New Paradigms in Wireless Communication Systems

This paper discusses what a new paradigm can be in wireless communication systems of the twenty-first century. First, it suggests two directions for the new paradigm; one is “micro- and nano-device communication system” which is the projected scenario considering that the entities in source and destination have been shrinking throughout the history of wireless communication systems. The second direction is “networked robot system”, which emerges as a natural extension of mobile ad hoc networking where the networking is closely related to motion control of robots. Secondly, it shows two interesting research topics, “the new communication protocol design” and “signal processing”, respectively, that arise in the wake of the fusion between the two directions in the novel communication paradigm. Finally, it considers a new science of wireless communications in the twenty-first century. Shinsuke Hara received the B.Eng., M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in communications engineering from Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, in 1985, 1987 and 1990, respectively. From April 1990 to March 1997, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Engineering, School of Engineering, Osaka University, and from October 1997 to September 2005, he was an associate professor in the Department of Electronic, Information and Energy Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University. Since October 2005, he has been a professor in the Department of Physical Electronics and Informatics, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka City University. In addition, from April 1995 to March 1996, he was a visiting scientist at Telecommunications and Traffic Control Systems Group, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. His research interests include wireless communications systems and digital signal processing. Hiroyuki Yomo received B.S. degree in communication engineering from Department of Communication Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, in 1997, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in communication engineering from Department of Electronic, Information, and Energy Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka Japan, in 1999 and 2002, respectively. From April 2002 to March 2004, he was a Post-doctoral Fellow in Department of Communication Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark. From April 2004 to September 2004, he was at Internet System Laboratory, NEC Corporation, Japan. Since October 2004, he has been an Assistant Research Professor in Center for TeleInfrastructure (CTIF), Aalborg University, Denmark. His main research interests are access technologies, radio resource management, and link-layer techniques in the area of short-range communication, cellular network, cognitive radio, and sensor network. Petar Popovski received the Dipl.-Ing. in electrical engineering and M.Sc. in communication engineering from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, in 1997 and 2000, respectively. He received a Ph.D. degree from Aalborg University, Denmark, in 2004. From 1998 to 2001 he was a teaching and research assistant at the Institute of Telecommunications, Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Skopje. He is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Technology at the Aalborg University. His research interests are related to the PHY-MAC aspects of wireless protocols, wireless sensor networks, random access protocols, and network coding. Kazunori Hayashi received the B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in communication engineering from Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, in 1997, 1999 and 2002, respectively. He spent 3 months in 2000 at Aalborg University, Denmark, as a Visiting Scholar. Since 2002, he has been with the Department of Systems Science, Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University. He is currently an Assistant Professor there. His research interests include digital signal processing for communications systems.     

Performance of a burst-frame-based CSMA/CA protocol: Analysis and enhancement

In this paper, we develop an analytical model to evaluate the delay performance of the burst-frame-based CSMA/CA protocol under unsaturated conditions, which has not been fully addressed in the literature. Our delay analysis is unique in that we consider the end-to-end packet delay, which is the duration from the epoch that a packet enters the queue at the MAC layer of the transmitter side to the epoch that the packet is successfully received at the receiver side. The analytical results give excellent agreement with the simulation results, which represents the accuracy of our analytical model. The results also provide important guideline on how to set the parameters of the burst assembly policy. Based on these results, we further develop an efficient adaptive burst assembly policy so as to optimize the throughput and delay performance of the burst-frame-based CSMA/CA protocol. Kejie Lu received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in Telecommunications Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, in 1994 and 1997, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2003. In 2004 and 2005, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. His research interests include architecture and protocols design for computer and communication networks, performance analysis, network security, and wireless communications. Jianfeng Wang received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in electrical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, in 1999 and 2002, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University of Florida in 2006. From January 2006 to July 2006, he was a research intern in wireless standards and technology group, Intel Corporation. In October 2006, he joined Philips Research North America as a senior member research staff in wireless communications and networking department. He is engaged in research and standardization on wireless networks with emphasis on medium access control (MAC). Dapeng Wu received B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 1990, M.E. in Electrical Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, in 1997, and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, in 2003. Since August 2003, he has been with Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, as an Assistant Professor. His research interests are in the areas of networking, communications, multimedia, signal processing, and information and network security. He received the IEEE Circuits and Systems for Video Technology (CSVT) Transactions Best Paper Award for Year 2001, and the Best Paper Award in International Conference on Quality of Service in Heterogeneous Wired/Wireless Networks (QShine) 2006. Currently, he serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Advances in Multimedia, and an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, and International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing. He is also a guest-editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), Special Issue on Cross-layer Optimized Wireless Multimedia Communications. He served as Program Chair for IEEE/ACM First International Workshop on Broadband Wireless Services and Applications (BroadWISE 2004); and as a technical program committee member of over 30 conferences. He is Vice Chair of Mobile and wireless multimedia Interest Group (MobIG), Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications, IEEE Communications Society. He is a member of the Best Paper Award Committee, Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications, IEEE Communications Society. Yuguang Fang received a Ph.D. degree in Systems Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in January 1994 and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Boston University in May 1997. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology from July 1998 to May 2000. He then joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Florida in May 2000 as an assistant professor and got an early promotion to an associate professor with tenure in August 2003 and to a full professor in August 2005. He has published over 200 papers in refereed professional journals and conferences. He received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Award in 2001 and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2002. He has served on several editorial boards of technical journals including IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and ACM Wireless Networks. He have also been actively participating in professional conference organizations such as serving as The Steering Committee Co-Chair for QShine, the Technical Program Vice-Chair for IEEE INFOCOM’2005, Technical Program Symposium Co-Chair for IEEE Globecom’2004, and a member of Technical Program Committee for IEEE INFOCOM (1998, 2000, 2003–2007). He is a senior member of the IEEE.     

Effective Capacity-Based Quality of Service Measures for Wireless Networks

An important objective of next-generation wireless networks is to provide quality of service (QoS) guarantees. This requires a simple and efficient wireless channel model that can easily translate into connection-level QoS measures such as data rate, delay and delay-violation probability. To achieve this, in Wu and Negi (IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications 2(4) (2003) 630–643), we developed a link-layer channel model termed effective capacity, for the setting of a single hop, constant-bit-rate arrivals, fluid traffic, and wireless channels with negligible propagation delay. In this paper, we apply the effective capacity technique to deriving QoS measures for more general situations, namely, (1) networks with multiple wireless links, (2) variable-bit-rate sources, (3) packetized traffic, and (4) wireless channels with non-negligible propagation delay. Dapeng Wu received B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 1990, M.E. in Electrical Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, in 1997, and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, in 2003. From July 1997 to December 1999, he conducted graduate research at Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York. During the summers of 1998, 1999 and 2000, he conducted research at Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Sunnyvale, California, on architectures and traffic management algorithms in the Internet and wireless networks for multimedia applications. Since August 2003, he has been with Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, as an Assistant Professor. His research interests are in the areas of networking, communications, multimedia, signal processing, and information and network security. He received the IEEE Circuits and Systems for Video Technology (CSVT) Transactions Best Paper Award for Year 2001. Currently, he is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology and Associate Editor for International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing. He served as Program Chair for IEEE/ACM First International Workshop on Broadband Wireless Services and Applications (BroadWISE 2004); and as TPC member of over 20 conferences such as IEEE INFOCOM'05, IEEE ICC'05, IEEE WCNC'05, and IEEE Globecom'04. He is Vice Chair of Mobile and wireless multimedia Interest Group (MobIG), Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications, IEEE Communications Society. He is a member of the Award Committee, Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications, IEEE Communications Society. He is also Director of Communications, IEEE Gainesville Section. Rohit Negi received the B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India in 1995. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, CA, USA, in 1996 and 2000 respectively, both in Electrical Engineering. He has received the President of India Gold medal in 1995. Since 2000, he has been with the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, where he is an Assistant Professor. His research interests include signal processing, coding for communications systems, information theory, networking, cross-layer optimization and sensor networks.     

