Grant: Canada Excellence Research Chairs

This program focuses on two major opportunities in the development of just and equitable intelligent digital information infrastructures. From the technological standpoint, there is a large gap between the intelligence that currently exists in end-user applications, services, and physical layer, and the major limitations of communication protocols used in the Internet and wireless networks today. From the societal standpoint, there is a big gap between the existing digital divide in the use of the Internet and digital infrastructures, and the enormous potential that future intelligent digital infrastructures have to serve all segments of society in equitable and just ways. This program centers around the following four research thrusts to address these opportunities: Manifest-based Internet Transport Services (MINTS): This research thrust addresses the clean-slate redesign of the way in which remote processes of digital infrastructures communicate over the Internet and computer networks to support end-user applications and services. The proposed research focuses on eliminating the need for end-to-end connections to support reliable communication, making end-to-end reliable communication efficient for any type of bandwidth-delay product, enabling multipoint services without the need to adopt complex routing protocols, and enabling the Internet itself to serve as an intelligent and secure memory layer for all end-user applications and services. Intent-Oriented Networking (ION): This research thrust focuses on developing networking technologies to allow end users and processes to state the intent of what service the Internet or a network infrastructure should provide for them with a high-level description, enable the network to automatically map user requirements to performance and policy criteria, and have the network deliver the best performance that satisfies user requirements taking into account network conditions. Self-Reliant and Wise Ad-hoc Networking (SWAN): This research thrust uses machine learning and the other research thrusts to enable self-reliant networks that provide fair and efficient use of shared wireless bandwidth taking into account the connectivity and past history of interference caused by node transmissions. The results from this research will eliminate the current limitations of wireless networks based on such standards as WiFi and 5G. Just and Equitable Digital Infrastructures (JEDI): This thrust addresses the development of the knowledge necessary for creating just and equitable digital infrastructures based on the results of the other three thrusts. To achieve this goal, this thrust ensures that research in all the thrusts will be socio-economically aware and community-engaged.