Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

ECSE6962 Fall 2005

Class Time: MR 4:00-5:20 JEC4304

Instructor: Prof. Alhussein Abouzeid

JEC6038, x6534

abouza@rpi.edu

Course Homepage: http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/homepages/abouzeid/monet.html

Schedule, Reading List, etc.: http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/homepages/abouzeid/6962-05/schedule.htm

Goals:

This is an advanced networking course designed for students with computer networks background. The goal is to provide students with a broad perspective on the active research areas in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, and in the process leads them toward exploring their research experiences. The expectation is an interesting demo and/or a short conference/workshop paper by the end of this course. This course welcomes students from different backgrounds, reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of ad hoc and sensor networks.

Prerequisites:

An undergraduate course in computer networks, equivalent to CCN (ECSE-4670).

Notes:

- Students may also take this course together with ECSE-4670.

- Undergraduate students may take this course after getting the permission of the instructor.

Course Dynamics:

The mode of interaction between the students and the instructor is primarily through in-class lectures by the instructor and the students, and some invited speakers. It involves discussions about the most recent proposals, as well as debates about the future advances. There is no single text-book for the course. But the course will relay on certain chapters selected from different books, recommended journal and conference papers, as well as in some cases reports from research agencies (e.g. the National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, etc.). The course will also involve surveying the current available “off-the-shelf” technologies and future industry trends.

This is a project-oriented course, and thus the project carries a heavy weight in determining the student grade. The project may be (a) practical/implementation oriented, utilizing hardware available for the course students, (b) simulation-based, using any of the simulation tools available for wireless networks research, or (c) mathematical, e.g. performance evaluation, modeling and optimization, etc.

Grading:

Homework assignments (about 4): 20%

Individual student reading-based lecture: 20%

Class debates: 10%

Project: 50%

Homepage of previous offerings (this year content and dynamics are rather different from previous years, so please use just as a preview to get a general idea about the content):

2004: http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/homepages/abouzeid/6962-04/6962-04.html

2003: http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/homepages/abouzeid/6962-03.html

2002: http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/homepages/abouzeid/ECSE6962/monet.html

Course Syllabus:

The syllabus could be described along three different dimensions, as follows:

A- Algorithms and applications:

I- Ad Hoc and Sensor networks applications

II- Medium Access Control

I- Routing and Data Aggregation

II- Mobile Computing

III- Data Transport

B- Design and analysis approaches:

I- Layered approach to networking design

II- Cross-layer design

III- Optimization

IV- Information theory

V- Control theory

C- Industry and real-life examples

I- USGS Earthquake Hazards program

II- Zebranet

III- Motes and non-Motes

IV- Architectural and Hardware design issues