ECE 692 Special Topics:
Mobile Network Systems Design
Introduction
Wei Gao
Spring 2013
Course Information
 Class time: 12:40pm – 1:55pm TTR
 Instructor: Wei Gao, weigao@utk.edu
 Office: Min Kao 302
 Office hour: 2:00pm – 3:00pm TTR
 Slides, schedule, announcement posted at
http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~weigao/ece692/spring201
3/schedule.html
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Mobile Network Systems
 Extend networking to your hands
 From wired Internet to wireless access
 Mobile computing on-the-fly
 Interaction among mobile devices
 Wireless networking
 Wireless access: bandwidth, reliability, security
 Mobile devices as computing platforms
 Mobile social media
 Mobile sensing
 Cloud computing
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Early History
 Various sensor devices
 Environmental surveillance / monitoring
 Industrial control
 Can be embedded with other mobile devices
“Integrated Platform”
Rene’
“Experimentation”
Mica
“Open Experimental Platform”
Spec
WeC
“Smart Rock”
TelosB
Dot
“Scale”
ECE 692 Mobile Network Systems Design
“Mote on
a chip”
4
MEMSIC TelosB


Wireless sensor module for
building applications
Standards Based





Low Power



USB
IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee
TinyOS
Expansion to other sensors:
temperature, light, humidity
Hardware designed from software
principles for low power operation
Isolation, buffering, fast wakeup
from sleep
Low Cost



Integrated design
20-30m range indoors
75-100m range outdoors

IEEE 802.15.4
 New wireless standard for low
power communication
 250kbps
 2.4GHz ISM band
 Zigbee-compatible
Quantity: 38
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Heterogeneity of Mobile Devices
 Laptops
 Mobile Personal Computer (PC)
 Network access: wired or wireless
 PDAs
 E.g., HP Palm, Blackberry
 Embedded mobile OS
 Restricted and specialized functionality
 Cellphones
 GSM -> GPRS -> 3G (CDMA) -> 4G (HSPA/LTE)
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Smartphones
 Key device in today’s mobile computing architecture
 Advanced functionality
 Computation, communication, and storage capabilities
 Multiple types of wireless radios
 A variety of on-board sensors
 Fundamentally change people’s life styles
 Will be the major focus of this course!
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System Capabilities
 Computational capability: comparable to laptops
 Computing platforms for multimedia/gaming
Samsung Nexus S
iPhone 4S
1GHz Cortex-A8
1GHz dual-Core Cortex-A9
 Storage capability: up to 64GB internal memory
 Extensible by using SD cards
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Communication capability
 WAN: Cellular access
 3G/CDMA: 2 Mb/s for stationary users and 384kb/s for
moving users
 4G with LTE: up to 300Mb/s
• Supporting user mobility up to 220 mph
 Potential problem: cellular infrastructure is expensive!
 LAN: various wireless radios
 802.11 family: a/b/g/n
 Bluetooth/ZigBee: short-range and low-power
 Near-Field Communication (NFC): hands-on connection
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Sensing capabilities
 A variety of on-board sensors
 Mobile data acquisition
 User behavior monitoring
 Application support
• GPS
• Gaming
• Funny apps…
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Typical Applications using Smartphones
1. Sensing capabilities of
smartphones
•
Sensing human behaviors
Demo from Dartmouth
Mobile sensing
2. Mobile Internet access
and user interaction
•
Mobile social
media
Mobile social networks
Yelp on smartphones
3. Location-based
services
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Mobile Social Media
 Socializing with your friends
 Online chatting
 Facebook check-in
 Photo upload
 Gaming
 Mobile data access
 iCloud
 Mobile video streaming
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Mobile Sensing
 Monitoring of human activities and their surrounding
environments
 Noise level, traffic condition, etc
 Inferring human behaviors and environmental
context
 Human health status, social context, event detection
 Based pm machine learning and AI techniques
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Location-based Service
 Know where you are
 Know what is available near you
 Know who is available near you
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Generalization: Cyber-Physical System
 A physical system that tightly interacts with a
computer system.
 Computers replace mechanical controllers
 Use the sensed data for feedback control and optimization
 Automobile systems:
 Engine controllers replace distributor, carburetor, etc
 Complex algorithms allow both greater fuel efficiency and
lower emissions
 More examples
 Urban sensing, smart healthcare, etc
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Mobile Network System Design
 Goals
 Information accessibility / Content delivery
 Opportunities for user interaction
 Mobile computing
 Challenges: non-functional requirements
 Limited access
 Limited resources: bandwidth, battery, storage
 Mobility support: channel variation, environmental change
 Human factors: social context, security
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What will you learn from this course?
 Mobile system research
 Theoretical model vs. practical systems
 Specific application vs. generic framework
 System design knowledge
 Mobile system design methodology
 Balancing among various factors: performance, energy,
security
 Hands-on system programming and development
experiences
 Mobile OS: Android, iOS
 Combine your own research -> paper from your course
project
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What will you NOT learn from this course?
 Computer Networks
 ECE 453: Computer Networks
 Embedded system design
 ECE 455: Embedded System Design
 Sensor Networks
 ECE 556: Wireless Sensor Networks
 Hardware design
 ECE 451: Computer System Architecture
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Grading
 Paper presentation and discussion: 25%
 Mobile system research report: 15%
 Course project: 50%
 Project proposal: 5%
 Midterm presentation: 10%
 Final presentation: 15%
 Final report: 20%
 Class participation: 10%
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Paper Presentation and Discussion
 Each lecture includes 30-minute presentations of two
most recent research papers on mobile network
systems
 Each student writes a 1-page review for each paper
• Topics, ideas, contributions, pros/cons
• As you are really reviewing this paper!
 Presenter leads a 10-minute discussion about this paper
after presentation
• Will you accept this paper to MobiCom/MobiSys?
• Discussion participation is part of your grade!
 Reviews are due before each class in hard copies
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Mobile System Research Report
 Brief survey on a selected topic related to mobile
network system design
 Cellular network, data access, wireless spectrum, mobile
social network, mobile network security, etc.
 Contents
 Representative work in the field
 Summarization of research models and methodology,
system development and experimentation methods
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Course Project
 Each student is required to work on an individual
course project.
 2-student group may be possible upon approval
 Develop your own mobile system
 Improve existing work
 Realize your new research idea
 Integrated with your own research
 Mobile platform: Samsung Nexus S smartphone
 iPhone (iOS), iPad or other tablets are also possible
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Milestones
 Proposal presentation ( 5%): Feb 12
 Midterm presentation (10%): Mar 19, 21
 Final presentation / demo (15%): Apr 23, 25
 Final Report (20%): Apr 29
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Project Proposal
 Need to discuss with me before you decide
 Presentation
 10 min presentation
 Project motivation: why do you do this?
 Project approach: how do you do this? What this is better
than existing work?
 Project goals: what do you expect to accomplish and
learn?
 Project schedule
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Project Report
 Recommended format as being a research paper
 Introduction
 Overview: motivation, problem formulation, basic idea
 System design
 Related Work
 Experimentation: your system setup, evaluation plan,
experimental data
 Discussions & conclusions
Proposal
Midterm presentation
Final project report
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Poll
 Your specific interests in various aspects of mobile




system design
Your background in networking
Your system programming skills
Your background in system development
Any suggestions: papers / software / industrial
product
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Next Two Classes
 Introduction on mobile network system design
 Wireless networking
 Mobile computing applications
 Paper presentations and discussions follow
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