• Mohammad S. Obaidat,
  Monmouth University, USA

Recent Trends and Challenges in Wireless Networks

16 June 2006, 9:00-9:45, AM

The field of wireless networks systems has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years causing it to become one of the fastest growing segments of the telecommunications technology. As wireless networks evolve with increasing size and profitability, they will be able to integrate with other wireless technologies enabling them to support mobile computing applications and perform as efficiently as wired networks. Due to the difficulties posed by the wireless transmission medium and the increasing demand for better and cheaper services, the area of wireless networks is also an extremely rich field for research and development.

This keynote will address the current trends in research and development in wireless networks and communications. Also, it will shed some light on the future and challenges facing the progress in this fascinating technology. We will review the fundamental techniques in the design, operation, and evaluation of wireless networks and systems. We will present some of our recent research results including new protocols for wireless networks. Among these, an adaptive MAC protocol for distributed wireless LANs that is capable of operating efficiently under bursty traffic conditions.  According to the proposed protocol, the mobile station that is granted permission to transmit is selected by means of a neural-based algorithm.  Another new protocol for dynamically setting 802.11 wireless LAN waveforms and transmission power levels based on the wireless channel's signal to noise ratio will be introduced. Our method, known as Signal-to-Noise Ratio-Waveform Power Adaptation (SNR-WPA), changes the power in discrete steps matched to each of the 802.11 data rate-waveform steps.  By matching the power to the spreading symbol rate, our technique maximizes the network throughput while minimizing MAC layer contention. We found through experimentation that the power adaptation in SNR-WPA yields up to a 30% increase in throughput in a mobile wireless LAN network. Other related wireless research efforts by our group will be presented.

Biography

• Professor Mohammad S. Obaidat is an internationally well known academic/researcher/ scientist. He received his Ph.D. and M. S. degrees in Computer Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA. Dr. Obaidat is currently a tenured full Professor of Computer Science at Monmouth University, NJ, USA. Among his previous positions are Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Director of the Graduate Program at Monmouth University and a faculty member at the City University of New York. He has received extensive research funding and has published about three hundred and twenty (320) refereed technical articles in scholarly international journals and proceedings of international conferences. He is the author of the book entitled: "Fundamentals of Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunications Systems," to be published by John Wiley & Sons in 2006 and co-author of the book entitled, "Security of e-based Systems" to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. He is the co-author of the Best Selling Book, "Wireless Networks" and "Multiwavelength Optical LANs" published by John Wily & Sons (2003). Obaidat is the editor of the book, APPLIED SYSTEM SIMULATION: Methodologies and Applications, published by Kluwer (now Springer) in 2003. Professor Obaidat has served as a consultant for several corporations and organizations worldwide. Mohammad is the chief editor of the International Journal of Communication Systems published by John Wiley. He is also a Technical Editor of Simulation: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulations (SCS) International TSCS. Obaidat is an associate editor/ editorial board member of seven other refereed scholarly journals including two IEEE Transactions, Elsevier Computer Communications Journal, Kluwer Journal of Supercomputing, SCS Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation, Elsevier Journal of Computers and EE, and International Journal of Information Technology. He has guest edited numerous special issues of scholarly journals such as IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, SMC, SIMULATION: Transactions of SCS, Elsevier Computer Communications Journal, Journal of C & EE, and International Journal of Communication Systems. Obaidat has served as the steering committee chair, advisory Committee Chair and program chair of many international conferences including the 1995 IEEE Int'l Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems, ICECS'95, and 1996 IEEE International Phoenix Conference on Computers and Communications, IPCCC'96, 1997 IEEE Int'l Performance, Computing and Communications Conference,  IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks, C3N'97, 1997 SCS Summer Computer Simulation Conference, SCSC'97, SCSC98-SCSC2005, SCSC2006, the 1998 International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems, SPECTSS'98, SPECTS99-SPECTS2005, SPECTS2006, International Conference on Parallel Processing, ICPP'01, EGCDMA'04, JICCSE2004, 2006 IEEE Int'l Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems, ICECS2006, Honorary General Chair of the 2006 IEEE Intl. Joint Conference on E-Business and Telecommunications, ICETE2006. He is the founder of the International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems, SPECTS and has served as the General Chair of SPECTS since its inception. Obaidat has received a recognition certificate from IEEE. Between 1994-1997, Obaidat has served as distinguished speaker/visitor of IEEE Computer Society. Since 1995 he has been serving as an ACM distinguished Lecturer. He is also an SCS distinguished Lecturer. Between 1996-1999, Dr. Obaidat served as an IEEE/ACM program evaluator of the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board/Commission, CSAB/CSAC. Obaidat is the founder and first Chairman of SCS Technical Chapter (Committee) on PECTS (Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems). He has served as the Scientific Advisor for the World Bank/UN Digital Inclusion Workshop- The Role of Information and Communication Technology in Development. Between 1995-2002, he has served as a member of the board of directors of the Society for Computer Simulation International. Between 2002-2004, He has served as Vice President of Conferences of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International SCSI. Prof. Obaidat is currently Vice President of Membership of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International SCSI. He has been invited to lecture and give keynote speeches worldwide. His research interests are: wireless communications and networks, telecommunications and Networking systems, security of network, information and computer systems, security of e-based systems, performance evaluation of computer systems, algorithms and networks,  high performance and parallel computing/computers, applied neural networks and pattern  recognition, adaptive learning and speech processing. Recently, Prof. Obaidat has been awarded a Nokia Research Fellowship and the distinguished Fulbright Scholar Award. During the 2004/2005, he was on sabbatical leave as Fulbright Distinguished Professor and Advisor to the President of Philadelphia University in Jordan, Dr. Adnan Badran. The latter became the Prime Minister of Jordan in April 2005 and served earlier as Vice President of UNESCO. Prof. Obaidat is a Fellow of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International SCSI, and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
  

