Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Wireless mesh networks have emerged as a new technology that has a significant potential to provide low costmeans for flexible and fast deployment of Internet based services in diverse environments. At the same time theconcept of cognitive radios brings a promise of increased bandwidth availability at a minimum cost. Thepurposes of these two technologies fit each other in a very complementary way and this research proposalfocuses on the design of next generation cognitive wireless meshed networks that can support multimedia andemergency services. We will develop architectures that can offer such services with the required QoS andservice continuity protection. A close interaction between all system layers will provide information for fastadaptation to changing environments. To monitor these changes in traffic distribution and spectrumenvironments, a monitoring scheme covering different time scales will be investigated. To make the best use ofavailable spectrum, we will define cognitive radio architectures that can provide features required by theproposed service and resource management models. These features will be used by adaptive MAC and routingmechanisms to provide the QoS and service continuity protection required by the considered applications. Wewill propose a framework for resource management that provides balanced collaboration across all systemlayers by means of well defined cross layer interfaces. The key element of this approach will be a noveleconomic framework that takes into account network revenues as well as both static and dynamic costs acrossdifferent layers and time scales. This approach will provide coherent integration of network operator's costconcerns and users' quality objectives. Bell Canada's involvement in the project will help steer the researchdirection and emphasize practical considerations as well as facilitate knowledge transfer to industry.