ECE 598HH: Wireless Networks and Mobile Systems


Course Description:

Wireless and mobile systems have become ubiquitous; playing a significant role in our everyday life. However, the increasing demand for wireless connectivity and the emergence of new areas such as the Internet of Things present new research challenges. This course introduces advanced research topics in wireless networks and mobile communication systems. In each lecture, we will discuss recent research papers that introduce new wireless designs, algorithms, protocols and applications. The papers are systems oriented and focus on practical challenges and solutions for building wireless and mobile systems. Student will also learn how to design and build wireless systems through a research project.



Lecture Time & Location: Tuesday & Thursday 3:00pm - 4:20pm in ECEB 3013

Instructor: Haitham Hassanieh (haitham@illinois.edu)

Office Hours: Thursday 4:20pm - 5:00pm in CSL 463 or by appointment.


Topics:

► Cross Layer Networking

  • Rateless Codes & Soft Information
  • Interference Management
  • Interference Alignment & Nulling
  • Virtual MIMO
  • Opportunistic Routing
  • Network Coding
  • Wireless Multipath TCP

  • ► Internet of Things

  • Ultra-low Power Networking
  • Ambient Backscatter
  • Smart Cities and Environments
  • ► Wireless Sensing

  • Localization & Tracking
  • Wireless Gesture Recognition
  • Wireless Imaging
  • Contactless Bio-Sensing

  • ► Security

  • Analog Cybersecurity
  • Medical Devices Security
  • RFIDs and Low Power Devices
  • Physical Layer Security
  • Wireless Vibrometry
  • ► Emerging Technologies

  • Millimeter Wave Systems
  • Full Duplex Radios
  • Software Defined Radios
  • Cloud RAN
  • 5G Cellular Systems
  • Dynamic Spectrum Access
  • Wireless Charging
  • Robotics and Drones
  • Visible Light Communication
  • Physical Vibration Communication


  • Grading:
    • 30% Assignments: Students are asked to read one or two research papers marked as assigned reading on the class schedule. The students will submit a short review of each paper at the beginning of each class. The review should be a conference style review with a one paragraph paper summary, paper strength, paper weaknesses and comments.
    • 65% Project: Students will carry out research projects in groups. The details of the project can be found in the course project tab above.
    • 5% Scribe: Each student will scribe the notes for at least one lecture.

    Note: This schedule is tentative and subject to change. Please check it regularly.

    MondayTuesday WednesdayThursday Friday
    Aug. 22
    First Day of Classes
    Aug. 23
    LEC 1: Course Introduction
    [Syllabus], [Lecture1]
    Aug. 24
    Aug. 25
    LEC 2: Review: Wireless Communication
    [Lecture2]
    Aug. 26
    Aug. 29
    Aug. 30
    LEC 3: Rate Adaptation: Rateless, Soft Information
    [Lecture3]

    Assigned Readings:
    [RRAA] , [SoftRate]

    Optional Readings:
    [SampleRate],[Strider]
    Aug. 31
    Sep. 1
    LEC 4: OFDM
    [Lecture4]

    Optional Readings:
    Thesis: (Chapter 3)
    Sep. 2
    Sep. 5
    Labor Day
    Sep. 6
    LEC 5: Wireless MAC: CSMA, TDMA, FDMA, CDMA.
    [Lecture5]

    Assigned Readings:
    [FICA]

    Optional Readings:
    [CSMA/CN]
    Sep. 7
    Sep. 8
    LEC 6: Interference Management and Cancellation
    [Lecture6]

    Assigned Readings:
    [ZigZag], [REMAP]

    Optional Readings:
    [SIC]
    Sep. 9
    Sep. 12
    Sep. 13
    LEC 7: MIMO 1: Multiplexing, Diversity, MU-MIMO, Interference Alignment, Nulling
    [Lecture7]

    Assigned Readings:
    [IAC]

    Optional Readings:
    Textbook 2: (Chapter 7), [NPlus]
    Sep. 14
    Sep. 15
    LEC 8: MIMO 2: Virtual MIMO and Synchronization
    [Lecture8]

