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Sunday April 18 2009

9:00-12:30
T1: Biologically-inspired and Nano-scale Communication and Networking
T2: Building Tomorrow’s Internet of Things: Latest Standardization Trends and Hands-on Programming Tutorial
T3: Aspects of Multiuser MIMO - Principles and Standardization in LTE- Advanced
T4: Coalitional Game Theory in Wireless Networks

14:00 – 17:30
T5: Cognitive Radios and Enabling Technologies: UWB for cognitive radios, Aspects of Spectrum Sensing and Detection, Co-existence and Interference Mitigation Techniques, and Localizing and Tracking Interferers
T6: Congestion Control in Heterogeneous Networks
T7: Localization and Tracking for Smart Devices and the Internet of Things
T8: Towards 4G - Technical Overview of LTE and WiMAX



T1: Biologically-inspired and Nano-scale Communication and Networking
Instructors: Dr. Falko Dressler, University of Erlangen, Germany

The turn to nature has brought us many unforeseen great concepts and solutions. This course seems to hold on for many research domains. In this tutorial, we study the applicability of biological mechanisms and techniques in the domain of communications. In particular, we investigate the behavior and the challenges in networked embedded systems with primary focus on wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, which are meant to self-organize in large groups of nodes. The existing bio-inspired networking and communication protocols and algorithms devised by looking at biology as a source of inspiration, and by mimicking the laws and dynamics governing these systems is presented along with open research issues for the bio-inspired networking. Furthermore, the domain of bio-inspired networking is linked to the forthcoming research domain of nanonetworks, which bring a set of unique challenges. The objective of this tutorial is to provide better understanding of the potentials for bio-inspired and nano-scale networking, and to motivate the research community to further explore this timely and exciting field. Based on selected challenges in wireless communication, we discuss potential bio-inspired solutions including insect colonies, ant colony optimization, firefly synchronization, activator-inhibitor systems, artificial immune system, homeostatic system, epidemic spreading, and cellular signaling networks.

Biography: Falko Dressler is an assistant professor coordinating the Autonomic Networking Group at the Department of Computer Sciences, University of Erlangen. He teaches on self-organizing sensor and actor networks, network security, and communication systems. Dr. Dressler received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree from the Dept. of Computer Sciences, University of Erlangen in 1998 and 2003, respectively. Dr. Dressler is an editor for Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks and ACM/Springer Wireless Networks (WINET). He served as guest editor of special issues on self-organization, autonomic networking, and bio-inspired computing and communication for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks, and Springer Transactions on Computational Systems Biology (TCSB). Dr. Dressler was general chair of the 2nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Bio-Inspired Models of Network, Information, and Computing Systems (BIONETICS 2007). Dr. Dressler published two books including Self-Organization in Sensor and Actor Networks, published by Wiley in 2007. Dr. Dressler is Senior Member of the IEEE as well as of the ACM. His research activities are focused on (but not limited to) Autonomic Networking addressing issues in Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks, Vehicular Communication, Self-Organization, Bio-inspired Mechanisms, and Adaptive Network Monitoring and Security Techniques.


T2: Building Tomorrow’s Internet of Things: Latest Standardization Trends and Hands-on Programming Tutorial
Instructors: Dr. Thomas WATTEYNE, University of California, USA

New standards and chips will enable the next generation of wireless sensor networks to achieve exiting new capabilities: smart energy management, streaming video, real-time localization, real-time control of mini-helicopters and rockets. The aim of this talk is to survey the cutting-edge developments in standardization bodies working in the field (mainly IEEE802.15.4e, IETF ROLL and IETF 6LoWPAN), and to provide the attendance with hands-on experience on implementing these protocols. Each attendee will receive a Texas Instruments eZ430-RF2500 kit, software, code snippets and sufficient training to start implementing state-of-the-art communication. No prior knowledge is required. During the hands-on tutorial the attendees will evaluate the importance of CRC, measure the evolution of reception power with distance, implement our own preamble sampling MAC protocol before running a complete wireless sensor network. This talk is tailored to the level of practicing engineers and advanced researchers with both academic and industrial background who are interested in both the fundamental and practical aspects of wireless sensor networks. With an expected market size of approximately $2b by 2012 at a compound annual growth rate of 41.9%, these networks are gaining seriously in momentum. It is hence anticipated that this tutorial will be very well attended.

