Exploiting New Degrees-of-Freedom in Wireless Networks with Reprogrammable Intelligent Metagratings

NSF Award Number: 2107216

Abstract

The explosive growth of wireless data traffic has triggered new user requirements and applications in wireless systems, motivating the exploration of innovative communication paradigms. In a parallel effort, the development of metasurfaces has shown the possibility of controlling electromagnetic waves in extreme ways, with potentially disruptive opportunities for wireless networking. This project explores the impact of reprogrammable intelligent metagratings (RIMs) on next-generation wireless systems. Several fundamental issues related to the use of RIMs in wireless networks will be addressed, such as RIM integration, interference management, resource allocation and multiple access. This research effort will enhance metasurface technology and wireless communication/networking systems, opening new perspectives and solution concepts for RIM-enhanced wireless systems. The proposed cross-layer approach will fill existing gaps both in communications and networks research, as well as in the physical layer. The resulting program will be inherently interdisciplinary and transformative, combining concepts in decision theory, optimization, information theory, communications, networking, control theory, electromagnetic and signal processing. The project team will publish research in high-profile journals, and resources such as data and codes will be publicly available to facilitate technology dissemination. The proposed research will also significantly boost the quality of our undergraduate and graduate programs, not only by impacting curriculum development but also by engaging students in highly interdisciplinary research, forming a new generation of scholars with unique expertise. The proposed outreach activities will encourage high-school students, especially female and minority students, to pursue science and engineering careers.

Significant advances in communication theory, networks, protocol and hardware research will be needed to allow effective coordination and maximum utilization of RIMs for wireless communications. The proposed research will advance in disruptive ways a highly interdisciplinary emerging research area: i) New theories, designs and experimental demonstrations will be developed to optimally enhance wireless communications, becoming the foundation for advances in network designs, protocols and algorithms. ii) The project will explore the opportunities enabled by breaking reciprocity in RIMs for full-duplex networks and enhanced spectral efficiency. iii) In addition to signal improvement at the desired destination, RIMs will also enable disruptive progress in mitigating interference. Resource management and interference management in RIM-assisted communication networks will be enabled, including spatial equalization before reception for multipath mitigation, RIM-assisted Device-to-Device communications and RIM-aided dirty paper coding. iv) The realized RIMs will improve localization accuracy and enhance existing protocols in the higher network layers, enabling RIM-assisted MAC access with collision avoidance and physical layer security.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Principal Investigators

Dr. Zhu Han

Dr. Lee Swindlehurst

Dr. Andrea Alu

Publications