    Assigned Readings:
    [MegaMIMO]

    Optional Readings:
    [AirShare], [Vidyut],[SourceSync]
    Sep. 16
    Sep. 19
    Sep. 20
    LEC 9: IoT 1: Backscatter Communications
    [Lecture9]

    Assigned Readings:
    [Buzz]

    Optional Readings:
    [Gen2-RFID], [DewDrop]
    Sep. 21
    Sep. 22
    LEC 10: IoT 2: Ambient Communication
    [Lecture10]

    Assigned Readings:
    [InterComm]

    Optional Readings:
    [AmbientComm], [PassiveWiFi],[TubroCharging]
    Sep. 23
    Sep. 26
    Sep. 27
    LEC 11: Wireless Localization 1
    [Lecture11A] [Lecture11B]

    Assigned Readings:
    [ArrayTrack]

    Optional Readings:
    [PinLoc], [PinPoint][Chronos]
    Sep. 28
    Sep. 29
    LEC 12: Wireless Localization 2
    [Lecture12A] [Lecture12B]

    Assigned Readings:
    [PinIt], [RFDraw]

    Optional Readings:
    [RFCompass]
    Sep. 30
    Oct. 3
    Oct. 4
    LEC 13: Physical Vibration Communication
    [Lecture13]

    Optional Readings:
    [Ripple], [Ripple2]
    Oct. 5
    Oct. 6
    LEC 14: Wireless Sening 1
    [Lecture14]

    Assigned Readings:
    [WiVi], [WiTrack]

    Optional Readings:
    [WiTrack2]
    Oct. 7
    Oct. 10
    Oct. 11
    LEC 15: Wireless Sensing 2
    [Lecture15]

    Assigned Readings:
    [VitalRadio]

    Optional Readings:
    [RF-Capture], [WiSee][EQRadio]
    Oct. 12
    Oct. 13
    LEC 16: Wireless Security
    [Lecture16]

    Assigned Readings:
    [RFCloak]

    Optional Readings:
    [Vibrometry], [WiKey][IMDShield]
    Oct. 14
    Oct. 17
    DUE PROJECT PROPOSAL

    Oct. 18
    Project Proposal Discussions
    Oct. 19
    Oct. 20
    LEC 17: Software Defined Radios Tutorial, Full Duplex Radios
    [SDR Tutorial] [Lecture17A]

    Assigned Readings:
    [FullDuplex]

    Optional Readings:
    [FullDuplexMIMO]

    Oct. 21
    Oct. 24
    Oct. 25
    Project Progress Discussions
    Oct. 26
    Oct. 27
    LEC 18: Network Coding and Opporunistic Routing

    Assigned Readings:
    [COPE], [ANC]

    Optional Readings:
    [CodedTCP], [ExOR], [MORE]
    Oct. 28
    Oct. 31
    Nov. 1
    Project Progress Discussions
    Nov. 2
    Nov. 3
    LEC 19: Wireless Charging

    Assigned Readings:
    [MagMIMO]

    Optional Readings:
    [MultiSpot]

    Nov. 4
    Nov. 7
    Nov. 8
    Project Progress Discussions
    Nov. 9
    Nov. 10
    LEC 20: GPS and Drones

    Assigned Readings:
    [SafetyNet]

    Nov. 11
    Nov. 14
    DUE PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT

    Nov. 15
    Project Progress Discussions
    Nov. 16
    Nov. 17
    LEC 22: 5G: Millimeter Wave Systems, Cloud RAN, Dynamic Spectrum Access

    Assigned Readings:
    [BigBand],[AgileLink]

    Optional Readings:
    [SpecInsight]

    Nov. 18
    Nov. 21
    Thanksgiving Break
    Nov. 22
    Thanksgiving Break
    Nov. 23
    Thanksgiving Break
    Nov. 24
    Thanksgiving Break
    Nov. 25
    Thanksgiving Break
    Nov. 28
    Nov. 29
    Project Final Discussions
    Nov. 30
    Dec. 1
    FINAL PRESENTATIONS
    Dec. 2
    Dec. 5
    Dec. 6
    FINAL PRESENTATIONS
    Dec. 7
    Classes End
    Dec. 8
    DUE PROJECT FINAL REPORT

    Dec. 9

    Project:

    One of the major goals of this class is to understand how wireless systems research is done. To this end, the project is the most important component of ECE 598HH, since that's where you draw upon your knowledge and experience from the course readings and elsewhere to actually do research. The description below is intended to ease the process of figuring out what to work on and writing a short proposal explaining what you want to work on.

