EC744 — Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing

The IETF defines a MANET (Mobile Ad Hoc Network) as “an autonomous system of mobile routers (and associated hosts) connected by wireless links–the union of which form an arbitrary graph. The routers are free to move randomly and organize themselves arbitrarily; thus, the network’s wireless topology may change rapidly and unpredictably. Such a network may operate in a standalone fashion, or may be connected to the larger Internet.

This research-focused course considers this evolving area of ad hoc-rapidly deployable networks in the context of large-scale pervasive computing. Related areas of wireless, packet radio, ubiquitous, nomadic computing will be considered in support of the primary topic. The course material will be biased towards distributed systems and networking issues rather than to core physical-layer communications technologies.

The course goals are to gain an understanding of the topic area via investigation of recent literature, the development of a research taxonomy of the topic space, and to pose new research problems. Students will develop proposal writing and presentation skills, and will investigate problems as a basis for follow-on practical software development or theoretical research in other courses.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing in ECE or CS, EC541 (Computer Networks) or equivalent.

Course reading: Readings will be selected from recent conferences, journals, and technical reports.