Research seminar "Urban-X: Cognitive Wireless Mesh Networks"

Abstract

The practical deployment of Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) using unlicensed ISM band within dense urban scenarios is difficult due to the increasing number of wireless devices operating in those licensed exempt frequencies. For this reason, current research on WMN is directed towards novel and more flexible network paradigms which would allow the WMN to dynamically adapt to the environmental interference conditions. Here, we propose Urban-X, which is a novel cross-layer architecture for self-organizing WMNs over urban scenarios. Urban-X combines elements from classical Multi-Radio Multi-Channel (MC-MR) technology with novel Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) mechanisms. The self-organizing behavior is achieved through a novel distributed channel assignment scheme, an adaptive multi-path routing scheme and a flexible layer 2.5 channel and path scheduler algorithm. Based on the current interference on each channel, Urban-X performs channel allocation among the nodes of the WMN, updates the available paths towards the gateways and distributes the internal traffic among the paths/channels in order to maximize the network throughput while minimizing interference to the external networks. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our cross-layer approach in terms of increased throughput compared to
traditional routing schemes for WMNs, and its adaptiveness to the variation in channel conditions and external user traffic.

Speaker biography

Andreas J. Kassler is currently Full Professor of Computer Science at Karlstads Universitet, Karlstad, Sweden, which he joined in 2005. From 2003 to 2004, Dr. Andreas J. Kassler was Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Dr. Andreas J. Kassler is co-chairing the Distributed Systems and Communication group (DISCO) and maintains an active research program in the fields of wireless networking and distributed multimedia systems.

Dr. Andreas J. Kassler received the Docent title (Habilitation) in Computer Science from Karlstads Universitet in 2006 and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Universität Ulm, Germany, in 2002. He received the M. Sc. degree in Mathematics/Computer Science in 1995 from Universität Augsburg, Germany.

Currently, Dr. Andreas J. Kassler is member of the steering committee of the Department of Computer Science of Karlstads Universitet, where he teaches courses at the M. Sc. and Ph. D. levels on wireless networking, advanced topics in computer networking and distributed systems. His main research interests include Wireless Meshed Networks, Ad-Hoc Networks, Future Internet, Multimedia Networking, Quality of Service, and P2P systems.

He is co-author of around 100 peer reviewed conference and journal publications, 4 European or international patents, co-editor of a book published in the LNCS book series of Springer. He served as a guest editor of a feature topic in EURASIP Wireless Communications and Networking Journal, and served as Associate Editor on the editorial boards of some refereed international journals, such as: Journal of Internet Engineering, International Journal On Advances in Networks and Services. Finally, he was appointed as Editor-in Chief of the IARIA International Journal On Advances in Internet Technology.