Localized algorithms for coverage boundary detection in wireless sensor networks

Connected coverage, which reflects how well a target field is monitored under the base station, is the most important performance metric used to measure the quality of surveillance that wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can provide. To facilitate the measurement of this metric, we propose two novel algorithms for individual sensor nodes to identify whether they are on the coverage boundary, i.e., the boundary of a coverage hole or network partition. Our algorithms are based on two novel computational geometric techniques called localized Voronoi and neighbor embracing polygons. Compared to previous work, our algorithms can be applied to WSNs of arbitrary topologies. The algorithms are fully distributed in the sense that only the minimal position information of one-hop neighbors and a limited number of simple local computations are needed, and thus are of high scalability and energy efficiency. We show the correctness and efficiency of our algorithms by theoretical proofs and extensive simulations. Chi Zhang received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in July 1999 and January 2002, respectively. Since September 2004, he has been working towards the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA. His research interests are network and distributed system security, wireless networking, and mobile computing, with emphasis on mobile ad hoc networks, wireless sensor networks, wireless mesh networks, and heterogeneous wired/wireless networks. Yanchao Zhang received the B.E. degree in computer communications from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China, in July 1999, the M.E. degree in computer applications from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, in April 2002, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in August 2006. Since September 2006, he has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark. His research interest include wireless and Internet security, wireless networking, and mobile computing. He is a member of the IEEE and ACM. Yuguang Fang received the BS and MS degrees in Mathematics from Qufu Normal University, Qufu, Shandong, China, in 1984 and 1987, respectively, a Ph.D. degree in Systems and Control Engineering from Department of Systems, Control and Industrial Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, in January 1994, and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University, Massachusetts, in May 1997. From 1987 to 1988, he held research and teaching position in both Department of Mathematics and the Institute of Automation at Qufu Normal University. From September 1989 to December 1993, he was a teaching/research assistant in Department of Systems, Control and Industrial Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, where he held a research associate position from January 1994 to May 1994. He held a post-doctoral position in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University from June 1994 to August 1995. From September 1995 to May 1997, he was a research assistant in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. From June 1997 to July 1998, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. From July 1998 to May 2000, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey. In May 2000, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, where he got early promotion to Associate Professor with tenure in August 2003, and to Full Professor in August 2005. His research interests span many areas including wireless networks, mobile computing, mobile communications, wireless security, automatic control, and neural networks. He has published over one hundred and fifty (150) papers in refereed professional journals and conferences. He received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Award in 2001 and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2002. He also received the 2001 CAST Academic Award. He is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in World. Dr. Fang has actively engaged in many professional activities. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of the ACM. He is an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications, an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, an Editor for ACM Wireless Networks, and an Editor for IEEE Wireless Communications. He was an Editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications:Wireless Communications Series, an Area Editor for ACM Mobile Computing and Communications Review, an Editor for Wiley International Journal on Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, and Feature Editor for Scanning the Literature in IEEE Personal Communications. He has also actively involved with many professional conferences such as ACM MobiCom’02 (Committee Co-Chair for Student Travel Award), MobiCom’01, IEEE INFOCOM’06, INFOCOM’05 (Vice-Chair for Technical Program Committee), INFOCOM’04, INFOCOM’03, INFOCOM’00, INFOCOM’98, IEEE WCNC’04, WCNC’02, WCNC’00 Technical Program Vice-Chair), WCNC’99, IEEE Globecom’04 (Symposium Co-Chair), Globecom’02, and International Conference on Computer Communications and Networking (IC3N) (Technical Program Vice-Chair).     

Security Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor network is more prone to adversary compare to common wireless network. This is due to the nature of wireless sensor network that involves many nodes, thus making the system more vulnerable. Another reason is the nature of wireless sensor network as an ad hoc network, making it having no hierarchal structure, complicating management tasks. Deploying new technology without security in mind has often proved to be unreasonably dangerous.One of the most fundamental rights in a 'healthy' society is the right of every citizen to be left alone. Article 12 of the U.N, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, states that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence.”, in reality, though this right is increasingly being trod upon, along with undreamed of comforts and conveniences for the population in general. The digital revolution has made it possible to gather as well as store information about human behaviour on a massive scale. We leave electronic footprints everywhere we go, footprints that are being watched, analyzed and sold without our knowledge or even control.With this Security and Privacy solutions are mandatory aspects when developing new pervasive technologies such as wireless sensor networks (WSN).This paper analyses the security issues, threats and attacks and requirements of wireless sensor networks. This paper further proposes security framework and security architecture to integrate existing technologies with WSN technology, to provide secure and private communications to its users. Neeli Rashmi Prasad, Associate Professor and Head of Wireless Security and Sensor Networks Lab., part of Wireless Network including Embedded systems Group (WING), Center for TeleInfrastruktur (CTIF), Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. She received her Ph.D. from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy, in the field of “adaptive security for wireless heterogeneous networks” in 2004 and M.Sc. (Ir.) degree in Electrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, in the field of “Indoor Wireless Communications using Slotted ISMA Protocols” in 1997. She joined Libertel (now Vodafone NL), Maastricht, The Netherlands as a Radio Engineer in 1997. From November 1998 till May 2001, she worked as Systems Architect for Wireless LANs in Wireless Communications and Networking Division of Lucent Technologies (now Agere Systems), Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. From June 2001 to July 2003, she was with T-Mobile Netherlands, The Hague, The Netherlands as Senior Architect for Core Network Group. Subsequently, from July 2003 to April 2004, she was Senior Research Manager at PCOM:I³, Aalborg, Denmark.During her industrial career she coordinated several projects. Just to name few major ones: country wide GSM landmass coverage (Vodafone NL), the impact of IP based security on Lucent WLAN (Wavelan later known as Orinoco) Access Points (APs), implementation of Virtual LAN and IAPP on Orinoco APs, VoIP implementation on APs, design and implementation of real-time embedded software platform for APs, mobile core network evolution towards All-IP for T-Mobile International to technical project lead for Public WLAN deployment for T-Mobile NL.Her publications range from top journals, international conferences and chapters in books. She has also co-edited and co-authored two books titled “WLAN Systems and Wireless IP for Next Generation Communications” and “Wireless LANs and Wireless IP Security, Mobility, QoS and Mobile Network Integration”, published by Artech House, 2001 and 2005. She has supervised several Masters Students projects.In December 1997 she won Best Paper award for her work on ISMA Protocol (Inhibit Sense Multiple Access). Her current research interest lies in wireless security, mobility, mesh networks, WSN, WPAN and heterogeneous networks.She was the Technical Program Committee Co-Chair IWS2005/WPMC05 held on September 18–22, 2005 in Aalborg. She is the Project Coordinator of EC Network of Excellence Project CRUISE on Wireless Sensor Networks. She is also cluster leader of EC Cluster for Sensor Networks. Mahbubul Alam, Ph.D. student at Center for TeleInfrastruktur (CTIF), Aalborg University, Denmark. He is with Cisco Systems, Inc. Netherlands from 2001 and worked as Consulting Systems Engineer in the field of mobile and wireless technology and since September 2002 he works as Business Analyst in areas of mobile, wireless and security. He is now based in Cisco Systems, Inc. San Jose, CA, USA, with focus on home networking, wireless and security. Previously he was with Siemens Netherlands as Systems Engineer and as Technical Team Leader of UMTS group. He received M. Sc. degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands in 1998. He has published several papers at international conferences, journals, IEEE communication magazine and chapters for books. His research interest is in the field of wireless sensor networks.     

