Principal Investigator Eytan Modiano
Project Website http://cnrg.mit.edu/
The primary goal of the Communications and Networking Research Group is the design of network architectures that are cost effective, scalable, and meet emerging needs for high data-rate and reliable communications. The group is working on a wide range of projects in the area of data communication and networks with application to satellite, wireless, and optical networks. An important aspect of the group's research is the development of architectures and algorithms that are optimized across multiple layers of the protocol stack. To that end, the group's research crosses disciplinary boundaries by combining techniques from network optimization, queueing theory, graph theory, network protocols and algorithms, hardware design, and physical layer communications.
The group is working on a wide range of projects in the area of communication networks and systems, with application to satellite, wireless, and optical systems. In recent years, the group has been developing efficient network control algorithms for heterogeneous wireless networks. Existing wireless networks are almost exclusively confined to single hop access, as provided by cellular telephony or wireless LANs. While multi-hop wireless networks can be deployed, current protocols typically result in extremely poor performance for even moderate sized networks. Wireless Mesh Networks have emerged as a solution for providing last-mile Internet access. However, hindering their success is our relative lack of understanding of how to effectively control wireless networks, especially in the context of advanced physical layer models, realistic models for channel interference, distributed operations, and interface with the wired infrastructure (e.g., internet). CNRG has been developing effective and practical network control algorithms that make efficient use of wireless resources through the joint design of topology adaptation, network layer routing, link layer scheduling, and physical layer power, channel, and rate control.
Robust network design has been another exciting area of recent pioneering research by the group. In particular, the group has been developing a new paradigm for the design of highly robust networks that can survive a massive disruption that may result from natural disasters or intentional attack. The work examines the impact of large-scale failures on network survivability and design, with a focus on interdependencies between different networked infrastructures, such as telecommunication networks, social networks, and the power grid. The group’s research crosses disciplinary boundaries by combining techniques from network optimization, queueing theory, graph theory, network protocols and algorithms, hardware design, and physical layer communications.
CNRG research is focused on the design and analysis of architectures and protocols for communication networks including:(*) Wireless and sensor networks (*) Optical WDM networks (*) Satellite and hybrid communication networks