Biography: Thomas Watteyne is a postdoctoral researcher at the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, University of California in Berkeley, working on reliable low-power communication for Wireless Sensor Networks in Prof. Kristofer S.J. Pister’s team. From October 2005 to September 2008, he was a research engineer at France Telecom R&D/Orange Labs working on Energy Efficient Self-Organizing Wireless Sensor Networks, together with the CITI Laboratory, Lyon, France. At that time, he has also been member of the Student Activity Committee and Electronic Communications Coordinator of IEEE Region 8 (Europe, Africa, Middle-East and Russia). He obtained his PhD in Computer Science (2008) and MSc in Telecommunications (2005) from INSA Lyon, France. He has published several journal and conference papers, holds two patents, has contributed to two books and participated in standardization activities. He has been TPC member and member of the organizing committee of various conferences. He is reviewer for numerous IEEE and non-IEEE journals and a Member of the IEEE.


T3: Aspects of Multiuser MIMO - Principles and Standardization in LTE- Advanced
Instructors: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Bauch, University der Bundeswehr Munchen, Germany, Dr. Guido Dietl, DOCOMO Euro-Labs, Germany

We will start with a description of performance targets for IMT-Advanced and 3GPP LTE-Advanced and will demonstrate that advanced MIMO is an indispensible ingredient in order to meet those targets. We will then explain the principles of MIMO modes in LTE. Besides single-user (SU) MIMO where users are separated by means of OFDMA and TDMA, LTE already includes a very simple form of multiuser (MU) MIMO with spatial user separation. We will explain the potential benefits of MU-MIMO over SU-MIMO and describe the solution which is included in LTE. The relatively poor performance of this solution will be demonstrated. This motivates to look for better MU-MIMO solutions. We will now give an introduction to information theoretic limits in order to demonstrate the potential of MU-MIMO. We will present non-linear MU-MIMO algorithms aiming at performance close to those limits, including an introduction to dirty paper coding and Tomlinson-Harashima Precoding. Finally, we will consider linear MU-MIMO schemes and will show that linear schemes can achieve performance reasonably close to capacity approaching non-linear schemes while having significantly lower complexity. We will particularly focus on limited feedback schemes including precoder or channel vector quantization codebook design

Biographies: Dr. Gerhard Bauch received the Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Munich University of Technology (TUM) in 1995 and 2001, and the Diplom-Volkswirt degree from FernUniversitaet Hagen in 2001. In 1996, he was with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). From 1996-2001, he was member of scientific staff at TUM. In 1998 and 1999 he was visiting researcher at AT&T Labs Research, Florham Park, USA. Since 2002, he has been senior researcher, manager and research fellow at DOCOMO Euro-Labs. In 2009 he has been appointed full professor at the Universität der Bundeswehr Munich.
Dr. Guido Dietl received the Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degrees in Electrical Engineering from TUM in 2001 and 2006. He has been with TUM from 2001-2006. In 2000/2001 and 2004, he was a Guest Researcher at Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA. In Fall 2005, he visited the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. He joined DOCOMO Euro-Labs, Munich, Germany, in 2006, where he is currently Manager in the Wireless Technologies Research Group. Dr. Dietl received the Kurt Fischer Award of TUM and the ITG Förderpreis for his doctoral thesis in 2007.


T4: Coalitional Game Theory in Wireless Networks
Instructors: Walid SAAD, University of Oslo, Norway, Dr. Zhu HAN, University of Houston, USA and Dr. Are HJØRUNGNES, University of Oslo, Norway

Game theoretical techniques have recently become prevalent in many engineering applications, notably in wireless networks. With the emergence of cooperation as a new communication paradigm, and the need for self-organizing, decentralized, and autonomic networks, it has become imperative to seek suitable game theoretical tools that allow to analyze and study the behavior and interactions of the nodes in future communication networks. In this context, this tutorial introduces the concepts of cooperative game theory, namely coalitional games, and their potential applications in wireless networks. For this purpose, we classify coalitional games into three categories: Canonical coalitional games, coalition formation games, and coalitional graph games. This new classification represents a novel application-oriented approach for understanding and analyzing coalitional games. For each class of games, we present the fundamental components, introduce the key properties, and solution concepts, and describe the methodologies for applying these games in several applications drawn from the state-of-the-art research in wireless networks. In a nutshell, this tutorial aims to provide an in-depth and solid introduction on applying coalitional game theory in wireless and communication networks.