Performance Analysis of Header Compression Schemes in Heterogeneous Wireless Multi–Hop Networks

Wireless multi–hop networks are becoming more popular and the demand for multimedia services in these networks rises with the number of their implementations. Header compression schemes that compress the IP/UDP/RTP headers to save bandwidth for multimedia streams were typically evaluated only for individual links, not taking into account the savings that can be achieved using header compression over a complete path. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of three categories of header compression schemes: (i) delta coding, (ii) framed delta coding, and (iii) framed referential coding. We evaluate the performance for these schemes on reliable and unreliable links. We then extend our evaluations to several links constituting a path. As nodes in multi–hop ad-hoc and mesh networks may differ with respect to their capabilities, we assume in our evaluation that (forwarding) nodes may not be able or choose not to perform header compression. We find that the framed referential header compression scheme is the most suitable scheme in case that no or long-delay feedback channels exist. We additionally compare the packet drop savings due to header compression and the combined savings of compression and drops. We again find that the framed referential coding scheme exhibits good performance that can lead to significant header compression and packet drop savings for reasonable bit error rates. Patrick Seeling is a Faculty Research Associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe. He received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (specializing in electrical engineering) from the Technical University of Berlin (TUB), Germany, in 2002. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Arizona State University, Arizona, in 2005. His research interests are in the area of multimedia communications in wired and wireless networks and engineering education. He is a member of the IEEE and the ACM. Martin Reisslein is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe. He received the Dipl.-Ing. (FH) degree from the Fachhochschule Dieburg, Germany, in 1994, and the M.S.E. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in 1996. Both in electrical engineering. He received his Ph.D. in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1998. During the academic year 1994–1995 he visited the University of Pennsylvania as a Fulbright scholar. From July 1998 through October 2000 he was a scientist with the German National Research Center for Information Technology (GMD FOKUS), Berlin and lecturer at the Technical University Berlin. From October 2000 through August 2005 he was an Assistant Professor at ASU. He is editor-in-chief of the IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials and has served on the Technical Program Committees of IEEE Infocom, IEEE Globecom, and the IEEE International Symposium on Computer and Communications. He has organized sessions at the IEEE Computer Communications Workshop (CCW). He maintains an extensive library of video traces for network performance evaluation, including frame size traces of MPEG-4 and H.263 encoded video, at http://trace.eas.asu.edu. He is co-recipient of the Best Paper Award of the SPIE Photonics East 2000 – Terabit Optical Networking conference. His research interests are in the areas of Internet Quality of Service, video traffic characterization, wireless networking, optical networking, and engineering education. Tatiana K. Madsen has received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics from Moscow State University, Russia in 1997 and 2000, respectively. In 2001 she joined Dept. of Communication Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark where she is currently an Assistant Professor. Her research interests lie within the areas of wireless networking with the focus on IP header compression techniques and mathematical modeling of wireless protocols behavior. Frank Fitzek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Technology, Unversity of Aalborg, Denmark heading the Future Vision gorup. He received his diploma (Dipl.-Ing.) degree in electrical engineering from the University of Technology – Rheinish-Westflische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) – Aachen, Germany, in 1997 and his Ph.D. (Dr.-Ing.) in Electrical Engineering from the Technical Univeristy Berlin, Germany in 2002 for quality of service support in wireless CDMA networks. As a visiting student at the Arizona State University he conducted research in the field of video services over wireless networks. He co-founded the start-up company acticom GmbH in Berlin in 1999. In 2002 he was Adjunct Professor at the University of Ferrara, Italy giving lectures on wireless communications and conducting research on multi-hop networks. In 2005 he won the YRP award for the work on MIMO MDC. His current research interests are in the areas of 4G wireless communication networks and cooperative networking. Dr. Fitzek serves on the Editorial Board of the IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials.     

Operation and Performance of Link-Quality Based Channel Assignment Schemes in Adaptive Packet-Switched Mobile Radio Systems

This paper proposes and evaluates a set of physical level assisted cross-layer channel assignment schemes. These schemes allocate an incoming call the available channel that experienced the best channel quality conditions during previous transmissions. To estimate such conditions, three different link quality metrics have been considered. The performance of the proposed schemes has been compared to that of the commonly employed random allocation mechanism. The obtained results show that the proposed schemes improve the system performance of an adaptive packet-switched mobile radio system while also exhibiting the long-term channel uniform use characteristic of the random allocation mechanism. The higher performance attained with the proposed schemes is due to their short-term channel use pattern that results in an implicit cooperation among co-channel interfering cells during the channel allocation process. With the proposed schemes, interfering cells avoid assigning the same channels to simultaneous incoming calls, therefore reducing the experienced interference and increasing the system performance. Javier Gozalvez received an electronics engineering degree from ENSEIRB (Bordeaux, France), a DEA in Electronics from Université de Bordeaux I and a PhD in Mobile Communications from the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, UK). During his PhD, he received a Best Student Paper Award at the Fourth International Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications (WPMC) in 2001. Since October 2002, he is a lecturer at the Signal Theory and Communications Division of the University Miguel Hernández (Elche, Spain). Dr. Javier Gozalvez currently serves as Mobile Radio Senior Editor of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society News publication and as Associate Editor of the IEEE Communication Letters journal. He has also served in the organizing and/or technical committees of various international conferences including IEEE Vehicular Technology Conferences and International Symposiums on Wireless Communications Systems (ISWCS), and as member of the IASTED Technical Committee on Telecommunications. Over the last years, he has researched on various aspects of adaptive radio resource management techniques. His current research interests include: radio resource management, heterogeneous systems, application of wireless communications to the vehicular environment and wireless sensor networking. Juan-Jesús González-Delicado received a BEng in Telecommunications Engineering from the University Miguel Hernández (Elche, Spain), obtaining an award for the best academic records. At the moment, Mr Gonzalez-Delicado is pursuing the final year of the MEng in Telecommunications Engineering at the University Miguel Hernández, conducting research in cross-layer radio resource management and heterogeneous wireless systems.     

