IEEE ISWCS 2007

Keynote Speakers

Andreas F. Molisch

Title: MIMO Antennas, Propagation Channels, and their Impact on System Design

Abstract: Wireless multiple-input - multiple-output (MIMO) systems, defined as systems that have multiple antenna elements at both link ends, can greatly enhance the robustness and spectral efficiency of wireless communications. While most of the literature has concentrated on signal processing and space-time coding for MIMO, the fundamental performance limits are determined by the propagation channel and the way it is "excited" and "sampled" by the transmit and receive antenna arrays, respectively. In this talk, we first give an overview of array design, in particular, the question of how close we can space antennas. Subsequently, we describe typical propagation channels and how they impact system capacity; we also consider ways to describe the interaction between antennas and channels. Throughout the talk, we will show how the antenna and channel properties impact system capacity, diversity, and other system performance parameters.

Dr. Andy Molisch is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, and also Professor and Chairholder for Radio Systems at the Department of Electro- and Information Technology at Lund University, Sweden. His areas of interest are wireless propagation, MIMO, UWB, and cooperative communications. He has authored four books, eleven bookchapters, some 100 journal papers, and numerous conference contributions, as well as 60 patents. He is active in standardization and has been chairman of several standardization organizations: IEEE 802.15.3a, IEEE 802.15.4a (chairman of channel modeling group), IEEE 802.11n, Multiband-OFDM alliance (chairman of scalability group), COST273 (chairman of the channel modeling group), and chairman of Commission C of URSI (International Union of Radio Science). Dr. Molisch is a Fellow of the IEEE, an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, and recipient of several awards.

Mario Gerla

Title: Peer to Peer Urban Sensing from Mobile Platforms

Abstract: There has been growing interest in urban surveillance using vehicles that monitor the environment, classify the events, e.g., license plate reading, and exchange metadata with neighbors in a peer-to-peer fashion. The idea is to create a totally distributed index of all the events, to be accessed by users. For instance, the Department of Transportation extracts traffic congestion statistics; the Department of Health monitors pollutants, and; the Police carries out forensic investigations. Mobile, vehicular sensing differs significantly from fixed (wireless) sensing. The vehicles have no strict limits on battery life, processing power and storage capabilities. Moreover they can generate an enormous volume of data, making current sensor harvesting solutions inadequate. The talk describes MobEyes, a middleware solution that diffuses data summaries to create a distributed index of the massive sensed data base. We discuss the challenges of designing and maintain such a system, from information dissemination to harvesting, routing and security.

Dr. Mario Gerla received a graduate degree in engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in 1966, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from UCLA in 1970 and 1973. He became IEEE Fellow in 2002. After working for Network Analysis Corporation, New York, from 1973 to 1976, he joined the Faculty of the Computer Science Department at UCLA where he is now Professor. His research interests cover distributed computer communication systems and wireless networks. He has designed and implemented various network protocols (channel access, clustering, routing and transport) under DARPA and NSF grants. Currently he is leading the ONR MINUTEMAN project at UCLA, with focus on robust, scalable network architectures for unmanned intelligent agents in defense and homeland security scenarios. He also conducts research on scalable TCP transport for the Next Generation Internet.

David Gesbert

Title: Adaptation, coordination and distributed resource allocation in interference-limited wireless networks

Abstract: A sensible design of wireless networks involves striking a good balance between an aggressive reuse of the spectral resource throughout the network and managing the resulting co-channel interference. Traditionally this problem has been tackled using a "dive and conquer" approach. The latter consists of deploying the network with a static or semi-dynamic pattern of resource reutilization. The chosen reuse factor, while sacrificing a substantial amount of efficiency, brings the interference to a tolerable level. The resource can then be managed in each cell so as to optimize the per cell capacity, using advanced air interface design.

In this talk we focus our attention on the overall network capacity as a measure of system performance. We consider the problem of resource allocation and adaptive transmission in multicell scenarios. As a key instance, the problem of joint scheduling and power control simultaneously in multiple transmit-receive links, which employ capacity-achieving adaptive codes, is studied. In principle, the solution of such an optimization hinges on tough issues such as the computational complexity and the requirement for heavy receiver-to-transmitter feedback and, for cellular networks, cell-to-cell channel state information (CSI) signaling. We give asymptotic properties pertaining to rate-maximizing power control and scheduling in multicell networks. We then present some promising leads for substantial complexity and signaling reduction via the use of newly developed distributed and game theoretic techniques.