Biographies: Walid Saad received his B.E. degree in Computer and Communications Engineering from the Lebanese University, Faculty of Engineering II, in 2004 and his M.E. in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 2007. He is a PhD student at the University of Oslo since August 2007, and he is expected to graduate in July 2010. His research interests are in the applications of game theory in wireless networks.
Zhu Han received received the B.S. degree in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University, in 1997 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1999 and 2003, respectively. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Houston, Texas.
Are Hjørungnes works as a Professor at UNIK - University Graduate Center, at the University of Oslo, Norway. He obtained his Sivilingeniør (M.Sc.) degree with honors in 1995 from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim, and his Doktor ingeniør (Ph.D.) degree in 2000 from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.


T5: Cognitive Radios and Enabling Technologies: UWB for cognitive radios, Aspects of Spectrum Sensing and Detection, Co-existence and Interference Mitigation Techniques, and Localizing and Tracking Interferers
Instructors: Dr. Kandeepan SITHAMPARANATHAN, Create-Net International Research Centre, Trento, Italy, Dr. Andrea GIORGETTI, University of Bologna, Italy, Dr. Luca DE NARDIS, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy

Cognitive radios (CR) intelligently and opportunistically utilize the spectrum to perform communications increasing the efficiency of the spectral usage. Studies have shown that the spectrum is under utilized in the frequency, time and spatial domains and therefore CRs are proposed and encouraged especially by the radio regulatory bodies around the world. Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is considered as a potential candidate for CR from 3.1GHz to 10GHz. In this tutorial we identify the requirements and enabling technologies for CRs, and address the major technical challenges related to spectrum sensing and incumbent user detection, localizing interferers, and interference avoidance and mitigation. We also present some solutions to these technical challenges considering advanced signal processing and cooperative techniques. Furthermore, the stochastic nature of the spatial and temporal spectral occupancies of the incumbent radios makes the above mentioned tasks more challenging. The topics covered here consider the UWB-CR as an example, but the fundamentals, challenges and solutions presented are generic to a broader sense. To this aim, the tutorial also introduces the key characteristics of existing and planned UWB communication systems, focusing on technologies adopted by industrial standards and on the potential application scenarios for Cognitive UWB radios.

Biographies: Kandeepan Sithamparanathan (MIEEE ‘03, SMIEEE ‘09) received his PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney in 2003. He is currently a Senior Researcher and leads the Cognitive Information Networks (CoIN) group at the Create-Net Research Centre, Italy. Kandeepan was with the National ICT Australia, in Canberra from 2004-2007. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers, and his research interests are on cognitive-radios, statistical communications and signal processing.
Dr. Andrea Giorgetti received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Bologna, Italy in 2003. Since 2006 he is an A/Professor at the II Engineering Faculty, Department of Electronics, Computer Science and Systems (DEIS) at the University of Bologna. Since 2006 he is a Research Affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. His research interests include ultra-wideband communications and radar, wireless sensor networks and multiple-antenna-systems.
Dr. Luca De Nardis received his PhD from the University of Rome La Sapienza in 2005. Since 2008 he is an A/Professor at the INFO-COM Department. In 2005/2006 he was a visiting-scholar at the Berkeley Wireless Research Center, University of California Berkeley. He also worked as postdoctoral fellow at the same institution in 2006/2007. His research interests focus on UWB, ad-hoc networks organization, MAC, positioning and routing protocols.


T6: Congestion Control in Heterogeneous Networks
Instructor: Prof. Nirwan ANSARI, Jersey Institute of Technology, USA

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) has become the de facto congestion control standard adopted in most applications. It was originally designed primarily for wired networks in which, random bit errors, a characteristic usually exhibited in wireless networks, are negligible, and congestion is the main cause of packet loss. Emerging wireless applications call for a calibration of this congestion control standard for the heterogeneous network environment. This tutorial first provides a brief overview and historical perspectives of TCP, analyzes the deficiency of stock TCP for the wireless IP communication environment, classifies and discusses various proposed strategies of modifying stock TCP and introducing clean-slate re-design to mitigate shortcomings of current congestion control in heterogeneous networks, and discourses remaining open issues.