Energy Efficiency of Error Control for High Data Rate WPAN

This paper addresses the issue of energy efficiency for error control mechanisms over WPAN systems. An analytical formulation has been developed to study the trade-off between link layer performance and energy consumption for two types of error control schemes: pure ARQ and type II hybrid ARQ protocol. An MC-CDMA-based system is considered. First of all, the analysis has been used to compare different error recovery schemes from the energy efficiency point of view. Moreover, it has been found that, for any channel conditions, there exists an optimal value of the transmit power that maximizes the energy efficiency. The paper also shows how this result can be used to design the power control of an energy efficient CDMA-based communication system. Mauro De Sanctis received the “Laurea' degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Roma “Tor Vergata' in 2002. He is currently a Ph.D. Student and Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics Engineering of the same University. He is involved in the DAVID (DAta and Video Interactive Distribution) satellite mission of the ASI (Italian Space Agency); his research is funded by the ASI. He is also involved in the MAGNET (My personal Adaptive Global NET) European FP6 integrated project and in the SatNEx European network of excellence. He worked on Italian national research projects on satellite-terrestrial systems integration such as SHINES (Satellite and HAP Integrated NEtworks and Services) and CABIS (CDMA for Broadband mobile terrestrial-satellite Integrated Systems). On autumn 2004 he joined the CTIF (Center for TeleInFrastructure), a research center focusing on modern telecommunications technologies located at the University of Aalborg (Denmark). His main areas of interest are: integration of different satellite networks, stratospheric platforms and terrestrial networks in a multi-layered fashion, internetworking and resource management in satellite systems and energy efficiency of WPAN systems. Simone Quaglieri received the “Laurea' degree cum laude in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Roma “Tor Vergata', Italy, in 2004. His thesis, concerning the study of an analytic model for the Raman amplifier in optical systems with high bit rate, has been developed in the same University. During 2002 he worked as stagiaire on the design and development of optical submarine systems at the Elettra company (Telecom Italia group, Italy). He is joining the IRIS (Innovative Radio Integrated Systems) group at the University of Roma “Tor Vergata' as Research Engineer, where he is working on MC-CDMA based technology in the frame of the MAGNET (My Adaptive Global NETwork) European project. He is also working on error recovery mechanisms over satellite systems, and his research is funded by the EC in the frame of the SatNEx (Satellite Network of Excellence) European project. Ernestina Cianca graduated cum laude in Electronics Engineering in 1997 at the University of L'Aquila. She was with Italtel/Siemens (L'Aquila) from 1997 to 1998. She got her Ph.D. degree from the University of Rome Tor Vergata (URTV). The thesis work was on power management in CDMA-based satellite systems. She has been employed by the University of Aalborg, Denmark, in the Wireless Networking Groups (WING), as Research engineer (2000–2001) and as Assistant Professor (2001–2003). In particular, from Sept. 2002 she has been Technical Manager of Aalborg University for the IST-STRIKE project. She is currently Assistant Professor in Telecommunications at the URTV (Dpt. of Electronics Engineering), teaching DSP, Information and Coding. Her research mainly concerns wireless access technologies (CDMA and MIMO-OFDM-based systems), in particular, Radio Resource Management at PHY/MAC layer, ARQ/HARQ, TCP-IP issues over wireless links, integration of terrestrial and satellite systems. She has been the vice-coordinator of the following national research programs: CABIS, on CDMA integrated mobile systems (2000-2002) and SHINES, on satellite-HAP integrated networks for multimedia applications co-financed by MIUR (2002–2004). She is currently working on various European Projects: EU FP6 IP MAGNET (My personal Adaptive Global NET); EU ASIA LINK EAGER-NetWIC (Euro-Asian Network for Strengthening Graduate Education and Research in Wireless Communications); EU Network of excellence NEXWAY. She is author of about 40 papers, on international journals/transactions and proceedings of international conferences. Marina Ruggieri graduated in Electronics Engineering in 1984 at the University of Roma. She was: with FACE-ITT and GTC-ITT (Roanoke, VA) in the High Frequency Division (1985–1986); Research and Teaching Assistant at the University of Roma Tor Vergata (URTV) (1986–1991); Associate Professor in Telecommunications at the University of L'Aquila (1991–1994). Since November 2000 she is Full Professor in Telecommunications at the URTV (Dpt. of Electronics Engineering), teaching DSP, Information and Coding. In 1999 she has been appointed member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE AES Society (2000–2002) and re-elected for the period 2003–2005. Her research mainly concerns space communications and navigation systems (in particular satellites) as well as mobile and multimedia networks. She is the Principal Investigator of: satellite scientific communications missions (DAVID, WAVE) of ASI; national research programs (CABIS) on CDMA integrated mobile systems (2000–2002) and on satellite-HAP integrated networks for multimedia applications (SHINES), co-financed by MIUR (2002–2004). She co-ordinates the URTV Unit in various European Projects: EU FP6 IP MAGNET (My personal Adaptive Global NET); EU ASIA LINK EAGER-NetWIC (Euro-Asian Network for Strengthening Graduate Education and Research in Wireless Communications); EU Network of excellence NEXWAY; GALILEO JU 1st Call – July 2003: VERT (VEhicular Remote Tolling); and in the ASI program on V-band payloads (TRANSPONDERS). She is member of the Editorial Board of Wireless Personal Communications – an International Journal (Kluwer). She was awarded the 1990 Piero Fanti International Prize and she had a nomination for the Harry M. Mimmo Award in 1996 and the Cristoforo Colombo Award in 2002. She is author of about 170 papers, on international journals/transactions and proceedings of international conferences, book chapters and books.     

An Integrated AP for Seamless Interworking of Existing WMAN and WLAN Standards

Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA) systems represent a potential technological foundation for the Fourth Generation of Wireless Mobile Communication Systems (4G) as they can replace wired broadband and, with sufficient widespreading deployment, can significantly cut into the usage of cellular networks in many areas. In this context, the seamless interworking of Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies is an efficient solution to provide the indoor extension of BFWA systems coverage, which would largely contribute to their success and penetration in the market. In this paper, we introduce a novel Access Point (AP), called WMAN/WLAN AP (WWAP), which essentially integrates in a compact device a WMAN Subscriber Station (SS) and a WLAN AP in order to extend the WMAN coverage in-house and to guarantee the end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS). Besides the technical features, the market trends and the usage scenarios where the WWAP might be a cost-effective and a very efficient solution are outlined. Finally, simulation results are carried out in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed AP. Simone Frattasi was born in Rome, Italy, on December 13, 1977. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy, in 2001 and 2002, respectively. He has been employed by the University of Aalborg, Denmark, in the Wireless Networking Group (WING) as Research engineer (2002–2004), working on the IST-STRIKE (Spectrally Efficient Fixed Wireless Network based on Dual Standards) and VeRT (Vehicular Remote Tolling) projects. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Center for TeleInFrastruktur (CTIF), Aalborg University, working on the JADE (Joint Advanced Development Enabling 4G) project, a joint cooperation of CTIF and SAMSUNG. His research interests mainly concern the Fourth Generation of Wireless Mobile Communication Systems (4G), in particular, heterogeneous services and architectures, clustering algorithms and MAC protocols related to the issues of cooperation and relaying in cellular extended short-range communication systems, hybrid and cooperative location techniques, QoS and ARQ/HARQ. Ernestina Cianca graduated cum laude in Electronics Engineering in 1997 at the University of L'Aquila. She was Italtel/Siemens (L'Aquila) from 1997 to 1998. She got her Ph.D. degree from the University of Rome Tor Vergata (URTV). The thesis work was on power management in CDMA-based satellite systems. She has been employed by the University of Aalborg, Denmark, in the Wireless Networking Group (WING), as Research engineer (2000–2001) and as Assistant Professor (2001–2003). She is currently Assistant Professor in Telecommunications at the URTV (Department of Electronics Engineering), teaching DSP, Information and Coding. Her research mainly concerns wireless access technologies (CDMA and MIMO-OFDM-based systems), in particular, Radio Resource Management at PHY/MAC layer, ARQ/HARQ, TCP-IP issues over wireless links, integration of terrestrial and satellite systems. She has been the vice-coordinator of the following national research programs: CABIS, on CDMA integrated mobile systems (2000–2002) and SHINES, on satellite-HAP integrated networks for multimedia applications co-financed by MIUR (2002–2004). She is currently working on various European Projects. She is author of about 40 papers, on international journals/transactions and proceedings of international conferences. Ramjee Prasad was born in Babhnaur (Gaya), Bihar, India, on July 1, 1946. He is now a Dutch Citizen. He received his B.Sc. (Eng) degree from Bihar Institute of Technology, Sindri, India, and his M.Sc. (Eng) and Ph.D. degrees from Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Ranchi, India, in 1968, 1970 and 1979, respectively. Since June 1999, Dr. Prasad has been with Aalborg University, where currently he is Director of the Center for TeleInFrastruktur (CTIF), and holds the chair of wireless information and multimedia communications. He is the coordinator of the European Commission Sixth Framework Integrated Project MAGNET (My personal Adaptive Global NET). He was involved in the European ACTS project FRAMES (Future Radio Wideband Multiple Access Systems) as a DUT project leader. He is a project leader of several international, industrially funded projects. He has published over 500 technical papers, contributed to several books, and has authored, coauthored, and edited eleven books. He has served as a member of advisory and program committees of several IEEE international conferences. In addition, Dr. Prasad is the coordinating editor and editor-in-chief of the Kluwer International Journal on Wireless Personal Communications and a member of the editorial board of other international journals, including the IEEE Communications Magazine and IEE Electronics Communication Engineering Journal. Dr. Prasad is also the founding chairman of the European Center of Excellence in Telecommunications, known as HERMES. He is a fellow of IEE, a fellow of IETE, a senior member of IEEE, a member of The Netherlands Electronics and Radio Society (NERG), and a member of IDA (Engineering Society in Denmark). Dr. Prasad is the advisor of several multinational companies.     

