SBIR Phase I: Dynamic Broadband Wireless Networks

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of building networks that can adaptively adjust their cell coverage (the geographic footprint of the radio signal) to optimize performance. These adjustments may be in response to changing environmental conditions, interference, changing traffic patterns, or failures in portions of the system. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity is to facilitate the deployment of large scale broadband networks by developing technology that can automatically adapt coverage and mitigate interference. As broadband wide-area wireless networks (e.g., WiMAX and fourth generation cellular) become more pervasive and cell sizes become smaller, it becomes increasingly difficult to set up such networks so they efficiently share the finite RF spectrum. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that these networks and the environment in which they exist is changing all the time. This project will demonstrate that cooperating phased array antennas can continuously adapt their coverage areas to optimize total network performance using a combination of RF propagation models, antenna pattern creation algorithms, and constrained optimization procedures based on client feedback. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to increase rate of rollout of the broadband wireless data networks themselves by increasing their efficiency, improving their reliability and lowering their cost. Cellular voice networks, which are narrowband, have become ubiquitous, but broadband wireless data networks are still emerging. One such example is the WiMax equipment market, which is presently at $225M/year and is expected to grow to $4.9B by 2013. Such networks have the potential to transform the way people live and work. They will make possible the richer collaboration between people that the Internet is beginning to demonstrate without being tethered to wired broadband networks at their desks.