I am interested in devising protocols and
building prototype systems that address infrastructural issues in tetherless computing
such as the following:
- How fast can a mobile device detect that it is in an access point? Can it do it
within 50ms, so that voice calls are not disrupted? And if the mobile
has more than one NIC, how often should it check for networks on each NIC?
- How can a mobile establish a session with a server in a data center and
maintain it despite its movement, disconnection, and change in air interface ?
- How can a mobile set up a nearby proxy to cache data for it when it is disconnected?
And if it moves, how does it know which nearby proxy to use? Can we use network coordinate
systems to help us with this decision?
- How does a mobile endpoint establish its identity and transfer
data in a way that is robust, secure, and private?
- If we have lots of access points, some of them will surely fail. How can we
efficiently detect failed access points, even if the failure is of the wireless NIC (so that
a simple protocol like SNMP on the wired side will not detect this failure)
- An interesting approach to deal with disconnection is Delay Tolerant Networking. How can we set up robust and efficient routes in DTN style networks? How about flow control in such networks?
- Can we bring queueing analysis to bear to understand tetherless systems, and, in particular, Multimedia Messaging Systems (MMS), which are a special case?
- How can we organize the enourmous data in the centralized servers to be efficiently searchable? Can we use Distributed Hash Table technology for this? Or, should we use flooding? Or both?
- What sort of applications can we build using the tetherless computing infrastructure? How about working with doctors who need access to large image files when away from their desk? Or plant operations staff who need blueprints on site? Or maybe even race car pit crew who need engine data as the car zooms past?
Spring 2005 Term research: Graduate students
- Aaditeshwar Seth: A session protocol (Opportunistic Connection Management Protocol) for session management between a mobile and a proxy over multiple network interfaces that can all be mobile and disconnected. Also working on transport layer issues.
- Nabeel Ahmed: AI techniques for mobility prediction
- Majid Ghaderi: MMS modeling; queueing models for DTN links
Spring 2005 Term research: Summer interns
Summer interns are currently working with me on the following projects:
-
Akshat Aggarwal: Supporting tetherless Jabber clients over the tetherless computing architecture.
- Harshit Chopra: Studying algorithms for decentralized aggregate queries
- Gyanit Singh: Adopting the Kinitos Application Management System to manage application distribution to PlanetLab nodes and to disconnected mobiles
- Rohit Garg: Building (finally!) the Mindstream blog app over DTN2/TCA.
- Markose Thomas: Studying energy-efficient routing in low-density wireless mobile networks and building a data mule
- Rajat Jain : Implementation of a search client for a hybrid peer-to-peer network by modifying the Gnutella client.
- Henry Pan: Algorithms that allow automatic detection of WiFi access point failures
You can find out more at our research web site.
If you are looking for graduate study with me at Waterloo, please send in an application to Waterloo. Remember that Waterloo accepts students in January, May, and September (though most students start in September). I need to see your
GRE scores and reference letters so that I can compare you with other applicants.
Only after, send me email telling me about your interests. This will prompt me
to go look at your application. If I am interested, I will get in touch with you.
Summer interns for 2006
If you would like to apply for a summer internship, send me email with a copy of your resume attached. I am especially interested in applicants from IITs.
Acknowledgments
This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs Program. Thanks also to Intel Corp., Sprint ATL, Nortel Networks Institute, and Sun Microsystems for their generous financial support.