Collaborative Research: NeTS: Small: Last Mile as a Free Market: Democratizing Wireless Access with On-demand Decentralized Contracts

Despite advancements in wireless technologies like cellular and WiFi, issues such as spectrum scarcity and inefficiency persist and are limiting connectivity for millions. Current systems often restrict access and hinder collaboration among stakeholders, especially in marginalized communities. This project aims to develop technical solutions for a more open wireless access ecosystem.

By leveraging open-source technologies and decentralized models, it seeks to promote competition and collaboration among service providers. This approach aims to enhance spectrum efficiency, expand Internet availability, and improve reliability. Key goals include fostering trust through transparent contracts, ensuring verifiable service and spectrum sharing, and encouraging active participation from diverse stakeholders.

Beyond technical advancements, the project aims to revolutionize wireless access for sectors like national security and smart communities, and support emerging applications such as autonomous agriculture and connected healthcare. It emphasizes openness and collaboration through publications, presentations, and partnerships with industry leaders like IBM, Google, and Verizon.

All developments are open-sourced, ensuring accessibility and fostering innovation. This project also enriches curricula at Colorado School of Mines and NC State University, focusing on networks, Internet protocols, and incentive mechanisms, and fosters diversity in STEM through mentoring and engagement with underrepresented minorities.

This transformative research designs Opennect, a framework for democratized wireless access. It yields several advances: 1) a robust economic and trust foundation via peer-to-peer and multi-party decentralized contracts including a robust contract network driven by economic dynamics, efficient methods to establish on-demand contracts, and highly robust and sustainable operations of the contract network, 2) a suite of methods for verifiability in decentralized environments by developing transparent data usage accounting, quality-of-service provisioning, and spectrum monitoring mechanisms, and 3) a sustainable market that encourages active participation in Opennect, including on-demand spectrum leasing, decentralized pricing for data plans, and crowdsensing-based spectrum access verification.

The system is evaluated using large-scale simulations with real data, local testbed implementations, and scaled demonstrations on the NSF/PAWR-funded AERPAW testbed at NC State University. Overall, the project aims to advance the field of democratized wireless access by fostering trust, enabling verifiability, and promoting active participation through innovative market mechanisms.

Its potential contributions include enhancing spectrum efficiency, expanding access to reliable Internet services, and supporting diverse applications in smart communities and beyond.

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.