Abstract

For years, the promise of seamless access to any data, from any source, to any device has remained just that...a promise. While devices have become more powerful, the software features that can exploit that power has lagged behind. But with technologies such as Integrated WiFi, Bluetooth, Global Positioning Systems, Connection Management, Voice Recognition, and Java for Embedded Devices, seamless solutions are now becoming integrated at an ever increasing pace.

In this tutorial, we will explore the many innovations that make up the world of pervasive computing. We'll begin by looking at many of the foundation components that will give rise to the seamless solutions of tomorrow. We'll take a live look into IBM's "living" lab which explores many aspects of device interoperability, collaboration, and ubiquitous information access. You will see interactive healthcare environments, voice recognition systems, entertainment device integrations, innovative mobility extensions, and more. We'll conclude this tutorial session with a hands-on demonstration of IBM's Mobile Channel, which delivers enterprise applications such as email, calendars, enterprise applications, and web content such as media files to Smartphones, PDA's, even the smallest devices. You will witness how the infrastructure can then go to work for you, data mining the right information, based on the ratings that you apply to the digital media. Finally you will learn how aspects of globalization and accessibility create immersive and innovative solutions which are applicable to a diverse multinational culture.

Abstract

Broadband wireless access is the third wireless revolution, after cellphones (1990s) and Wi-Fi (2000s). It is viewed by many carriers and cable operators as a “disruptive” technology and rightly so. The broadcast nature of wireless transmission offers ubiquity and immediate access for both fixed and mobile users, clearly a vital element of next-generation quadruple play (i.e., voice, video, data, and mobility) services. Unlike wired access (copper, coax, fiber), a large portion of the deployment costs is incurred only when a subscriber signs up for service. An increasing number of municipal governments around the world are financing the deployment of multihop wireless networks with the overall aim of providing ubiquitous Internet access and enhanced public services.

This presentation will provide a comparative assessment of the key issues and technologies underpinning promising broadband wireless access solutions such as 802.16 (Wi-Max), long-range/multihop 802.11 (Wi-Fi), wireless DOCSIS, 3G/4G, mobile digital TV broadcast (DVB-H, MediaFLO), 802.20 (mobile broadband), 802.21 (media independent handoff and interoperability), and the emerging 802.22 (wireless regional area networks) standard. Key topics include licensed and unlicensed spectrum consideration; reliable physical layer transmission using multiple antennas; multichannel medium access protocols with QoS provisioning; wireless access topologies: point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, peer-to-peer multihop (mesh); wireless multimedia services; mobility; cognitive radio technologies; advanced wireless security; wireless/wireline integration.

Abstract

Wireless technologies have become increasingly popular in recent years. A large number of financial institutions, defense agencies, businesses, and home users are using wireless technologies in their environments. These users should be aware of the security risks associated with the wireless networks.

We start with discussing the existing wireless standards and the efforts taken by the industry. Today, wireless networks are a fast growing area of growth and importance. It is perceived to provide ubiquitous networking connections. IEEE 802.16 (also known as WIMAX), provides users with high-speed broadband access to the Internet. Whereas, IEEE 802.11 (also known as WIFI), allows users to establish wireless connections within a local area network. In addition, IEEE 802.15 (also known as bluetooth) is providing short-range connectivity for portable devices. The mechanism in 802.11 provided Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) to protect the wireless link. WEP was a subject of criticism for many years and this criticism was answered by the development of IEEE 802.11i. We briefly discuss what the problems with WEP were and how 802.11i addressed those problems. After surveying the existing standards and associated strengths and weakness, we discuss briefly some of the products available on the market for wireless LAN security. Finally, we consider the wireless network security as viewed from an attacker’s perspective. We survey the threats associated with the wireless network and build a formal threat model based on some key properties. Intuitively, the plan is to analyze the threats associated with a wireless network. Then, we discuss the causes, consequences, and proposed preventions of these threats.

Abstract

Within the short span of a decade, Wi-Fi hotspots have revolutionized the Internet service provisioning. With the increasing popularity and growing demand for more public Wi-Fi hotspots, network service providers are facing a daunting task. Wi-Fi hotspots typically require extensive wired infrastructure to access the backhaul network, which is often expensive and time consuming to provide in such situations. Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) offer an easy and economical alternative for providing broadband wireless internet connectivity. Besides broadband internet connectivity, WMN envision a numerous applications such as building automation, VoIP over wireless, video delivery, home networking etc. Although WMNs have very interesting applications, many challenging issues such as low capacity, increasing interference are impeding their progress. This tutorial provides a comprehensive coverage of the various issues pertinent to WMNs. We first introduce the concepts of WMNs and the multitude of applications envisaged for this upcoming technology. We will systematically explore the various issues and challenges associated with each layer of the protocol stack. We then provide a detailed description of the some important architectural designs/proposals from industry and academia that will capture the current start of the art solutions. We also cover key results from our research and other active researchers that will have a great impact on the design of these networks. We plan to demonstrate various practical design and implementation problems using a real WMN comprising of a set of Mesh Routers. This will help attendees to quickly grasp the tutorial material more clearly and can also help in catalyzing new research ideas in the attendees. Finally we conclude the tutorial by outlining and describing various open challenges which can catalyze new research efforts. After attending this tutorial, attendees with a clear understanding of the mesh technology will be able to build their own WMN or test beds. The knowledge gained from this tutorial can be very helpful for researchers and engineers to build better protocols and products for WMNs.