National Science Foundation ICE-T Project

ICE-T: RC: Towards Highly Reliable Low Latency Broadband (HRLLBB) Communications over Wireless Heterogeneous Networks

Driven by the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), next-generation wireless networks will witness a radical departure from the rate-centric designs of yesteryear, toward an ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) paradigm. While current URLLC research has been primarily guided by the need to deliver very short IoT sensor packets, the advent of new IoT applications such as the tactile Internet, is rapidly disrupting this original URLLC premise. Such emerging IoT applications can be classified as highly reliable, low latency broadband (HRLLBB) services as they require joint uplink and downlink transmission of variable-length packets, while guaranteeing high reliability, low latency, and broadband data rates. The goal of this research is, thus, to initiate one of the first concerted US-EU efforts focused on developing the fundamental science needed to seamlessly integrate HRLLBB services into tomorrow's cellular networks. In particular, the proposed research will provide novel analytical tools to facilitate the modeling, design, analysis, and optimization of wireless networks that can cater to HRLLB services. This, in turn, will enable a broad range of novel wireless services with significant societal impacts, ranging from haptics to autonomous systems.