Milner awarded NSF grant for broadband wireless networks

ISR affiliated Senior Research Scientist Stuart Milner (CEE) is the principal investigator for a three-year National Science Foundation grant for "Broadband Optical/RF Wireless Networks with Topology and Diversity Control."

ISR-affiliated professors Christopher Davis (ECE), and Mark Shayman (ECE), along with Assistant Professor Steve Gabriel (CEE), are the co-PIs.

Broadband wireless networks (up to gigabit per second data rates) deployed in metropolitan areas could form a flexible and re-configurable backbone of base stations (routers) and provide service to both fixed and mobile users. As extensions to the wireline Internet backbone, these high data rate systems could enable such multimedia applications as video surveillances of infrastructure (e.g., buildings; bridges; traffic) and remote environmental sensing.

The goals of the project are to develop the software for autonomous network reconfiguration in response to signals blocked by atmospheric effects such as fog, clouds, or heavy rain and the hardware techniques for signaling and intelligent switching between optical wireless and RF media in order to assure required communication rates and to minimize delays.

The reconfiguration occurs by switching between communication modalities (RF or FSO) for a given link(s), redistribution of communications traffic within the available FSO or RF channels of the network; and/or creation of new links to other nodes by pointing or steering agile transceivers and, thereby, changing the network physical and logical topology.

Published October 5, 2004