Biography: Nirwan Ansari received B.S.E.E. (summa cum laude), M.S.E.E., and Ph.D. from NJIT, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and Purdure University (West Lafayette), respectively. He is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NJIT. He authored Computational Intelligence for Optimization (Springer, 1997, translated into Chinese in 2000) with E.S.H. Hou, and edited Neural Networks in Telecommunications (Springer, 1994) with B. Yuhas. His current research focuses on various aspects of broadband networks and multimedia communications. He has also contributed over 300 technical papers, over one third of which in widely cited refereed journals/magazines. He is a Senior Technical Editor of the IEEE Communications Magazine, and has also been serving on the Advisory Board and Editorial Board of six other journals. He has been serving the IEEE in various capacities such as Chair of IEEE North Jersey COMSOC Chapter, Chair of IEEE North Jersey Section, Chair of COMSOC Technical Committee on Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks, and Chair/TPC Chair of several conferences/symposia. Some of his recent awards include an IEEE Fellow (COMSOC), IEEE Leadership Award, NJIT Excellence in Teaching in Outstanding Professional Development, IEEE MGA Leadership Award, NCE Excellence in Teaching Award, and designation as a COMSOC Distinguished Lecturer.


T7: Localization and Tracking for Smart Devices and the Internet of Things
Instructors: Prof. Kaveh PAHLAVAN, WPI, USA and Dr. Nader MOAYERI, NIST, USA

In the past couple of years, location technologies have emerged as a core element in smart phones and netbooks enabling average consumers to use localization technologies for everyday navigation and mainstream applications such as location-based services and social networking. There is also a vision of “The Internet of Things,” to connect a myriad of fixed and mobile sensors, demanding real-time location services. There are hundreds of millions of IEEE 802.11 WLAN access points, billions of RFID tags, and a growing number of IEEE 802.15 WPANs using Bluetooth, UWB, and ZigBee technologies that are somehow connected to the Internet and can be exploited to locate these devices and Things. The main questions that need to be answered are, “How can we locate these devices and Things?” and “How well can we do this?”. This tutorial addresses these two fundamental questions. It begins with a number of applications motivating the need for and the potential benefits of localization and tracking and then describes various techniques proposed to tackle this challenging problem. Aside from various RF techniques that are the main focus of the tutorial, localization solutions based on other technologies such as inertial navigation, ultrasound, imaging, and other sensors are addressed. Hybrid solutions employing data fusion is another promising area that will be covered. Pros and cons of various solutions and performance metrics are discussed.

Biographies: Kaveh Pahlavan is a Professor of ECE, a Professor of CS, and director of Center for Wireless Information Network Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the chief technical advisor of the Skyhook Wireless, Boston, MA. He is the founder and the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Wireless Information Networks. A member of advisory board of IEEE Wireless Magazine, founder of IEEE Workshops on WLAN, and co-founder of the IEEE PIMRC. He was awarded Westin Hadden Professor of ECE at WPI during 1993-1996, elected as a fellow of IEEE in 1996, awarded a Nokia fellowship in 1999, and was the first Fulbright-Nokia scholar at University of Oulu, Finland, 2000.
Nader Moayeri is with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland. His research interests are in wireless communications and networking, in particular, wireless ad hoc and mesh networks, indoor localization and tracking, and wireless sensor networks. During 1994-1997, he was with the Imaging Technology Department at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA. During 1986-1994, he was on the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He studied electrical engineering at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, from 1974 to 1978, and received the MSEE, MSCICE, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering-Systems from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1980, 1981, and 1986, respectively.



T8: Towards 4G - Technical Overview of LTE and WiMAX
Instructor: Dr. Hyung G. MYUNG, Qualcomm/Flarion Technologies, USA

The current 3rd generation cellular wireless systems are evolving into 4th generation. As a pathway to 4G, 3GPP is currently developing Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard and IEEE 802.16-based WiMAX is also gaining attention as a 4G solution. In this tutorial, we first survey the underlying techniques of the 4G systems such as OFDMA, SC-FDMA, MIMO, fractional frequency reuse (FFR), and fast multi-carrier resource scheduling. Then, we give technical overview of 3GPP LTE and WiMAX. Specifically, we describe the system architecture, physical layer, and MAC layer of each system, including LTE-A and IEEE 802.16m.

Biography: Hyung G. Myung is currently with Qualcomm/Flarion Technologies, New Jersey, USA. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronics engineering from Seoul National University, South Korea, and the M.S. degree in applied mathematics from Santa Clara University, California. He received his Ph.D. degree from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York. His industry experiences include positions at ArrayComm, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, and InterDigital Communications. Also, he was with the Department of Electronics Engineering at Republic of Korea Air Force Academy as a faculty member. His research interests include DSP for communications and wireless communications, and he is the author of the books Single Carrier FDMA: A New Air Interface for Long Term Evolution (2008) and 3GPP Long Term Evolution: A Technical Overview (2010; to be published), both from John Wiley & Sons.