    The entire project will constitute 65% of your total grade (divided between proposal, progress report, presentation, and final paper). Please start early!

    1. Teams:

    As far as possible, you should work in teams of teams of two or three. Working with others is a lot more fun, is often a lot more productive, and the resulting work a lot sounder than if you were working in isolation. The nature of the wireless field is one that fosters collaboration and often makes it essential for high impact work, and you should develop the ability to collaborate on projects. You need to work at least with one other person from the class, so please start looking out for team mates as soon as possible!

    2. Proposal:

    The proposal should be one or two pages. It is due on Monday Oct. 17, 2016. We will read the proposals carefully and have a project meeting with each team on Thursday Oct. 20, 2016 to discuss your proposal and understand better exactly what you are doing, perhaps because it isn't focused enough or because you're trying to accomplish too much. It is important that you read related background material before turning in the proposal.

    A crisp one-page write-up for the proposal should contain the following items.
    • Project title (a detailed title is better than a vague one; you can always change it later if you don't like it!) and names of investigators with email addresses.

    • A clear statement of the research problem: a one-sentence summary followed by a one-paragraph explanation (the paragraph shouldn't be more than 10-12 lines long). This should identify clearly the research question you're addressing.

    • A clear statement of your research methods. i.e., how are you going to solve the problems you've raised and motivated in the previous paragraph?

    • A statement of plan and schedule, to convince us (and yourself!) that you can complete the project by the end of the term.

    • A list of resources you need to accomplish your work, with special emphasis on important pieces you don't yet have access to. Be as clear as you can in your requirements and we will work towards getting what you need as quickly as possible. If your request can't be accommodated for any reason, we will try to get back to you about it as soon as we find out.

    • Any other questions you have or clarifications you need from us.

    3. Background:

    In a one-semester class, one can only cover a fraction of wireless topics, and there are sure to be projects where the background material won't be covered in too much detail. And even for topics that we do cover, there will almost certainly be other relevant related work that you should be familiar with. Part of doing something new is figuring out what's already been done or is known, so you should search the related literature and Web pages as extensively as you can. Keep an eye out for useful software or research methods or tools that you can leverage; this will save you tremendous amounts of time later in the term. You might find some of these useful links actually useful.

    4. Expectations:

    Aim high in a focused way, and do the best you can! The best projects are usually publishable with a bit more additional work in top ACM/USENIX/IEEE conferences in the area, such as SIGCOMM, MOBICOM, INFOCOM, and NSDI, or appear as articles in places like SIGCOMM's Computer Communications Review (CCR). The main goal, however, is to try something innovative; a failure to obtain good research results is quite acceptable, but a failure to try isn't!

    5. Suggestions:

    Where do you get a project? We will provide you with a list of suggestions a couple of weeks before the proposal deadline. Please feel free to come up with your own ideas, or modify our suggestions in any way you want. Our suggestions are simply that; and they're usually incomplete. They are usually not complete specifications of projects. Please send all questions about the project to the staff mailing list.

    6. Project Progress Report

    The progress report is due on Monday Nov. 14, 2016. It should explain your approach, related/prior work, any preliminary results you might have obtained, and why you believe you are on the right track. It may also include material from the proposal after you had the chance to update it based on our feedback.

    7. Final Report

    The final report is due on Thursday Dec. 8, 2016. The report is a conference-style paper describing the project and its key contributions/findings.

    8. Presentation

    The presentations will be held during the last class Tuesday Dec.6, 2017. The presentation should be a conference-style presentation.