Energy-Aware Interoperability of Manet and 4g Ran Routing

The requirements for telecommunication at 2012 are estimated to be on such demanding level that the 3G technologies will not be sufficient. It is unlikely that the 3G Radio Access Network (RAN) would scale up i.e., Fourth Generation (4G) RAN will need to be developed. The requirements for 4G are demanding and the level of uncertainty is high. The novel ad hoc networking technologies could provide flexible solutions for the 4G RAN and extend the operator radio coverage. Combining these differing communication technologies provides insight for the 4G RAN design. This paper analyses the Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) requirements against the 4G requirements in terms of energy conservation. We find that there is mismatch between these two sets of requirements. Nevertheless, we demonstrate how these two approaches could co-exist in a mutually beneficial way. Finally, we propose interoperability requirements for MANET and 4G routing from the perspective of energy conservation. Harri Paloheimo is a researcher in Networking Technologies Laboratory at Nokia Research Center, Helsinki. In addition, he is a post graduate student in Telecommunications Software and Multimedia Laboratory, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology. He received M.Sc. degree majoring in space technology from Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology in 2000. He currently works on next generation wireless networks with special interest in hybrid and relay networking solutions. Sudhir Dixit is currently a Nokia Research Fellow and works on next generation wireless networks. From 1996 to 2003 he was a Senior Research Manager, focusing on IP/ATM, wireless, content networks, and optical networks. Prior to that he worked at NYNEX Science & Technology (now Verizon), GTE (now Verizon), Codex Motorola, Wang, Harris, and STL (now Nortel Europe Labs). He has published or presented over 150 papers, published three books, and holds 14 patents. He is on the Editorial Board of the IEEE Communications Magazine, Springer's Wireless Personal Communications Journal, and KIC's Journal of Communications and Networks. He received a B.E. degree from MANIT, Bhopal, India, an M.E. degree from BITS, Pilani, India, a Ph.D. degree from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, and an M.B.A. degree from Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne. He is a Fellow of IEE (UK) and IETE (India). He represents Nokia on the Steering Board of the Wireless World Research Forum, and is also Vice Chair of the SIG on Self-Organization of Wireless World Systems. Dr.Tech. Antti Ylä-Jääski is a Professor of Telecommunications Software, Telecommunications Software and Multimedia Laboratory, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology. He is also a Research Fellow in Network Technologies Laboratory, Nokia Research Center, Helsinki. Prof Dr.Tech. Antti Ylä-Jääski received his PhD in ETH Zuerich 1993. Antti has worked with Nokia 1994–2004 in several research management positions with focus on future Internet technologies, mobile networks, applications, services, service management and service architectures. He has published about 30 articles and he holds several approved patents. Antti's current research interests include mobile networking, heterogeneous network environments, services, service architectures, service management and security issues.     

Handover Optimization in Wireless Microcellular ATM Networks

Microcellular solutions in wireless ATM networks increase the network traffic control as a result of frequent handover requests. The blocking probability or the forced termination probability presents a quality of service criterion for evaluation of certain handover techniques. This paper presents a handover protocol that can avoid cell loss and guarantee cell sequence, and a two layer wireless call admission control is studied, using Markov state diagrams, in order to optimize the performance of wireless ATM networks. Spiros Louvros was born in Corfu island, Hellas in 1971. He received his Bachelor in Physics from the University of Crete, Hellas and his Master in telecommunications from the University of Cranfield, U.K. with a scholarship for graduate studies from the Alexandros Onassis Institution. In 2004 he received his PhD from the University of Patras, Hellas, in mobile communications. He has worked for Siemens as a microwave engineer and for Vodafon-Hellas as a switching engineer. His current occupation is section manager in the Maintenance Department in Cosmote S.A. He has participated in several research projects regarding mobile communications. His area of interest is in mobile networks, telecommunication traffic engineering, wireless ATM and optical communications and is documented by over 30 papers in international literature and conference proceedings. He is member of FITCE and Hellenic Physics Union and he holds a position of external researcher in the Wireless telecommunications Lab of the Electrical Engineering department, University of Patras. Dimitrios Karaboulas was born in Patras-Hellas. He received his diploma in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Hellas in 1994. He has been working, since 1994, as an external consultant-specialist in several telecommunication companies in Hellas and he currently holds a company firm for ISO certification, supervision and technical solutions. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Wireless Laboratory of Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, University of Patras, Hellas and his research interests are in the area of Wireless ATM networking, mobile communications and telecommunication network planning. He has participated in several research projects regarding mobile communications and enterprise telecommunication solutions and is documented by over 50 papers in conference proceedings. He is also an active member of the Technical Chamber of Greece. S. Kotsopoulos was born in Argos-Argolidos (Greece) in the year 1952. He received his B.Sc. in Physics in the year 1975 from the University of Thessaloniki, and in the year 1984 got his Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Patras. He did his postgraduate studies in the University of Bradford in United Kingdom. And he is an M.Phil and Ph.D. holder since 1978 and 1985 correspondingly. Currently he is member of the academic staff of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Patras and holds the position of Associate Professor. Since 2004, is the Director of the Wireless Telecommunications Laboratory and develops his professional life teaching and doing research in the scientific area of Telecommunications, with interest in mobile communications, interference, satellite communications, telematics applications, communication services and antennae design. Moreover he is the (co)author of the book titled “mobile telephony”. The research activity is documented by more than 160 publications in scientific journals and proceedings of International Conferences. Associate Professor Kotsopoulos has been the leader of several international and many national research projects. Finally, he is member of the Greek Physicists Society and member of the Technical Chamber of Greece.     

IrBurst Modelling and Performance Analysis in the Presence of Transmission Errors

IrBurst is a session/presentation layer protocol dedicated for high speed large volume information transfer over IrDA links. The protocol is developed by IrDA in order to complement the existing protocol OBEX which is best suited for small files. This paper presents a mathematical model for IrBurst over the IrDA protocol stacks taking into account the presence of bit errors and multiple simultaneously applications. The performance of IrBurst is examined considering TinyTP buffer sizes and the number of IrBurst application connections as parameters. The contribution of this work is to develop a mathematical model for IrBurst, investigate the compatibility of IrBurst to low layer protocols, as well as providing suitable design guidelines for IrDA devices for high performance of IrBurst. Pi Huang received the B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Central Lancashire, U.K., in 2001, the M.Sc. degree in Telecommunications from University College London, U.K., in 2002 and the Ph.D degree in the Personal Wireless Networks and Outdoor Optical Links from Bournemouth University, U.K., in 2006. He is currently working in wireless solution division of British Telecom. His research focuses on performance modelling and analysis as well as discrete-event simulation of wireless communication protocols and wireless communication networks. He has published over 20 papers in the areas of wireless communications. Anthony C. Boucouvalas has worked at GEC Hirst Research Centre, and became Group Leader and Divisional Chief Scientist until 1987, when he joined Hewlett Packard (HP) Laboratories as Project Manager. He joined Bournemouth University in 1994 and became a Professor in Multimedia Communications in 1996, and in 1999 became Director of the Microelectronics and Multimedia Research Centre. His current research interests span the fields of wireless communications, optical fibre communications and components, multimedia communications, and human-computer interfaces, where he has published over 200 papers. He has contributed to the formation of IrDA as an industry standard and he is now a Member of the IrDA Architectures Council. He is a Fellow of Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce, (FRSA) and a Fellow of IEE, (FIEE). In 2002 he became a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (FIEEE), for contributions to optical fibre components and optical wireless communications. He is an Editor of numerous Journals and in the Organising committee of many conferences.     

