Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

As we move forward, today’s human-to-human or human type communication (HTC) will evolve to human-to-machine, machine-to-machine or machine type communication (MTC) which, using Internet-enabled devices, will culminate to the Internet of Things and Internet of Everything.

Both MTC and HTC are central to the most important use cases of the next fifth generation (5G) and beyond wireless technology. Future traffic projections indicate MTC will be driven by billions of devices and, moreover, MTC is characterized by behaviors different than those of HTC. How to efficiently support both broadband HTC and massive and ultra-reliable MTC in next generation 5G and beyond mobile networks thus becomes a great challenge, overcoming this challenge forms the focus of my proposed research. My research is important to the subscribers of wireless services, wireless network equipment manufacturers, and wireless network operators and service providers.

I propose to investigate innovative cell-less fog-enabled radio access network (F-RAN) architecture to support the data rate, latency and availability requirements of HTC and MTC services. An F-RAN is a collection of cloud-enhanced access nodes cooperatively serving the HTC and MTC devices within proximity. I will develop new frameworks for F-RAN functionality management and control as well as guidelines and policies for F-RAN operational optimization for efficient support of both HTC and MTC services. I shall discover efficient protocol for F-RAN access to support massive MTC. The F-RAN access protocol will be rigorously analyzed, implemented and tested to determine the critical parameters for achieving F-RAN performance optimization. In addition, efficient algorithms will be developed for joint management of radio, computation, and cache resources at the access nodes, to achieve optimal resource utilization while meeting the quality of service constraints of the HTC and MTC services. Novel theoretical techniques will be developed for performance evaluation, to gain valuable insights. Experimental results will be used to validate and refine the theoretical results.

The outcomes of my research are expected to generate new knowledge that will contribute to the advancement of wireless communications field. The research outcomes will have a significant impact on the next-generation wireless technologies and on future wireless applications and services not only in information and communication technologies domain but also in other domains including healthcare, transportation, and energy and environment. My research will enhance the quality of life of average Canadians using HTC and MTC services. Furthermore, my proposed research program will provide technical training in next-generation 5G and beyond mobile networks to graduate students whose highly desired technical skills are vital for continued growth of the Canadian wireless industry.