Rice Networks Group Research Projects

Technology for All Wireless

We have architected and deployed a multi-hop multi-tier wireless network in one of Houston's most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. The societal objective of this network is to empower under-resourced communities with access to technology and educational and work-at-home tools. Our network design objectives encompass both performance objectives (pervasive Internet access at Megabits per second) and economic objectives (sustainable deployment and operating costs for low-income demographics). Finally, we address research challenges including measurement, performance analysis, and protocol design.

WARP

We have designed and implemented a FPGA-based hardware platform for clean-slate design of wireless network protocols. The platform is fully programmable at all layers from the physical layer on up. The platform supports cross-layer protocol implementation and has a high-performance physical layer for "at scale" experiments.