Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Explosive growth in wireless communications market and proliferation of multimedia mobile devices has led to increase in demand for high data rates and ubiquitous coverage. Cognitive radio (CR) and relay based cooperative techniques have been proposed to improve the throughput and coverage of various wireless communication systems. Many of these techniques significantly increase the system complexity and energy consumption. Escalating energy costs and environmental concerns have already created an urgent need for more energy-efficient ""green"" wireless communications. The main goal of the proposed research is to design energy-efficient algorithms and protocols for cooperative and cognitive networks for future generation of wireless communication systems. We will develop performance metrics and analytical models for optimizing the energy consumption in wireless systems, taking into consideration the power consumed by various parts of wireless communication networks including base stations, relays, terminals and core network. Based on these metrics and analytical models, we will devise techniques that minimize the overall power consumption of the communications systems. We will focus on several important topics that are crucial towards reducing the energy consumption of the cognitive and cooperative networks. These topics include low energy spectrum sensing, energy efficient resource management, energy aware medium access control and routing, and efficient cross layer design. Our research will lead the way towards development of energy-efficient and environment-friendly wireless communication systems. Significant impact on the wireless industry is expected from the research since the energy-efficient communications can greatly reduce the costs incurred by the network operators. The research program will also provide an opportunity for the graduate students to be trained in cutting-edge technology.