Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Fifth generation (5G) wireless communication systems will accommodate a wide range of emerging services with diverse service quality requirements, including e-healthcare and internet of things, with initial deployment from year 2020. The 5G network infrastructure will integrate a variety of network resources and technologies to support high service demands. The heterogeneity in both services and networks poses significant challenges to achieve network operation scalability, adaptability, and flexibility. The long-term goal of this research program is to develop efficient communication network solutions for effective end-to-end delivery of broadband multimedia services to mobile/stationary users and machines. The short-term objective in the next five years is to develop mathematical models to characterize relations among network control variables and service quality metrics, and to develop innovative service-customized networking algorithms and protocols for the wireless domain, under the emerging software defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) frameworks. This research program includes three thrust areas:1) Abstraction of wireless networks - The 5G systems will include cellular networks with macro-cells for large coverage and small-cells for high frequency reuse, and ad hoc networks for device/machine communications. Multiple network operation modes will coexist, with both centralized and distributed network control. We will study how to equivalently represent the complex wireless transmission systems by simple abstraction models to facilitate network management in the network layer of protocol stack;2) Energy efficient wireless communication networking With pervasive mobile communication services, the energy consumption in telecom systems has led to serious environmental and financial concerns. Energy efficient wireless networking solutions are required in order for 5G systems to be sustainable. We will investigate and develop energy and spectral efficient solutions to accommodate the anticipated huge growth in data traffic, exploring cooperative networking among heterogeneous networks;3) Efficient channel access over full-duplex (FD) transmissions: The emerging FD technique allows a radio terminal to transmit and receive simultaneously on the same channel, potentially doubling the radio spectrum efficiency. FD transmission complicates inter-link interference which can diminish the potential throughput gain. We will develop a channel access protocol to minimize new interference from FD transmissions, and to maximize statistical multiplexing of radio resources to accommodate data traffic dynamics in both time and space domains.This cutting-edge research will generate new ideas and techniques for developing 5G networks, which will help to foster a vital competitive edge for the Canadian telecom industry.