Dr. David Gesbert is Professor in the Mobile Communications Dept., Eurecom Institute, France. He obtained the Ph.D degree from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications, France, in 1997. From 1997 to 1999 he has been a research fellow at the Smart Antenna Research Group of the Information Systems Laboratory, Stanford University. In 1999, he was a founding engineer of Iospan Wireless Inc, San Jose, Ca.,a startup company pioneering MIMO-OFDM (now Intel). Between 2001 and 2003 he has been with the Department of Informatics, University of Oslo. D. Gesbert has published about 110 papers and several patents all in the area of signal processing, communications, and wireless networks, three of the papers receiving best paper awards. D. Gesbert was a co-editor of several special issues on wireless networks and communications theory, for IEEE JSAC (2003, 2007), EURASIP JASP (2004, 2007), Wireless Communications Magazine (2006). He is a member of the IEEE Signal Processing for Communications Technical Committee. He co-authored the book "Space time wireless communications: From parameter estimation to MIMO systems", Cambridge Press, 2006. He was co-organizer, with Prof. Dirk Slock, of the IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications, 2006 (Cannes, France).

Hans Martin Ritt

Title: Development of complex wireless systems requires new development technologies

Abstract: Developers of signal processing and communication systems are facing a constantly increasing demand for more complex and powerful products that need to be developed in very short time frames. Some industry watchers have predicted an upcoming "productivity crisis" for the implementation of signal processing and other embedded systems in programmable logic or software, respectively. However, they often take a crisis view based on an incorrect measurement: the number of lines of code that an engineer can write in a day. This measure does not take into account the level of programming abstraction. Based on the technological evolution of the hardware combined with new ways to develop software, there have been always architectural and algorithmic improvements that create breakthrough performance advances. Each of these advances was made possible by new development tools that addressed the critical problems of the day.

Mastering the design of computationally intensive signal processing systems calls for a development environment that lets designers accurately model and simulate the behavior of an entire system, including the interaction of hardware and software subsystems as well as the environment in which the system must operate. Traditional procedural programming and hardware description languages and incremental extensions to those languages are not appropriate for modeling this level of algorithmic complexity. For decades, standard specifications, textbooks and engineers' whiteboards have used block diagrams to specify signal flow, timing and system architecture. It is not surprising, therefore, that graphical modeling tools are the natural way to specify, design and verify such signal processing systems.

Dr. Hans Martin Ritt has received his PhD in control engineering from the University of Technology Aachen focussing on the implementation of advanced control algorithms using automatic code generation tools. Holding the position of a solution manager at Ericsson he contributed to the introduction of the 3rd generation communication technology UMTS, starting the operation of one of the first networks in Germany. At The MathWorks he is holding the position of a Principal Application Engineer and a team leader covering a broad spectrum of applications based on the Model-Based design approach starting from the design of control systems in the automotive industry to signal processing systems in the communication industry. He manages a team of application engineers with more specific focus.

Panel theme: Wireless Future

Boon Sain Yeo (Panel Moderator)

SensiMesh Pte Ltd,
Singapore

Boon Sain Yeo received the B.Eng and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from University of Glasgow and Imperial College of Science and Technology, respectively. He has been with the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R, formerly known as Centre for Wireless Communications, NUS and Institute for Communications Research), since 1998. From 2004 to 2005, he was appointed head of Wireless Sensor Networks Laboratory in the Networking Department. Since 2005, he has been seconded to lead the technology division of Wavex Technologies, focusing on wireless development and RFID, and to setup Wavex Innovations, the R&D arm of Wavex Technologies, under a government initiative to help technologically upgrade the small medium enterprise in Singapore. He has participated actively and led a team of hardware engineers in the deployment of the 2nd generation RFID systems to the 22 Regional and Community Libraries for the National Library Board of Singapore (NLB). He was also the project manager for the RFID Smart-Shelf project, which he initiated at I2R. He is also an adjunct Assistant Professor in NUS. His research interests are in technologies relating to wireless systems and network, and operational approaches to optimize telecommunication systems. He has been actively participating in numerous conferences serving as TPC chair, steering committee chair and General co-chair in more than 10 conferences the recent 3-4 years. He is also currently serving as an editorial board member for several reputable journals.

Richard Savage

Director Business Development
Qualcomm Europe

Richard Savage is Director Business Development at Qualcomm Europe, where he is responsible for Scandinavia, Baltic States and Holland. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Richard has held similar positions for the last nine years at Ericsson Telecom AB, and Appload AB. Richard has lived in Sweden since 1996, prior to moving to Sweden he lived and worked in France with several companies including Microsoft, MicroWarehouse and Azlan.

