Colloquium Details
Opportunistic Wireless Network Architectures
Speaker: Rohan Murty, Harvard University
Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1302
Date: April 4, 2011, 11:30 a.m.
Host: Denis Zorin
Synopsis:
With wireless networks slated to become the dominant method of internet access of the future, the radio spectrum is fast becoming a scarce and expensive resource. Despite the significant growing pressures on the demand for spectrum, there are large portions of the overall spectrum that are severely under-utilized ultimately leading to inefficient use of available capacity. To address these problems we build opportunistic wireless networks, which work by continually seeking and using portions of the spectrum that are unused by the spectrum owners (incumbents) while ensuring non-interference with the incumbents. A prominent emerging system where opportunistic wireless networking can work well is in the so-called white spaces. Enabled by two historic rulings (in 2008 and 2010) by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, white spaces are those television channels that, in an instant in time, are not used by the incumbents: television stations or wireless microphones.
In this talk I will present the challenges encountered when building the next generation of wireless networks that operate opportunistically over these white spaces., I will first present WhiteFi, which consists of new algorithms and protocols for networking over the white spaces. I will then present SenseLess, a white spaces network that obviates the need for white space devices to sense the presence of incumbents. I will present results and evaluations from prototype implementations and deployments of the two systems.
Speaker Bio:
Rohan Narayana Murty is a doctoral candidate in the Computer Science Department at Harvard University. He received an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Cornell University in 2005. His research interests span networked systems including networks, mobile computing, and distributed systems. His thesis work has won the best paper at at SIGCOMM 2009, the Microsoft Research Graduate Fellowship, a Siebel Scholars Fellowship, and a Jim Gray Seed Grant.
Notes:
In-person attendance only available to those with active NYU ID cards.