The usage of wireless devices unavoidably induce user mobility in diverse settings over multiple space/time scales, ranging from traditional cellular phone users and Wi-Fi users in moderate-to-dense networks, to nomadic users and mobile robots/sensors in multi-hop wireless ad-hoc networks and delay/disruption-tolerant networks over larger space/time scales. As mobile communications go to large-scale and social networks, there is an acute and timely demand for exploring fundamental principles in mobility-induced link-level dynamics, which has not been studied systematically, but have tremendous impact on a wide range of research areas, such as theoretic limits of algorithms, and protocols in mobile networks, optimization techniques for performance analysis and estimation, network architecture and topology control, distributed sensor-actuator networks, and modeling of social networks.
The goal of this research is to develop a theoretical foundation for wireless mobile networks, through characterization of link-level dynamics by stochastic analysis approach. Specifically, the research focuses on (i) modeling, analysis, and statistical characterization of mobility-induced link dynamics, (ii) spatio-temporal dynamics in mobility modeling in multiple space/time scales rather than being dependent on networking environments a priori, and (iii) scaling limits for link-level metrics under various network operating regimes. The theoretical foundation of mobility modeling, which integrates multidisciplinary characteristics, will be used as an experimental concentration area to initiate innovative curriculum design of network science. The investigators develop new courses on networking theory, starting from graduate-level and transit to under-graduate level, by demonstrating the charm and rigorousness of theoretic work in tangible, attractive wireless mobile applications to undergraduate students and K-12 students.