Stein Hansen

Vice President, Group Technology
Telenor ASA
Norway

Stein started his career in Telenor R&D, and had central international positions from the early beginning in the development of GSM as well as UMTS. Stein has had a number of operational Top Management positions working for mobile operators, including Technical Director of NetCom (Norway), Managing Director of Telenor Mobilnett (Norway), Mobile Planning & Implementation Director of VIAG Interkom (Germany) as well as Chief Operating Officer of DiGi (Malaysia). He is currently at Telenor HQ as Vice President, Group Technology. He has had several Board of Director positions within the Telenor group through his career. Stein Hansen holds an M.Sc. degree in telecommunications from the Norwegian Institute of Technology, University of Trondheim.

Stein is one of the pioneers in the field of GSM and UMTS, and has been in the mobile communications field since 1984. He was Telenorâ€™s representative in the GSM Permanent Nucleus (France) from 1986-1988. He was later also the first Chairman of the ETSI committee responsible for developing UMTS in the early years from 1991-1993. Stein is currently a Board Member of the GSM Association (GSMA) and Chairman of its Executive Management Committee (EMC) since Jan 2006. Stein is also a Board member of the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) group since 2005.

Jarle Boe

Texas Instrument (Oslo)
Norway

Jarle Boe has more than 10 years experience from the wired and wireless semiconductor industry. He is currently working for Texas Instruments(TI) Low Power RF group. Prior to joining TI he was working for wireless networking pioneer Chipcon that was acquired by TI in January 2006. Jarle's work includes ZigBee networks and locationing in wireless networks, tools and semiconductor development, marketing positions and support management.

Victor Bahl

Principal Researcher
Networking Research Group
Microsoft Research

Victor Bahl is a Principal Researcher and founding manager of the Networking Research Group in in Microsoft Research. He is responsible for directing research activities that push the state-of-art in the networking of devices and systems. He and his group build proof-of-concept systems, engage with academia, publish papers in prestigious conference, publish software for the research community, and work with product groups to influence Microsoft's products. His personal research interests are in wireless systems and mobile networking. In addition to building several seminal systems, he has authored over 75 papers and 70 patent applications (45 have issued). Dr. Bahl is the founder and past-Chair of ACM SIGMOBILE ; the founder and past Editor-in-Chief of ACM Mobile Computing and Communications Review, and the founder and steering committee chair of ACM/USENIX Mobile Systems Conference (MobiSys) Conference; he serves and has served on the Steering Committee of IEEE DySPAN, IEEE COMSWARE, IEEE ISWCS, IEEE ISWC, ACM SenSys, ACM MobiCom, and on the Technical Program Committee of over 60 international conferences and workshops. He has served on the board of six IEEE and ACM journals and on several National Science Foundation and National Research Council panels. He has served as the General Chairman of ACM SIGCOMM 2008, IEEE ISWCS 2007, IEEE COMSWARE 2006, and ACM MobiCom 1999; as Program Chair of IEEE Symposium on Wearable Computers, IEEE Wireless Mobile Multimedia and ACM Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks. In 2006, he was nominated by Microsoft for Intellectual Property Owners Association's National Inventor of the Year Award. He received Digital's prestigious Doctoral Engineering Award (1995-97) and ACM SIGMOBILE's Distinguished Service Award (2001). In 2003, he became an ACM Fellow for "Contributions to wireless communication systems, and leadership in the mobile computing and communications community".� He is an IEEE Communication Society's 2007-09 Distinguished Lecturer; an ACM Distinguished Speaker (2007-08),and has served as the president of the electrical engineering honor society Eta Kappa Nu-Zeta Pi. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was with Digital (1998-97) where he shipped several seminal multimedia products. He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1997.

Ralf R. Müller

Professor
Department of Electronics and Telecommunications
Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Ralf R. Müller received the Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degree with distinction from University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in 1996 and 1999, respectively. From 2000 to 2004, he directed a research group at Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien (ViennaTelecommunicationsResearchCenter) in Vienna, Austria and taught as an adjunct professor at Vienna University of Technology. Since 2005 he has been a full professor at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. He held visiting appointments at Princeton University, U.S.A., Institute Esurecom, France, the University of Melbourne, Australia, The University of Oulu, Finland, The National University of Singapore, and Babes-BolyaiUniversity, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Dr. Müller received the Leonard G. Abraham Prize (jointly with Sergio Verdú) for the paper ¡±Design and Analysis of Low-Complexity Interference Mitigation on Vector Channels¡± from the IEEE Communications Society. He was presented awards for his dissertation ¡±Power and Bandwidth Efficiency of Multiuser Systems with Random Spreading¡± by the Vodafone Foundation for Mobile Communications and the German Information Technology Society (ITG). Moreover, he received the ITG award for the paper ¡±A Random Matrix Model for Communication Via Antenna Arrays¡± as well as the Philipp-Reis Award (jointly with Robert Fischer). Dr. Müller has published some 100 papers on multiuser communications in international journals and conferences and served as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 2003 to 2006.