CNS: CORE: Small: Collaborative Research: Towards Sustainable, Efficient and Secure IoT

To meet the ever-growing need of energy supply for the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, energy harvesting is emerging as a promising alternative to traditional power grids and batteries. The goal of this project is to develop energy-efficient and secure wireless communication systems and protocols for renewable energy-powered IoT devices. In particular, this project will develop novel techniques for network synchronization, efficient data transmission, and security and will tackle the challenges arising from practical issues such as limited power supply and other unique features of renewable energy-powered systems.

The project will provide a rich environment and platform that will facilitate educating and training students from high school level to graduate level.

The goal of this project is to develop energy-efficient and secure wireless communication systems and protocols for renewable energy-powered IoT devices. This project is organized around three research thrusts. As part of the first thrust, the PIs will develop a wake-up radio-based time synchronization method, which can achieve high synchronization precision and ultra-low energy cost.

In the second thrust, the PI will develop a new nonlinear recursive energy harvesting model that considers practical aspects of wireless systems. In the third thrust, the PIs will analyze new security threats caused by malicious energy attacks and will develop novel reinforcement learning-based intelligent attack and defense mechanisms. This project will develop a multi-disciplinary approach that brings together multiple fields in networking, energy harvesting, and security.

The project will provide a rich environment and platform that will facilitate educating and training students from high school level to graduate level.

This project is jointly funded by the Computer and Networking System Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.