ECE 598HH (Fall 2020): Advanced Wireless Networks & Sensing 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. However, the course will also introduce fundamental wireless principles. The topics covered in this semester are shown in the figure above. Students will also learn how to design and build wireless systems through a research oriented course project that focuses on the implementation aspects of practical systems.



The course will be taught online through Zoom. Students are expected to attend the live lectures and ask questions. However, in case of a conflict with another class, all lectures will be recorded and made available to students via Piazza.

Lecture Time & Location: Tuesday & Thursday 11:00 am - 12:20 pm on Zoom.

Instructor: Haitham Hassanieh (haitham@illinois.edu)

TA: Suraj Jog (sjog2@illinois.edu)

Office Hours: Haitham: Tuesday 12:20 pm - 01:00 pm on Zoom.
Suarj: Friday 03:00 pm - 04:00 pm on Zoom.

Zoom: All zoom links + Lecture videos are posted to Piazza.

Piazza: http://piazza.com/illinois/fall2020/ece598hh

Gradescope: https://www.gradescope.com, Sign Up Code: M62P87



Grading:
  • 20% Paper Reviews:
  • Students will be asked to review 20 out of 24 assigned research papers throughout the semester. The review will consist a summary of the paper (at most 5 sentences), 3 points of strengths of the paper, 3 points of weaknesses, and possible future directions for the research. All reviews are due on Gradescope immediately before the lecture. All assigned papers can be found on the course schedule. Students are encouraged to read additional papers as well.

  • 40% Lab Assignments:
  • There will be 4 lab assignments using SDRs and Matlab. Ideally, the students will go to the lab and learn how to use USRP SDRs, RFID readers, and Radars. However, due to COVID-19, it is likely this year that we will collect the data for the students and ask the students to write the code to process the data. All submissions will be on Gradescope. For detailed Lab release time and due dates refer to the course schedule.

  • 40% Final Project:
  • Students will do a research-style project in groups of 2 or 3 where they demonstrate the feasibility of a new research idea, build a new wireless system, or write a survey paper. For more details refer to Course Project.

Note: This schedule is tentative and subject to change over time due to unforeseen events. Please check it regularly.

# Date Topics & Slides Assigned Paper Additional Reading
1 Tues. Aug. 25 Lec 1: Introduction: Overview & Logistics

None


How to Read a Paper

2 Thurs. Aug. 27 Lec 2: Wireless Background: Spectrum, Modulation, TX/RX Components

None




3 Tues. Sep. 1 Lec 3: Wireless Channel & OFDM Part 1

[FICA]


[Thesis] (Chapter 3)

Wed. Sep. 2 Lab 1: OFDM Due: Fri. Sep. 18 at 11:00pm
4 Thurs. Sep. 3 Lec 4: OFDM Part 2 & OFDMA

[RRAA]


[PPR], [SoftRate], [SampleRate], [Strider]

5 Tues. Sep. 8 Lec 5: Rate Adaptation & Interference Cancellation
[ZigZag]
[SIC], [REMAP]

6 Thurs. Sep. 10 Lec 6: MIMO 1: Multiplexing, Diversity, MU-MIMO
None
[Textbook 2] (Chapter 7)

7 Tues. Sep. 15 Lec 7: MIMO 2: Interference Alignment, Nulling, & Distributed MIMO
[Nplus]
[MegaMIMO], [IAC], [AirShare], [SourceSync], [Vidyut], [MegaMIMO-2.0]
8 Thurs. Sep. 17 Lec 8: Wireless Localization I: WiFi
[ArrayTrack]
[PinLoc], [PinPoint], [Chronos]

9 Tues. Sep. 22 Lec 9: Wireless Localization 2: RFID
[RFDraw]
[PinIt], [RFind], [RFCompass], [TurboTrack]

Wed. Sep. 23 Lab 2: MIMO Due: Fri. Oct. 9 at 11:00pm
10 Thurs. Sep. 24 Lec 10: Wireless Sensing 1: Liquid, Food, & Soil Sensing
[LiquID]
[RFEats], [Strobe]