Effective capacity channel model for frequency-selective fading channels

To efficiently support quality of service (QoS) in future wireless networks, it is important to model a wireless channel in terms of connection-level QoS metrics such as data rate, delay and delay-violation probability. To achieve this, in [7], we proposed and developed a link-layer channel model termed effective capacity (EC) for flat fading channels. In this paper, we apply the effective capacity technique to modeling frequency selective fading channels. Specifically, we utilize the duality between the distribution of a queue with superposition of N i.i.d. sources, and the distribution of a queue with a frequency-selective fading channel that consists of N i.i.d. sub-channels, to model a frequency selective fading channel. In the proposed model, a frequency selective fading channel is modeled by three EC functions; we also propose a simple and efficient algorithm to estimate these EC functions. Simulation results show that the actual QoS metric is closely approximated by the QoS metric predicted by the proposed EC channel model. The accuracy of the prediction using our model can translate into efficiency in admission control and resource reservation. Dapeng Wu received B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 1990, M.E. in Electrical Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, in 1997, and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, in 2003. From July 1997 to December 1999, he conducted graduate research at Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York. During the summers of 1998, 1999 and 2000, he conducted research at Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Sunnyvale, California, on architectures and traffic management algorithms in the Internet and wireless networks for multimedia applications. Since August 2003, he has been with Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, as an Assistant Professor. His research interests are in the areas of networking, communications, multimedia, signal processing, and information and network security. He received the IEEE Circuits and Systems for Video Technology (CSVT) Transactions Best Paper Award for Year 2001. Currently, he is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology and Associate Editor for International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing. He served as Program Chair for IEEE/ACM First International Workshop on Broadband Wireless Services and Applications (BroadWISE 2004); and as TPC member of over 30 conferences. He is Vice Chair of Mobile and wireless multimedia Interest Group (MobIG), Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications, IEEE Communications Society. He is a member of the Best Paper Award Committee, Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications, IEEE Communications Society. He is also Director of Communications, IEEE Gainesville Section. Rohit Negi received the B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India in 1995. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, CA, USA, in 1996 and 2000 respectively, both in Electrical Engineering. He has received the President of India Gold medal in 1995. Since 2000, he has been with the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, where he is an Associate Professor. His research interests include signal processing, coding for communications systems, information theory, networking, cross-layer optimization and sensor networks.     

A secure authentication and billing architecture for wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are gaining growing interest as a promising technology for ubiquitous high-speed network access. While much effort has been made to address issues at physical, data link, and network layers, little attention has been paid to the security aspect central to the realistic deployment of WMNs. We propose UPASS, the first known secure authentication and billing architecture for large-scale WMNs. UPASS features a novel user-broker-operator trust model built upon the conventional certificate-based cryptography and the emerging ID-based cryptography. Based on the trust model, each user is furnished with a universal pass whereby to realize seamless roaming across WMN domains and get ubiquitous network access. In UPASS, the incontestable billing of mobile users is fulfilled through a lightweight realtime micropayment protocol built on the combination of digital signature and one-way hash-chain techniques. Compared to conventional solutions relying on a home-foreign-domain concept, UPASS eliminates the need for establishing bilateral roaming agreements and having realtime interactions between potentially numerous WMN operators. Our UPASS is shown to be secure and lightweight, and thus can be a practical and effective solution for future large-scale WMNs. Yanchao Zhang received the B.E. degree in Computer Communications from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China, in July 1999, and the M.E. degree in Computer Applications from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, in April 2002. Since September 2002, he has been working towards the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA. His research interests are network and distributed system security, wireless networking, and mobile computing, with emphasis on mobile ad hoc networks, wireless sensor networks, wireless mesh networks, and heterogeneous wired/wireless networks. Yuguang Fang received the BS and MS degrees in Mathematics from Qufu Normal University, Qufu, Shandong, China, in 1984 and 1987, respectively, a Ph.D degree in Systems and Control Engineering from Department of Systems, Control and Industrial Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, in January 1994, and a Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University, Massachusetts, in May 1997. From 1987 to 1988, he held research and teaching position in both Department of Mathematics and the Institute of Automation at Qufu Normal University. From September 1989 to December 1993, he was a teaching/research assistant in Department of Systems, Control and Industrial Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, where he held a research associate position from January 1994 to May 1994. He held a post-doctoral position in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University from June 1994 to August 1995. From September 1995 to May 1997, he was a research assistant in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. From June 1997 to July 1998, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. From July 1998 to May 2000, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey. In May 2000, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, where he got early promotion to Associate Professor with tenure in August 2003, and to Full Professor in August 2005. His research interests span many areas including wireless networks, mobile computing, mobile communications, wireless security, automatic control, and neural networks. He has published over one hundred and fifty (150) papers in refereed professional journals and conferences. He received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Award in 2001 and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2002. He also received the 2001 CAST Academic Award. He is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in World. Dr. Fang has actively engaged in many professional activities. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of the ACM. He is an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications, an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, an Editor for ACM Wireless Networks, and an Editor for IEEE Wireless Communications. He was an Editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications: Wireless Communications Series, an Area Editor for ACM Mobile Computing and Communications Review, an Editor for Wiley International Journal on Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, and Feature Editor for Scanning the Literature in IEEE Personal Communications. He has also actively involved with many professional conferences such as ACM MobiCom’02 (Committee Co-Chair for Student Travel Award), MobiCom’01, IEEE INFOCOM’06, INFOCOM’05 (Vice-Chair for Technical Program Committee), INFOCOM’04, INFOCOM’03, INFOCOM’00, INFOCOM’98, IEEE WCNC’04, WCNC’02, WCNC’00 (Technical Program Vice-Chair), WCNC’99, IEEE Globecom’04 (Symposium Co-Chair), Globecom’02, and International Conference on Computer Communications and Networking (IC3N) (Technical Program Vice-Chair).     

A VLSI Implementation of Low Power, Low Data Rate UWB Transceiver for Location and Tracking Applications

A low power, low data rate ultra wideband (UWB) impulse radio transceiver for location and tracking applications is presented in this paper. The UWB receiver is based on a non-coherent, energy collection approach, which makes the receiver highly independent of the shape of the transmitted waveform. The UWB signal is generated by a pulse generator and band-pass filter fixing the signal bandwidth to 1 GHz in the band from 3.1 GHz to 4.1 GHz. The modulation scheme used in this time division multiple access system (TDMA) is Binary Pulse Position Modulation (BPPM). In this paper the system concept, system architecture and RF parts of the VLSI implementation are peresented. The transceiver is implemented in a 0.35 μm SiGe process provided by Austria Microsystems. Sakari Tiuraniemi was born in Kolari, Finland, on March 10, 1977. He received his M.Sc. degree in 2003 in electrical engineering from the University of Oulu, Finland, where he then continued his research on transceiver integration and implementation issues for two years. In 2005 he joined the CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, where he is working towards the PhD degree in electrical engineering. His current research focuses on detector readout electronics for high energy physics applications. Lucian Stoica was born in Roman, Romania, on December 8, 1975. He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Iasi, Romania, in 2000. He was with Telecommunications Department at the Technical University of Iasi from 2000 to 2003. As a teaching assistant he was involved in development of digital design and FPGA prototyping. In 2003, he joined Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland where he is working towards the PhD degree in electrical engineering. His current research focuses on low complexity SiGe BiCMOS circuit transceivers design for wireless communications, particularly on ultrawideband impulse radio systems. Alberto Rabbachin received the M.S. from the University of Bologna, Italy, in 2001. In 2001, during his undergraduate studies, he visited the Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Finland. In 2002 he joined Agilent Technologies for an internship and since 2003 he is working towards the PhD degree at the Centre for Wireless Communications. His research interests include UWB systems with emphasis on receiver structures, synchronization and ranging techniques. Ian Oppermann was born in Maryborough, Australia, in 1969. He completed a BSc, BE and PhD at the University of Sydney Australia in 1990, 1992 and 1997, respectively. His PhD was related to physical layer aspects of novel spread spectrum/CDMA systems. In 1996 he founded SP Communications, a company which developed network planning tools for 3G mobile systems and IP cores for WLAN chipsets. He became a Docent (Adjunct Professor) at the University of Oulu, Finland in 2001 and subsequently joined the Centre for Wireless Communications (CWC) in 2002 as Assistant Director, becoming Director in 2003. From the beginning of 2005 is the acting Director for Short Range Communications Research at CWC. His main research interests are spread spectrum systems and UWB. Dr. Oppermann has co-edited several books, holds several patents for wireless communications and has over 80 publications in international journals and conferences.     

