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Wireless Internet
Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT)
Polytechnic University (lead)
Auburn University
University of Virginia
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
To collaborate with industry research partners to create flexible, efficient, and
secure wireless networks that satisfy communication needs in businesses, homes, and the lives
of individuals.
Center Mission and Rationale
The Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT) is a multi-university R&D
center sponsored by the National Science Foundation under its program of Industry/University
Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC).
The Center collaborates with industry research partners to create flexible, efficient,
and secure wireless networks to fulfill the communication needs of government, business, and
individuals. WICAT researchers work closely with industrial sponsors through the Industrial
Affiliates Program. The research programs help the sponsoring industries to increase the value
of their investments in wireless technology by providing them with insight into leading edge
technologies, and strategies for leveraging technology investments. Research is carried out
by faculty members working with undergraduate students, graduate students and post-docs,
thereby contributing to the training of next generation of wireless professionals.
WICAT was initially established at Polytechnic University with support from the New
York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) in 2001. It received a
planning grant from the NSF in 2003, and was established as an I/UCRC in September 2004
followed by: University of Virginia in 2005, Auburn University in 2007 and our most recent
partner Virginia Tech joined WICAT in 2008.
Research Program
Research in WICAT is carried out at four sites. The original is at Polytechnic University.
The most recent site to join WICAT is Virginia Tech.
Research at the Polytechnic University site has the overall thrusts of
increasing network capacity and increasing battery life. Projects to meet these goals are in
one of the three general areas described below.
Cooperative Networks: Cooperative networks have the potential to dramatically
increase the capacity of wireless networks. In a traditional wireless network, each wireless
transmitter in a location connects to a single base station, generally an antenna erected by
a service provider. This base station thus acts as a choke point for the network, limiting
its capacity. In contrast, in a cooperative network, each transmitter both sends and
receives signals. In effect this means that every transmitter is also a base station, adding
additional capacity to the network.
Network Security: In the emerging "wireless world" every person will interact with
thousands of wireless devices, ranging from multi-purpose handhelds to RF-ID tags. Evolving
applications will rely on massively inter-connected and inter-operable ubiquitous devices.
Issues such as providing secure access, detecting adversarial behavior and identifying
misbehaving partners will take on new dimensions of complexity and importance. New approaches
to security will have to be devised and old approaches modified if we are to communicate with
confidence in this wireless world.
Low Power Terminals: Low power terminals are a potential solution to the problem
of battery lifespan. Instead of trying to increase the longevity of the batteries themselves,
the idea is to reduce the amount of power being drained by a device. Different methods being
explored to accomplish this include creating special protocols, signal processing controls or
smart batteries. In each case, mathematical formulas are used to dynamically adapt power usage
based on what the device is doing. Low-power terminals have the potential to increase a
battery's lifespan by an order of magnitude.
Applications: There are a wide variety of new applications for wireless technology
being researched at WICAT. These include research into improved methods for locating wireless
devices, new ways to distribute content over an ad-hoc network, and new methods to distribute
sensors in a disaster area.
The University of Virginia site is focused on the development of
systematic approaches for integrating technologies surrounding wireless technology into
overall wireless systems concepts, including hardware implementations.
- Wireless Miniature Sensor Networks
- Peer-to-Peer Networking
- Adaptive Information Management and Resource management
- Built-in system evaluation and test
- Tools and Techniques to support reconfiguration
- Adaptive Information exchange groups / Resource Management using Peer-to-Peer
protocols
- Decision theory for information management
- Game theory for coordination management
- Simulation evaluation/Embedded data collection
- Distributed image processing
- Application Domains
- Military Systems
- Emergency Response Systems
- Transportation Systems
- Health Care Systems
Research at Auburn University addresses several important research areas
in the next generation wireless Internet that are complementary to the capabilities at other
WICAT sites. The theme of research at the Auburn University is cross-layer
optimization (i.e., optimization across the layers of network protocol architectures) of
coexisting wireless systems, including the following five thrusts:
- IC design and MEMS for wireless, including Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits
(RFIC) design, low-power IC design, and multi-band antennas for wireless systems;
- Wireless system design to investigate signal separation and interference mitigation
under coexisting wireless systems, and to enable robust wireless multimedia communications
by leveraging recent advances in video coding, multipath routing, and system optimization
techniques;
- Multi-hop cognitive radio networks research focused on efficient MAC and routing
protocols;
- Wireless networks research for dealing with interoperability issues in heterogeneous
ad hoc networks and developing efficient multiple access schemes and scheduling
algorithms; and
- Wireless applications in robotics, including homeland security, industrial usage and
medical applications.
