Professors Heather Zheng and Ben Zhao receive NSF EARS grant

UCSB Department of Computer Science Professors Heather Zheng and Ben Zhao have received a 3-year grant from the NSF EARS program (Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum). The EARS program seeks to identify bold new concepts with the potential to contribute to significant improvements in the efficiency of radio spectrum utilization. This project will develop efficient spectrum monitoring and enforcement systems to detect and locate unauthorized spectrum users. The project will take a data-drive approach, leveraging insights and techniques from crowdsourcing, data mining, and wireless security at the physical layer.  Because spectrum enforcement is a critical problem often cited as the main obstacle facing wide-spread deployment of dynamic spectrum systems, the success of this project could significantly lower the barrier to entry for dynamic spectrum networks and promote their wide adoption.
This project is a collaborative effort between UCSB (PI Heather Zheng, co-PI Ben Zhao) and Dartmouth College (co-PI Xia Zhou), with a total award of $689,994.