CS752/852 Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing

Spring 2010

Instructor: Prof. Stephan Olariu
Phone: 683-3915

Course Description: In recent years, wireless and mobile communications have seen an explosive growth both in terms of the number of services provided and the types of technologies that have become available. Indeed, cellular telephony, cellular data, and even multimedia services have become commonplace and the demand for enhanced capabilities will continue to grow into the foreseeable future. It is anticipated that in the not-so-distant future, mobile users will be able to access their data and other services such as electronic mail, video telephony, stock market news, map services, electronic banking, while on the move.

This graduate course proposes to take a look at fundamental issues in the area of wireless networks and mobile computing. The course material is organized around the following broad themes:

• Basics of mobile and wireless communications
• Cellular communications
  • Bandwidth allocation and reservation
  • Location management
  • Call admission strategies and QoS issues
• Mobile IP and Mobile TCP
• Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET) and Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANET)
  • Routing
  • Location management
  • Multimedia and QoS support
• Sensor networks

The first part of the course will involve formal lectures on such topics as fundamentals of wireless communications, cellular systems, QoS parameters, traffic characteristics, etc. The second part of the course involves class presentations and open discussions. In particular, every participant is responsible for presenting up to three papers from the recent literature.

In addition, the students will participate in a project related to one of the topics of interest. A list of projects will be made available by the instructor. The participants should also expect to present their results to the class in both oral and written form.

Prerequisites: graduate standing in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering. The students must have has CS450/550 or equivalent. Good programming skills are a must as the participants are expected to complete a non-trivial programming project.

Text: no formal text; a number of relevant papers from recent journal publications and conference proceedings will be discussed in class.

Grading Scheme:

• Midterm 25%
• Class presentation 25%
• Class participation 20%
• Project 30%

Office Hours: to be arranged

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