Wireless Networking and Mobile Computing

ECE 299 Section 2, Spring 2007

Offered by: Romit Roy Choudhury (romit@ee.duke.edu)

Timing: Tu,Th, 1:15pm to 2:30pm
Course timings will probably change to avoid conflicts with other courses. Around mid-November, I plan to convene all students (those enrolled and those facing conflicts) and decide on a new timing that suits everyone. Please lookout for announcements.

The course is currently full. However, I am arranging to change the classroom, so that more students can be accommodated. Those on the waiting list will automatically be included in the class roster.


Course Overview:
The newly emerging branches of wireless networking span over wireless LANs, ad hoc networks, mesh networks, sensor networks, and RFID networks. Many of these networks are characterized by multi-hop communication, where hosts communicate to their intended destination by using peer hosts as intermediate relays. Moreover, these networks may not have any single controller, and are expected to self-organize themselves intelligently. Wide-scale applications of such self-organizing multi-hop networks have spurred new directions in research and technology.

This course is designed to introduce students to the theory, design, and implementation of wireless networks. We will begin the course with fundamentals of wireless networking, and move onto the key research challenges that face us today. We will read papers to understand how other researchers are approaching these problems. We will work on a semester-long research project to implement our own ideas in software/hardware. At the end of the semester, we would have covered topics on networking protocols (Physical and MAC, multi-hop routing, wireless TCP, applications), mobility management, security, and sensor networking. Besides being fun, I expect the course to expose you to a hot and active research direction that you may choose to pursue in future.

Pre-requisite: ECE 156 or CS 114 or permission of instructor

Course Material:
- Research papers, course notes for specific topics.
- Textbook (for selected topics): Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice (by T. Rappaport)

Grading Information:
In-class participation and presentation: 15%
4 homeworks (including programming): 20%
1 mid-term exam: 20%
Semester-long project: 45%


Tentative Topics:
1) PHY layer technologies - 802.11 DSSS and FHSS
    - Channel models
    - Modulation basics
    - Antenna technologies (Directional, Beamforming, MIMO)
2) Channel access - MAC 802.11, Bluetooth
    - Power control and energy management
    - Smart antennas
    - Rate control
3) Wireless Routing
    - Broadcasting
    - Ad hoc routing protocols
    - Multi-channel routing
    - Antenna-aware routing
    - Energy-aware routing
4) Wireless TCP
    - Problem flavors
    - Solution flavors
    - Receiver initiated TCP
5) Capacity of wireless networks
    - Theoretical results
    - Multi-channel, smart antenna cases
6) Sensor networks
    - MAC protocols
    - Diffusion routing, Gossip, hierarchical
    - Aggregation
    - Security
7) Applications research
    - Ad hoc
    - Sensors
    - RFID
8) Special topics of class interest


Also See:
Concurrent registration in CS 299: Sensor Data Processing can be effective in absorbing the bigger picture underlying real-world wireless networking systems. There is ample opportunity for joint course projects. Please feel free to talk to Prof. Jun Yang or me regarding this.