Sequence Number Aided Source Routing for Ad-Hoc Networks

Wireless multihop mobile networks, also known as ad hoc networks, are characterized by stochastic topology variations. Random movements of mobile hosts in and out of each other's range encumber smooth system operation and impose limitations on the network performance. Various routing protocols suitable for such networks have been proposed however implementation and performance issues are still considered top research priorities. This paper proposes a new reactive protocol that introduces the use of sequence numbers for evaluating validity of cached routing information when source routing and route caching are used. The new protocol reduces the possibility of using and spreading across the network stale routing information therefore reduces the overhead involved in finding a route. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed protocol we compare it, through a detailed simulation model, with Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol which also uses source routing and route caching. Results prove that the proposed protocol effectively reduces use of stale routing information, improving performance compared to DSR in terms of both delivery ratio and routing overhead. Evangelos Papapetrou holds a Diploma and a Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He is currently a visiting lecturer in the Computer Science Department at the University of Ioannina, Greece, where he is engaged in teaching and research on Mobile and Satellite Communications and Telecommunications Networks. His research interests include traffic analysis and design of Satellite networks, Internet over Satellites, IP networking, routing in networks with periodic or stochastic varying topologies, MANETs and QoS in wireless mobile systems. He has served as a reviewer in several journals and Conferences relevant to mobile communications. In the past he has participated in Greek and European projects regarding satellite communications. He was also involved in COST Actions 253 and 272 and in many European projects undertaken by the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH). He is a Member of IEEE and the Joint VTS & AES Greece Chapter and a member of Technical Chamber of Greece. Fotin-Niovi Pavlidou holds a Diploma and a Ph.D. in Telecommunications networks from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki where she is currently engaged in teaching and research on Mobile Communications and Telecommunications Networks. Her research interests include traffic analysis and design of networks, performance evaluation and QoS studies of mobile satellite communications and multimedia applications over Internet. She is a permanent reviewer in IEEE journals, she has served as Guest-Editor of Special issues on “Ad-Hoc Networks”, “HAPs and applications”, “PLC Systems and Applications” for International Journals like IJWIN, WPC etc. She is the author of a Chapter on Fixed Access Techniques (TDMA/FDMA) in the Wiley Encyclopedia on Telecommunications (Editor:Prof. John Proakis), and of many editions of COST Actions on “Satellite Systems”, “Spread Spectrum Techniques” etc. She is the Delegate of Greece in the European COST Program on Telecommunications (1998–2004) and served as Chairperson for the COST262 Action “Spread Spectrum systems and techniques for wired and wireless Systems”. She is permanently included in the Program Committee of many IEEE conferences (PIMRC, GLOBECOM, VTC'2001, ISSSTA'2000) and she was the Chairperson of the IST Mobile Summit 2002, the annual conference of EU-Unit E4 in the field of Wireless Communications in Thessaloniki, June 16–20, 2002. She is involved in many European Projects (research or Education): Telematics Applications (INTERVUSE, ATTACH, etc.), IST (ISMAEL, B-Bone, SatNEx, OPERA, etc.), Tempus programs on Wireless Systems for Albania, Bulgaria, Poland. She is a Senior Member of IEEE (Communications and Vehicular Technology Society), currently chairing the Joint VTS & AES Greece Chapter.     

Cross-Layering Approaches in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Wireless ad hoc networks are temporary formed, infrastructureless networks. Due to the unstable channel conditions and network connectivity, their characteristics impose serious challenges in front of network designers. The layering approach to network design does not fit the ad hoc environment well. Therefore, various cross-layering approaches, where protocol layers actively interact, exchange inherent layer information and fine tune their parameters according to the network status are becoming increasingly popular. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the latest cross-layering approaches for wireless ad hoc networks supported by several examples. A special emphasis is put on the link and network layer related cross-layer designs. Several link adaptation and efficient service discovery schemes are elaborated through analytical and simulation studies. Their performance shows the potentials of the cross-layering for boosting system characteristics in wireless ad hoc networks. Liljana Gavrilovska currently holds a position of full professor at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University “St. Cyril and Metodij” – Skopje, Macedonia. She is chief of Telecommunications Laboratory and teaches undergraduate courses in telecommunication networks, data transmission and switching and traffic theory, and graduate courses in wireless, mobile and personal networks, teletraffic engineering and planning, and broadband multiservices networks. In 2000 she joined the Center for PersonKommunikation, Aalborg University, Denmark, as a visiting professor and during 2001--2002 she held a position of associate research professor at the same university. Currently she holds a part-time position of associated research professor with Center for Teleinfrastructur (CTIF). Prof. Gavrilovska was involved in several EU (ACTS ASAP, IST PACWOMAN, MAGNET, TEMPUS) and national/international projects. She published numerous conference and journal papers and participated in several workshops. At the moment she is working on the book “Ad Hoc Networking Towards Seamless Communications” together with prof. R. Prasad. Her research interests include wireless and personal area networks, ad hoc networking, networking protocols, traffic analysis, QoS, and optimization techniques. She is a senior member of IEEE and serves as a Chair of Macedonian Communication Chapter.     

Convergence Towards 4G: A Novel View of Integration

Integration and convergence of different access technology is a key concept of 4G systems. This integration also includes the interface among terrestrial and aero-space components, whose importance has been so far under-estimated and not deeply understood. In this paper, a layered model of the 4G integrated network vision is introduced, highlighting details about the aero-space component. The concept of integration is discussed under different viewpoints, particularly highlighing integration among aero-space segments and related services (i.e. navigation). Examples of integration scenarios identified and investigated in the frame of research programs co-funded by Italian institutions are also displayed in the paper.Ernestina Cianca graduated cum laude in Electronics Engineering in 1997 at the University of L’Aquila. She was Italtel/Siemens (L’Aquila) from 1997 to 1998. She got her Ph.D. degree from the University of Rome Tor Vergata (URTV). The thesis work was on power management in CDMA-based satellite systems. She has been employed by the University of Aalborg, Denmark, in the Wireless Networking Groups (WING), as Research engineer (2000–2001) and as Assistant Professor (2001–2003). In particular, from Sept. 2002 she has been Technical Manager of Aalborg University for the IST-STRIKE project. She is currently Assistant Professor in Telecommunications at the URTV (Dpt. of Electronics Engineering), teaching DSP, Information and Coding. Her research mainly concerns wireless access technologies (CDMA and MIMO-OFDM-based systems), in particular, Radio Resource Management at PHY/MAC layer, ARQ/HARQ, TCP-IP issues over wireless links, integration of terrestrial and satellite systems. She has been the vice-coordinator of the following national research programs: CABIS, on CDMA integrated mobile systems (2000–2002) and SHINES, on satellite-HAP integrated networks for multimedia applications co-financed by MIUR (2002–2004). She currently working on various European Projects. She is author of about 40 papers, on international journals/transactions and proceedings of international conferences.Mauro De Sanctis received the “Laurea” degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Roma “Tor Vergata” in 2002. He is currently a Ph.D. Student and Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics Engineering of the same University. He is involved in the DAVID (DAta and Video Interactive Distribution) satellite mission of the ASI (Italian Space Agency); his research is funded by the ASI. He is also involved in the MAGNET (My personal Adaptive Global NET) European FP6 integrated project and in the SatNEx European network of excellence. He worked on Italian national research projects on satellite-terrestrial systems integration such as SHINES (Satellite and HAP Integrated Networks and Services) and CABIS (CDMA for Broadband mobile terrestrial-satellite Integrated Systems). On autumn 2004 he joined the CTIF (Center for TeleInFrastructure), a research center focusing on modern telecommunications technologies located at the University of Aalborg (Denmark). His main areas of interest are: integration of different satellite networks, stratospheric platforms and terrestrial networks in a multi-layered fashion, internetworking and resource management in satellite systems and energy efficiency of WPAN systems.Marina Ruggieri graduated in Electronics Engineering in 1984 at the University of Roma. She was: with FACE-ITT and GTC-ITT (Roanoke, VA) in the High Frequency Division (1985–1986); Research and Teaching Assistant at the University of Roma Tor Vergata (URTV) (1986–1991); Associate Professor in Telecommunications at the University of L’Aquila (1991–1994). Since November 2000 she is Full Professor in Telecommunications at the URTV (Dpt. of Electronics Engineering), teaching DSP, Information and Coding. Since 1999 she is member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE AES Society. Since 2004 she is member of the Technical-Scientific Committee of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Her research mainly concerns space communications and navigation systems (in particular satellites) as well as mobile and multimedia networks. She is the Principal Investigator of: satellite scientific communications missions (DAVID, WAVE) of ASI; national research programs (CABIS) on CDMA integrated mobile systems (2000–2002) and on satellite-HAP integrated networks for multimedia applications (SHINES), co-financed by MIUR (2002–2004). She co-ordinates the URTV Unit in various European Projects: EU FP6 IP MAGNET (My personal Adaptive Global NET); EU ASIA LINK EAGER-NetWIC (Euro-Asian Network for Strengthening Graduate Education and Research in Wireless Communications); EU Network of excellence NEXWAY; GALILEO JU 1st Call – July 2003: VERT (VEhicular Remote Tolling); and in the ASI program on V-band payloads (TRANSPONDERS). She is Editor for Space Systems of the IEEE Transactions on AES. She was awarded the 1990 Piero Fanti International Prize and she had a nomination for the Harry M. Mimmo Award in 1996 and the Cristoforo Colombo Award in 2002. She is author of about 180 papers, on international journals/transactions and proceedings of international conferences, book chapters and books.     

