ECE 678

In recent years, we have witnessed significant advances in wireless communications and networks. On the access side, 802.11-based wireless LANs, or WLANs, have been deployed in virtually all university campuses, corporations, airports, and hotels, forming many wireless clouds at the edge of the Internet. Wireless mesh and regional-area networks is on the rise. Through advanced beam-forming antennas and MIMO capabilities, they promise to bridge the connectivity between WLAN clouds and enable ubiquitous and seamless wireless communications in metropolitan areas. Wireless sensor networks have been deployed for various civilian and military applications, including environment monitoring, detection of chemical hazards, border crossing, weather forecasting, etc. High-bandwidth wireless communications using ultra-wide band (UWB) technology is gaining momentum, and will soon revolutionize home networking and bring to light a new generation of consumer electronics. Smart radios with spectrum-adaptive capabilities (aka cognitive radios) are emerging as a new paradigm for radio communications. Office and personal area networks using Bluetooth are becoming commonplace.

The purpose of this seminar course is to expose students to recent advances in wireless networks, focusing on the theoretical underpinnings, protocol design, and architectural concepts. Various topics will be covered through representative papers from top-tier conferences (e.g., MobiCom, MobiHoc, Sigcomm, INFOCOM, etc.), IEEE and ACM journals, magazines, and regulatory documents and standards (including FCC specifications). The class will emphasize discussion and debate, with the goal of strengthening students’ critical and analytical thinking.

Assessment

• Presentations: 1 per student
• Quizzes: 12-15
• Class participation
• Final exam
• Typical grading policy: 30% presentations, 20% final exam, 30% quizzes, 20% class participation