• Abbas Jamalipour,
  University of Sydney, Australia

Mobile Broadband Wireless Access - 3G cellular, IEEE 802.16e, and IEEE 802.20

17 June 2006, 9:00-9:45, AM

In the context of mobile broadband wireless access for realization of wireless Internet in a wide coverage area currently 3G cellular networks (UMTS and cdma2000), IEEE 802.16e (known as mobile WiMax), and IEEE 802.20 (known as Mobile-Fi) are listed as the main technologies. In this talk, fundamental concepts and specifications of these technologies will be reviewed. It will be discussed whether these technologies can fulfill the requirements of the mobile Internet service in achieving seamless mobility and QoS guarantee for a variety of multimedia applications including both real-time and non-real-time traffic. Providing backward compatibility with the existing (advanced) technologies and the use of already available telecommunications infrastructure will be considered as the main factors in feasibility and sustainability study of the technology for being a real player in future wireless Internet.

• Abbas Jamalipour has been on the faculty of Sydney University, Australia since 1998. He holds a PhD from Nagoya University, Japan. He is the author for the first book on wireless IP and two other books, and has co-authored five books and over 150 papers in scholarly journals and conferences. Professor Jamalipour is the Editor-in-Chief IEEE Wireless Communications, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, Fellow Member of IEAust, and Senior Member of IEEE. He has been very active within the ComSoc, currently serving as Chair of the Satellite and Space Communications TC, Vice Chair of the Communications Switching and Routing TC, and Chair of Coordinating Committee Chapter, Asia Pacific Board. He is a Technical Editor of the IEEE Communications, the Wiley International Journal of Communication Systems, Journal of Communications and Networks (JCN), the International Journal of Sensor Networks, and the International Journal of Business Data Communications and Networking. He is a voting member of GITC (IEEE Globecom/ICC Technical Contents Committee). He has been a Vice Chair of the IEEE WCNC2003 to 2006, Chair of IEEE GLOBECOM2005 (Wireless Communications), and a symposium Co-Chair at IEEE ICC2005 to 2007, and IEEE GLOBECOM2006. His areas of research are in wireless data communications, wireless IP networks, next generation mobile networks, network security, and satellite systems. He has given more than 50 short courses and tutorials in major international conferences. During his talks presented since early 2000, he disseminated the fundamental concepts of the next generation networks and convergence networks as well as the integration of WLAN and cellular networks; some of which are now being gradually deployed by industry and included in the ITU-T standards. This year, he has been selected by the IEEE Nominations and Elections Committee for running an IEEE ComSoc BoG office.
  
   

TUTORIALS - Half Days Tutorials

• Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues
  University of Beira Interior, Portugal Institute of Telecommunications, Portugal
  

Optical Burst Switching Network Architectures and Protocols

18 June 2006, 9:00 - 12:00, AM

In this half-day tutorial, we will review network architectures for next generation optical Internet networks with special focus on the optical burst switching (OBS) paradigm. Due to the exponential increase of Internet traffic, IP (Internet Protocol) has become the convergence protocol for multi-service networks. On the other hand, WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) point-to-point links are already in use by a multi-layer architecture to transport IP traffic. Although this approach increases the link bandwidth by using WDM, it does not solve the problem of network bottleneck due to the exponential traffic growth, since this solution only shifts the bottleneck problem from the link to the electronic router. A solution to this problem that also leads to lower management costs and lower complexity consists in the use of a two-layer architecture, in which IP traffic is transported directly over optical networks. This tutorial will focus the integration of IP protocol with the optical layer, in order to build the so-called optical Internet. Approaches proposed for the optical Internet, namely the Generalized MultiProtocol Label Switching framework conducted by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and the OBS paradigm will be discussed. After presenting the most important optical switching paradigms, we will concentrate on OBS networks. Concerning OBS networks, we will consider network architectures, burst assembly process, classes' reservation, resource reservation protocols, contention resolution, and QoS support. The recent technological developments and future trends are also discussed.