Cross-layer modeling of adaptive wireless links for QoS support in heterogeneous wired-wireless networks

Future wired-wireless multimedia networks require diverse quality-of-service (QoS) support. To this end, it is essential to rely on QoS metrics pertinent to wireless links. In this paper, we develop a cross-layer model for adaptive wireless links, which enables derivation of the desired QoS metrics analytically from the typical wireless parameters across the hardware-radio layer, the physical layer and the data link layer. We illustrate the advantages of our model: generality, simplicity, scalability and backward compatibility. Finally, we outline its applications to power control, TCP, UDP and bandwidth scheduling in wireless networks. The work by Q. Liu and G. B. Giannakis are prepared through collaborative participation in the Communications and Networks Consortium sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory under the Collaborative Technology Alliance Program, Cooperative Agreement DAAD19-01-2-0011. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation thereon. The work by S. Zhou is supported by UConn Research Foundation internal grant 445157. Qingwen Liu (S’04) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering and information science in 2001, from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 2003, from the University of Minnesota (UMN). He currently pursues his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota (UMN). His research interests lie in the areas of communications, signal processing, and networking, with emphasis on cross-layer analysis and design, quality of service support for multimedia applications over wired-wireless networks, and resource allocation. Shengli Zhou (M’03) received the B.S. degree in 1995 and the M.Sc. degree in 1998, from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), both in electrical engineering and information science. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota, 2002, and joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Connecticut, 2003. His research interests lie in the areas of communications and signal processing, including channel estimation and equalization, multi-user and multi-carrier communications, space time coding, adaptive modulation, and cross-layer designs. He serves as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications since Feb. 2005. G. B. Giannakis (Fellow’97) received his Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, 1981. From September 1982 to July 1986 he was with the University of Southern California (USC), where he received his MSc. in Electrical Engineering, 1983, MSc. in Mathematics, 1986, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, 1986. After lecturing for one year at USC, he joined the University of Virginia in 1987, where he became a professor of Electrical Engineering in 1997. Since 1999 he has been a professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he now holds an ADC Chair in Wireless Telecommunications. His general interests span the areas of communications and signal processing, estimation and detection theory, time-series analysis, and system identification -- subjects on which he has published more than 200 journal papers, 350 conference papers and two edited books. Current research focuses on transmitter and receiver diversity techniques for single- and multi-user fading communication channels, complex-field and space-time coding, multicarrier, ultra-wide band wireless communication systems, cross-layer designs and sensor networks. G. B. Giannakis is the (co-) recipient of six paper awards from the IEEE Signal Processing (SP) and Communications Societies (1992, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004). He also received the SP Society’s Technical Achievement Award in 2000. He served as Editor in Chief for the IEEE SP Letters, as Associate Editor for the IEEE Trans. on Signal Proc. and the IEEE SP Letters, as secretary of the SP Conference Board, as member of the SP Publications Board, as member and vice-chair of the Statistical Signal and Array Processing Technical Committee, as chair of the SP for Communications Technical Committee and as a member of the IEEE Fellows Election Committee. He has also served as a member of the IEEE-SP Society’s Board of Governors, the Editorial Board for the Proceedings of the IEEE and the steering committee of the IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications.     

QoS-driven asynchronous uplink subchannel allocation algorithms for space-time OFDM-CDMA systems in wireless networks

In order to support the diverse Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for differentiated data applications in broadband wireless networks, advanced techniques such as space-time coding (STC) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) are implemented at the physical layer. However, the employment of such techniques evidently affects the subchannel-allocation algorithms at the medium access control (MAC) layer. In this paper, we propose the QoS-driven cross-layer subchannel-allocation algorithms for data transmissions over asynchronous uplink space-time OFDM-CDMA wireless networks. We mainly focus on QoS requirements of maximizing the best-effort throughput and proportional bandwidth fairness, while minimizing the upper-bound of scheduling delay. Our extensive simulations show that the proposed infrastructure and algorithms can achieve high bandwidth fairness and system throughput while reducing scheduling delay over wireless networks. Xi Zhang (S’89-SM’98) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Xidian University, Xi’an, China, the M.S. degree from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, all in electrical engineering and computer science, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science (Electrical Engineering—Systems) from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. He is currently an Assistant Professor and the Founding Director of the Networking and Information Systems Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA. He was an Assistant Professor and the Founding Director of the Division of Computer Systems Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Beijing Information Technology Engineering Institute, Beijing, China, from 1984 to 1989. He was a Research Fellow with the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, under a Fellowship from the Chinese National Commission of Education. He worked as a Summer Intern with the Networks and Distributed Systems Research Department, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hills, NJ, and with AT&T Laboratories Research, Florham Park, NJ, in 1997. He has published more than 80 technical papers. His current research interests focus on the areas of wireless networks and communications, mobile computing, cross-layer designs and optimizations for QoS guarantees over mobile wireless networks, wireless sensor and Ad Hoc networks, wireless and wireline network security, network protocols design and modeling for QoS guarantees over multicast (and unicast) wireless (and wireline) networks, statistical communications theory, random signal processing, and distributed computer-control systems. Dr. Zhang received the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2004 for his research in the areas of mobile wireless and multicast networking and systems. He is currently serving as an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, an Associated Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, and and Associated Editor for the IEEE Communications Letters, and is also currently serving as a Guest Editor for the IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine for the Special Issues of “Next Generation of CDMA vs. OFDMA for 4G Wireless Applications”. He has served or is serving as the Panelist on the U.S. National Science Foundation Research-Proposal Review Panel in 2004, the WiFi-Hotspots/WLAN and QoS Panelist at the IEEE QShine 2004, as the Symposium Chair for the IEEE International Cross-Layer Designs and Protocols Symposium within the IEEE International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC) 2006, the Technical Program Committee Co-Chair for the IEEE IWCMC 2006, the Poster Chair for the IEEE QShine 2006, the Publicity Co-Chair for the IEEE WirelessCom 2005, and as the Technical Program Committee members for IEEE GLOBECOM, IEEE ICC, IEEE WCNC, IEEE VTC, IEEE QShine, IEEE WoWMoM, IEEE WirelessCom, and IEEE EIT. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Jia Tang (S’03) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 2001. He is currently a Research Assistant working towards the Ph.D. degree in the Networking and Information Systems Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA. His research interests include mobile wireless communications and networks, with emphasis on cross-layer design and optimizations, wireless quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning for mobile multimedia networks, wireless diversity techniques, and wireless resource allocation. Mr. Tang received the Fouraker Graduate Research Fellowship Award from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University in 2005.