable testbed in any environment without the need for any wired infrastructure. 5 Open Calls were launched over the 3 years of the project, attracting 66 proposals for experiments and funding 27 of them. Also 9 extensions were funded to improve the range of support of WiSHFUL to wireless technologies and AI models.
Multiple results from WiSHFUL are finding their way towards enhanced or completely new products from core partners but also third party (Open Call) partners. Standardization efforts were also made towards ETSI NTECH and IETF to align but also further evolve the related standardization activities.
Last but not least, some WiSHFUL numbers: 46 peer-reviewed publications at high quality conferences, 10 peer-reviewed Journals, 3 invitations for keynote speakers, 7 tutorials, 77 participants in training, 9 exhibitions, 22 showcases
WiSHFUL has defined and implemented an architecture that allows to use a single programming interface to control heterogeneous software and hardware platforms as diverse as embedded wireless sensors vs SDRs and embedded OSs like Contiki vs Linux. The offered control extends from the physical layer of the device, all the way up to the network layer. Software/hardware platforms like for flexible MAC control (TAISC, WMP) and control of SDR (IRIS) are supported uniformly through the supported UPIs allowing the experimenter to use a single interface to control diverse technologies and platforms. The expected impact of the aforementioned breakthroughs is expected to be inline with the general target of the project, which is to reduce the threshold for experimentation in view of wireless innovation creation and to increase the realism of experimentation.
The second target is met with the design and implementation of the portable testbed that provides the flexibility to run innovative experiments in the real world and not in a isolated room with predefined wireless characteristics. Innovative experiments can now be executed faster, with a steep learning curve from the side of the user of the WiSHFUL framework and can lead to new innovative products that would create revenue for the experimenters much faster than with static experimentation testbeds. Such tools will provide the players in the wireless innovation market to move forward and test thoroughly new ideas and possible products with minimum overhead, leading to market growth while on the same time it will initiate new employment opportunities for IT researchers and engineers.
The second target is met with the design and implementation of the portable testbed that provides the flexibility to run innovative experiments in the real world and not in a isolated room with predefined wireless characteristics. Innovative experiments can now be executed faster, with a steep learning curve from the side of the user of the WiSHFUL framework and can lead to new innovative products that would create revenue for the experimenters much faster than with static experimentation testbeds. Such tools will provide the players in the wireless innovation market to move forward and test thoroughly new ideas and possible products with minimum overhead, leading to market growth while on the same time it will initiate new employment opportunities for IT researchers and engineers.