Building the Future of AI-Ready Wireless Testbeds
ECE Assistant Professor Francesco Restuccia and ECE Professor & Associate Dean for Research Josep Jornet, in collaboration with Princeton University, Florida International University, and SUNY Polytechnic Institute, were awarded a $200,000 NSF grant for “DHARMA.AI Digital Hardware + Analog-RF for Multifunctional Apertures with AI.”
Abstract Source: NSF
This planning project will integrate several existing wireless testbeds that encompass a wide range of radio frequency bands and communication techniques into a cohesive, software-defined virtual platform, offering novel capabilities. The project will create a strategic plan for testbed design, integration and workforce development. The base design of existing testbeds, once integrated, will form preliminary results for a highly scalable community infrastructure. By adapting existing testbeds as a prototype for incorporating AI-driven capabilities, the team expects new competencies to be spawned for US-based academic and industrial partners that build toward the national interests of economic development in emerging 6G and next-generation networking markets.
The proposed testbed will integrate wireless testbeds at collaborating institutions into a single ultra-broadband, multifunctional, and uniquely capable platform for emerging experiments under AI control. The overarching goal is enabling cross-level autonomy and cognition in wireless systems. During this project, the team will develop a plan that helps with long-term goals of a unified wireless testbed infrastructure, including creating software and hardware tools necessary to provide a single-stop solution for researchers to deploy and run multi-site experiments, and developing the tools necessary to run AI solutions both within and across individual network layers, and multi-site experiments with real-time data streaming and visualization capabilities. The team will engage in joint development of high-quality workforce development material, mentoring, education, and scientific outreach activities in a manner that benefits everyone interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields with particular focus on AI and wireless systems.