Virginia Tech enjoys a long history of research in wireless communications
with significant contributions in the field. It is a strong partner of WICAT and performs
research activities that are complementary and synergistic with those of the other WICAT
sites. The theme at the Virginia Tech site is cognitive radio based wireless networks, with
the following thrust areas: (a) Software Defined Radios; (b) Cognitive Radios; (c) Cognitive
network testbed implementation; (d) Theoretical foundations of wireless communications, and
(e) Wireless Systems Modeling and Simulation.
Several new and existing projects are underway. Each of these projects deals with some
aspect of wireless network connectivity. In particular, most of these projects are based on
cognitive engines, which are self-learning and adaptive. A major goal of this site is to focus
the projects to culminate into a cognitive network testbed. The testbed will enable
researchers from WICAT and others to implement and test algorithms, protocols, applications
and hardware technologies within a realistic environment. This will facilitate further
collaborations amongst the WICAT sites and create a synergistic research environment for
wireless networks.
Facilities and Laboratories
Polytechnic University
Wireless Networking Lab – The wireless networking lab has been in existence as a teaching
lab and is nowadays being used to develop a test bed for out cooperative networking
project.
Information Systems and Internet Security Lab - The Information Systems and Internet
Security (ISIS) Laboratory is a NSF-funded lab consisting of heterogeneous platforms and
multiple interconnected networks to facilitate hands-on experimentation and project work
related to information security.
Video and Image Processing Lab - the video processing laboratory is used for the study of
problems associated with transmission of video signals over packetized networks and wireless
networks where the links have low data rates and unreliable connectivity
University of Virginia
The Systems Technology Integration Laboratory (STIL) is a full-scale systems lab supporting
research by the U.Va. WICAT Center and providing access to the following hardware and software
technology resources:
- Wireless Sensors: IR, Seismic, Magnetic, Optical and IR Cameras
- Motes: MicaZ, IMOTE2, and SunSpots (soon)
- Communications: 802.11, Zigby, Mesh Networked NovaRoam, Cisco Voice Over IP
- Networking: Optical Cheetah Net, Internet, Ethernet, Cisco AON Switches
- Computing: Servers, Laptops, PDAs, Image Processing Infrastructure
- Robots: Talon, KBOT
- Software:
- HyperCast for P2P networking
- JBoss
- UCLAs MTOS/MSTAR for Mote SW Development
- ESI Command Center
- RoamSecure Cell Phone Messaging
The STIL provides a capability to build and experiment with actual large scale system
prototypes that integrate sensors, communications subsystems, computing components, system
operators, and system users. In the past the STIL has been used to develop prototype wireless
systems for military urban operations, emergency response, and highway safety. These systems
have integrated substantial miniature wireless sensor networks, wireless long-range
communications gateways, robotic systems, and Internet communications into mission-critical
applications.
Auburn University
Wireless Engineering Research and Education Center (WEREC) -- hosted in
the College of Engineering with faculty participation from both the Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering.
Provides a focal point for Auburn University's wireless activities.
RF design and testing laboratory -- contains over $3M of precision device
and circuit measurement equipment required for RF device and IC research. The laboratory has
all the major device modeling and IC design software packages from all vendors, and over 10
dedicated workstations for circuit design.
Collaborative Robotics Laboratory - Provides full service for robotic
software and embedded systems development, and for hardware construction, including motor
testing and chassis fabrication.
Clean Room -- The Electrical and Computer Engineering building houses a
4000 square foot, Class – 100 clean room for semiconductor and thin film processing. The
facility provides equipment necessary for the design, analysis, fabrication and testing of
monolithic integrated circuits, thick and thin film multichip modules and printed circuit
boards.
Other research laboratories at Auburn University include:
- Wireless Design Laboratory
- Sensor Fusion Laboratory
- Landmine Detection Sensor Design Laboratory
- Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) instruction and research lab
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech is home to facilities of Wireless@VT which includes laboratories associated
with the Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group (MPRG), Center for Wireless
Telecommunications (CWT), Digital Signal Processing Laboratory, Virginia Tech VLSI Technology
(VTVT) group, Wireless Microsystems Laboratory, and the Virginia Tech Antenna Group (VTAG).
Facilities also include an outdoor antenna range capable of making measurements at frequencies
between 200 MHz and 40 GHz, as well as an anechoic chamber capable of measuring signals at
frequencies of 800 MHz to 40 GHz using far-field mode and near-field modes.
Center Locations
Center Headquarters
WICAT
Polytechnic University
5 MetroTech Center
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tel: (718) 260-3845
Fax: (718) 260-3074
Website: http://wicat.poly.edu
Center home pages URL:
Center Directors:
- Dr. Henry Bertoni (PU)
- Dr. Barry Horowitz (U.Va.)
- Dr. Prathima Agarwal (AU)
- Dr. Tamal Bose (VT)
Center Evaluator:
Denis Gray
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