A Software Defined Framework for Opportunistic Networking and Spectrum Management
Abstract
A Software Defined Framework for Opportunistic Networking and Spectrum Management Project Summary Opportunistic transmission using noncontiguous chunks of spectrum is of emerging interest not only in tactical networking scenarios but also due to the increasing push towards coexistence and spectrum sharing between DoD and commercial systems. The last decade has seen the advent of software defined radio (SDR) based cognitive radios that have the ability to recognize signals received by them and adjust their own transmission frequencies, waveforms and protocols. More recently, the paradigm of software defined networking networking (SDN) has emerged as a means to flexibly engineer networks by decoupling the functionality of the control plane and the data plane. In this project, we propose to combine SDR and SDN technologies to develop a comprehensive software defined framework for opportunistic networking and spectrum management. Such a framework will allow radios (and systems) in a tactical environment to dynamically and opportunistically transmit in noncontiguous portions of spectrum, provide robustness against radio channel variations due to both electromagnetic propagation and interference, as well as adversarial conditions such as attacks. The mechanisms developed under the above framework will fundamentally rely on the ability of SDR based cognitive radios in the network to execute noncontiguous multicarrier modulation and use noncontiguous Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (NC-OFDMA) where by noncontiguous subcarriers can be flexibly assigned across nodes. An accompanying SDN based control plane architecture will be designed for implementing such opportunistic spectrum sharing mechanisms in networks such as those relevant to the Navy. For both the data plane and the control plane, LPI/LPD enabling mechanisms will be an integral part of the design consideration. In our earlier work supported under the ONR 6.1 program, using constructs from information theory, graph theory and distributed optimization, we have developed an algorithmic framework named bandwidth exchange (BE) for enabling dynamic and opportunistic spectrum sharing that can significantly enhance the performance of cognitive radio networks. In this project, we propose to build on this foundation and develop a comprehensive software defined framework using SDR/SDN technologies. The assembled team of researchers from WINLAB, Rutgers and NRL brings together expertise in resource allocation for wireless communications, and wireless network protocols, including experience in developing software defined radio (SDR) platforms, and software defined networking (SDN). The research conducted in this project will include the following tasks and outcomes: T1 - Spectrum Management in Multihop Networks using NC-OFDMA: centralized, distributed and hybrid algorithms under bundling constraints; system level power consumption with ADC/DAC constraints; NC-OFDMA with multi-channel multi-radio (MC-MR) platforms, LPI/LPD in noncontiguous spectrum T2 - Control Plane Design for NC-OFDMA Networks: global control plane (GCP) mechanisms, blind rendezvous algorithms, LPI/LPD enabling mechanisms T3 - Experimentation with SDR and SDN: demonstration of software defined framework for opportunistic networking and spectrum management with SDR and SDN platforms
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512168
Entities
People
- Narayan B. Mandayam
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Rutgers University
- United States Navy