Creating secure, mobile wireless networks for the military is the aim of a $35.5 million, 10-year grant from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to a group of universities including UC Davis. The research project, which is unclassified, will also likely have benefits in civilian use.
The new grant will create the Communication Networks Research Center, one of four centers in a new Collaborative Technology Alliance for Network Science run by the Adelphi, Md.-based Army Research Laboratory.
The project's overall goal is to conduct basic scientific research and create foundational theories on wireless networks that are capable of supporting a mix of highly mobile individual soldiers, ground vehicles, airborne platforms, unmanned aerial vehicles, robotics, and unattended ground sensor networks; that can withstand interference and jamming; and that can reconfigure themselves rapidly as needed.
UC Davis researchers will focus on the science behind creating secure and trusted networks, said Prasant Mohapatra, professor and chair of computer science at UC Davis and principal investigator for the UC Davis portion of the project.
Mohaptra said UC Davis' share of the total grant will likely be about $7 to $8 million.
Security and trustworthiness is an emerging issue in wireless networks generally, Mohapatra said. Military applications are even more complex.
"How much do you trust sources? How much do you trust information that is relayed back to you? Are there intruders on your network listening to information or planting misinformation? These are problems we want to address," Mohapatra said.
Penn State is the lead institution in the Communication Networks Research Center, with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz and the City University of New York as general members. A number of other universities and BBN Technologies, a Cambridge, Mass.-based high technology company, will be involved as subcontractors.
Other UC Davis faculty taking part in the project are Professor Karl Levitt and Associate Professor Felix Wu of the Department of Computer Science; Associate Professor Raissa D'Souza, Department of Computer Science and Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering; and Assistant Professor Qing Zhao, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.