Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

With the technological development of wireless networking, edge computing, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), the beyond fifth generation (B5G) wireless communication networks are envisioned to support increasingly diversified mobile broadband and Internet-of-Things (IoT)-oriented wireless applications with strict and differentiated quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. The future IoT often requires not only high wireless transmission performance but also efficient computation to support different types of task processing (e.g., object detection). However, due to explosive data volume, increased network complexity, and spatial/temporal traffic dynamics, it can be technically challenging to satisfy the communication and computing performance indicators under current networking paradigms. The long-term goal of establishing this research program is to investigate scientific principles and develop engineering solutions for the design of next-generation wireless networks such that user-centric service deliveries can be provided with reduced complexity. The short-term objectives for the next five years are to investigate intelligent networking and computing solutions to support data-intensive and computation-intensive wireless applications with fine-grained QoS. The proposed research includes the following three thrusts from the aspects of network deployment, resource orchestration, and protocol design: 1) Dynamic network deployment: To develop a proactive and dynamic aerial network deployment strategy, by leveraging advanced traffic prediction and machine learning techniques, to cover spatial and temporal communication demand variations in a cost-effective way, 2) Edge-intelligence-enabled resource orchestration: To develop edge-coordinated adaptive AI model structuring strategies, with optimized communication and computing resource utilization, for achieving high task processing efficiency, 3) Learning-assisted networking protocol design: To develop networking protocols for achieving high performance with simplified overhead by leveraging both modeling and learning techniques. The protocols will be adaptive to B5G network dynamics and be customized for supporting differentiated services. The proposed research program is expected to generate new fundamental insights for establishing the next-generation wireless systems, which will contribute to the technological and social development in the fields of telecommunications, computer engineering/science, and applications of AI. This program will also contribute to the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP), providing the trainees with knowledge of cutting-edge technologies, skills, and research & development (R&D) experience, which will prepare them for academic/industrial careers. This program is expected to lead to high quality publications and patents which will advance Canadian technology and innovation.