The Importance of Being Earnest

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The Importance of Being Earnest

• Nitin Vaidya
• Illinois Center for Wireless Systems
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

NSF Workshop, Reston, Virginia, August 27,
2007 With apologies to Oscar Wilde
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Session Agenda

• Current status where we are now
• Future expectations on wireless networking and
  research challenges
• Desired technology advances/breakthroughfrom the
  physical layer
• New advances needed from theoretical
  perspective

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Likely Outcomes

• More funding
• More theory
• More practice
• More cross-layer research
• More targeted research programs

More of everything
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Likely Outcomes

• More funding
• More theory
• More practice
• More cross-layer research
• More targeted research programs

More of everything
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The Vanishing Link

• Diversity muddles the notion of a link

Spatial
Cooperation
Channel
2005
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Layers All The Way Down
Where does Phy/Link layer end ?
What should or shouldnt it do ?
Picture from Wikipedia
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The Way Forward

• Clearly, more attention to phy / theory
  desirable
• Cross-Layer protocols smarter
  everything (antennas, radios, protocols,
  people)

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Net-XMulti-Channel MeshTheory to Practice
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The Way Forward

• Clearly, more attention to phy / theory
  desirable
• Cross-Layer protocols smarter
  everything (antennas, radios, protocols,
  people)
• If we have known this for years, why do
  protocols lag so far behind ?

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What Do We Really Lack ?

• Funding ?
• Manpower ?
• Theory ?

Probably none of the above
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What Do We Really Lack ?
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What Do We Really Lack ?

• Meaningful contact between
• Practice
• Networking

• Theory
• Comm

Picture from Wikipedia
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One-Point Agenda
Four
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1. Educate BetterOurselves Next Generation

• Reduce the unknown unknowns
• Increase phy content in CS/CE networking courses
• Awareness of phy necessary to ask better
  questions
• Phy community should help
• Educate phy students about higher layer issues

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2. Fewer Research Programs

• Resist temptation to create new networking
  programs
• Partitioning of resources creates false demand
• Remove existing partitionsPossible to encourage
  research without these
• Examples NOSS, FIND?
• Encourage projects with PIs spanning different
  communities (phy-networks)
• Actively monitor/encourage real cooperation

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3. Fewer Better Conferences

• Increase venues that encourage diversecommunity
  interactions(phy-networking , theory-applied)
• More Workshops, fewer selective conferences
• Co-located conferences
• Tutorials
• Eliminate most (wireless) networking conferences
• Emulate Info Theory model ?

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4. Greater Industry/User Feedback

• What are the industry-perceived long-term
  challenges ?
• What do they need from us ?
• Invite them to these workshops!
• Not everything needs to be dictated by industry,
  but practical insights can benefit academic
  research
• Problem formulations constrained by reality

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Summary

• Wireless networking is non-trivial
• Better-trained people key to better solutions
• Enable cross-layer researchand eliminate
  artificial boundaries,politics notwithstanding
• Be earnest about the goals !
• We dont want to be discussing this again in 2
  years

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Thanks!

• nhv_at_uiuc.edu