11 Tues. Sep. 29 Lec 11: Wireless Sensing 2: Human Sensing
[WiTrack]
[WiVi], [WiTrack2]

12 Thurs. Oct. 1 Lec 12: Wireless Sensing 3: Vital Signs & RF Imaging
[VitalRadio]
[RFCapture]

13 Tues. Oct. 6 Lec 13: Machine Learning 1: Emotion Recognition & Sleep Staging
[EQRadio]
[RFSleep]

14 Thurs. Oct. 8 Lec 14: Machine Learning 2: Pose Estimation
Guest Lecturer: Mingmin Zhao
[RFPose3D]
[RFPose2D], [RFAction], [RFAvatar], [Marko]

Wed. Oct. 14 Lab 3: RFID Readers & Localization Due: Fri. Oct. 30 at 11:00pm
15 Thurs. Oct. 15 Lec 15: Machine Learning 3: Millimeter Wave Imaging & Sensing
[HawkEye]
[Osprey], [WaveEar]

Tues. Oct. 20 Attend the 6G Symposium


Wed. Oct. 21 Project Proposal    Due: Wed. Oct. 21 at 11:00pm
16 Thurs. Oct. 22 Lec 16: 5G Networks 1: Overview, Small Cells, Massive MIMO
None
[5G Gophers],[Massive MIMO 1], [Massive MIMO 2]

17 Tues. Oct. 27 Lec 17: 5G Networks 2: Millimeter Wave
[AgileLink]
[BounceNet], [V2X 1], [V2X 2]

18 Thurs. Oct. 29 Lec 18: Programmable Radio Surfaces
Guest Lecturer: Venkat Arun
[RFocus]
[LAIA], [LLAMA], [ScatterMIMO]

Tues. Nov. 3 Election Day
Wed. Nov. 4 Lab 4: FMCW Millimeter Wave Radar & Sensing Due: Fri. Nov. 20 at 11:00pm
19 Thurs. Nov. 5 Lec 19: IoT 1: Acoustic IoT
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Nirupam Roy
[BackDoor]
[LipRead]

20 Thurs. Nov. 10 Lec 20: IoT 2: RFID & Backscatter
[Buzz]
[RFClock], [Gen2-RFID]

21 Thurs. Nov. 12 Lec 21: IoT 3: Ocean IoT
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Fadel Adib
[PAB]
[TARF], [AmphiLight]

22 Tues. Nov. 17 Lec 22: IoT 4: Medical Implants
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Deepak Vasisht
[ReMix]
[IVN], [uMedic],

Wed. Nov. 18 Project Progress Report    Due: Wed. Nov. 18 at 11:00pm
23 Thurs. Nov. 19 Lec 23: IoT 5: LoRa WANs
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Swarun Kumar
[Choir]
[NetScatter], [Chime], [Charm]

Tues. Nov. 24 Thanksgiving Break
Thurs. Nov. 26
24 Tues. Dec. 1 Lec 24: Full Duplex Radios
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Dinesh Bharadia
[FullDuplex]
[RFly],[FullDuplex MIMO], [mmWave FullDuplex], [IMDShield]
25 Thus. Dec. 3 Lec 25: Network Coding & Opportunistic Routing
[COPE]
[ANC], [ExOR], [ETX], [MORE]

26 Tues. Dec. 8 Final Project Presentations
Mon. Dec. 14 Final Project Report    Due: Mon. Dec. 14 at 11:00pm

Project:

One of the major goals of this class is to understand how wireless systems research is done. To this end, the project is an 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.

Due to COVID-19 this year, we understand that students might have a hard time working on the project. In particular, it will be hard for students to meet, work in groups, or do experimental projects. We aim to make every effort to help students achieve the course goals without compromising on their safety.

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 >Wednesday Oct. 21, 2020. 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 Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. 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 Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. The report is a conference-style paper describing the project and its key contributions/findings.

8. Presentation

Students will record a 15 minute presentation for their projects which will be presented in class on Tues Dec. 8, 2020. The presentation should be a conference-style presentation and should be submitted the night before on Monday Dec. 7, 2020.