CPS: Medium: A Cross-Layer Approach to Taming Cyber-Physical Uncertainties in Vehicular Wireless Networking and Platoon Control
Lead PI:
Hongwei Zhang
Co-PI:
Array Array
Le Yi Wang
Abstract
This project proposes a cross-layer framework in which vehicular wireless networking and platoon control interact with each other to tame cyber-physical uncertainties. Based on the real-time capacity region of wireless networking and the physical process of vehicle movements, platoon control selects its control strategies and the corresponding requirements on the timeliness and throughput of wireless data delivery to optimize control performance. Based on the requirements from platoon control, wireless networking controls co-channel interference and adapts to cyber-physical uncertainties to ensure the timeliness and throughput of single-hop as well as multi-hop broadcast. For proactively addressing the impact of vehicle mobility on wireless broadcast, wireless networking also leverages input from platoon control on vehicle movement prediction. In realizing the cross-layer framework, wireless scheduling ensures agile, predictable interference control in the presence of cyber-physical uncertainties. If successful, this project will lead to a general and rigorous framework for wireless vehicular cyber-physical network control that will enable safe, efficient, and clean transportation. The principles and techniques for taming cyber-physical uncertainties will provide insight into other application domains of wireless networked sensing and control such as unmanned aerial vehicles and smart power grids. This project will also develop integrative research and education on wireless cyber-physical systems through multi-level, multi-component educational activities.
Hongwei Zhang

I lead the Dependable Networking and Computing research group in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. Our research explores the theories, methods, and systems building-blocks for addressing dynamics and uncertainties in networked systems that involve wireless networks, sensing and control networks, vehicular networks, and the Internet.

Presently, we are especially interested in the modeling, algorithmic, and systems issues in wireless sensing and control networks as well as their applications in augmented reality, smart agriculture, connected and automated vehicles, smart energy grid, industrial IoT, and cyber-physical-human systems in general. For instance, as a part of the US Ignite, CPS, NeTS, and GOALI programs of NSF and in collaboration with industry, we have investigated field-deployable mechanisms for predictable, real-time, and secure wireless networking, and we have investigated cross-layer approaches to taming cyber-physical uncertainties in wireless networked sensing and control; as a part of the NSF GENI program, we have developed theoretical and systems foundations for experimentation and service provisioning in connected and automated vehicles as well as in federated, networked sensing.  

Besides publications, our work has provided foundational components for several wireless network systems, including the emulation system and software-defined innovation platforms for sensing and control networks of connected and automated vehicles, the WiMAX research cellular network, the KanseiGenie federated sensor networks, the NetEyeexperimental infrastructure (which has 176 IEEE 802.15.4 nodes and 15 802.11b/g nodes), and the DARPA sensor network systems A Line in the Sand and ExScal (which, with its 200-node 802.11b mesh network and 1,200-node mote network, was the world's largest wireless sensor network and 802.11b mesh network deployed at its time).

I received the NSF CAREER Award in 2011. Our work has been recognized by the Best Demo Award at the 23rd and 21st NSF GENI Engineering Conference in 2015 and 2014 respectively, and the Best Demo First Runner-up Award at the 20th NSF GENI Engineering Conference in 2014. Our articles have been selected as the Annual Best Paper of the Journal of Systems Science and Complexity (Springer) in 2016, the Spotlight Paper of the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing in November 2010, and a Best Paper Candidate at the IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP) in 2010. Our work has also been featured by public media such as CBS, Science X, SmartPlanet, EurekAlert!, Model D, UMTRI Connected Vehicle News, Michigan University Research Corridor News, Wayne State University New Science Magazine, and Today@Wayne.

Performance Period: 09/01/2011 - 08/31/2015
Institution: Wayne State University
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1136007
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