"Building Scalable, Secure, and Reliable ""Chaotic"" Wireless Networks"

Objective

As a result of their unplanned, license-free nature, WiFi networks have grown quickly in recent years, giving users unprecedented improvements in wireless access to the Internet. But being “chaotic,” i.e. unplanned, they have grown to be victims of their own success: when eager users set up too many wireless access points in a densely-populated area, the resulting noise and interference hurt everyones throughput and connectivity. Cellular mobile telephone networks are planned carefully, but in order to expand coverage indoors, providers are turning to customer-deployed femtocells, thus incuring the drawbacks of chaotic WiFi networks. We propose a ground-up redesign of chaotic wireless networks, with new architectural contributions focusing on what information the physical layer should pass up to higher layers. We propose a new physical layer interface called SoftAoA that passes angle-of-arrival (AoA) information from the physical layer up to higher layers. Using this expanded physical layer interface, we will first investigate fountain coding and receiver-based rate adaptation methods to improve wireless capacity in the vagaries of the “grey zone” of marginal coverage. Second, we will investigate improvements to security and localization that can be made based on the profiling of incoming packets’ AoA at an access point. Finally, we will investigate how a chaotically-deployed network can mitigate the interference it experiences from networks not under the same administrative control, and manage the interference it causes to those networks. The result will be more scalable, secure, and reliable chaotic wireless networks that play an even more prominent role in our lives.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

• natural sciences computer and information sciences internet
• engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications radio technology WiFi

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• ERC-SG-PE7 - ERC Starting Grant - Systems and communication engineering

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2011-StG_20101014
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

Beneficiaries (1)