Wireless Community Networks: Evolution and Technical Challenges

Abstract

The widespread success of the IEEE 802.11 family of standards for wireless local area networks gave rise to a grass-roots level effort that envisions using this technology to realize the goal of unlimited, inexpensive bandwidth and Internet access to mobile or nomadic users, in what we call community networks. These kinds of networks have emerged, with variable scope, in some urban and suburban areas in the United States. This presentation will describe some of the models used for the development of community networks and how they may apply to the goal of bridging the digital divide in developing countries. We also discuss some of the technical challenges faced by these networks, including security, quality of service, interference, resource management, and support for roaming. This presentation also addresses likely interactions of community networks with emerging standards for broadband wireless and mobile networks, including IEEE 802.20, IEEE 802.16 and 3G/4G mobile wireless systems.

Biography

Luiz A. DaSilva, Assistant Professor
Advanced Research Institute, Virginia Tech, U.S.A.
Email: ldasilva@vt.edu

Luiz A. DaSilva joined Virginia Tech as an Assistant Professor at the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1998, after receiving his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kansas. He has previously worked for IBM for six years. Dr. DaSilva's research interests focus on performance and resource management in wireless mobile networks and Quality of Service (QoS) issues. He is currently involved in funded research projects in the areas of QoS interoperability and network policy, application of game theory to model mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs), heterogeneous MANETs employing smart antennas, and pervasive computing, among others. Dr. DaSilva has published over thirty refereed papers in journals and major conferences in the communications and computer areas. Current and recent research sponsors include NSF, the Office for Naval Research, the U.S. Customs Services, Intel, and Microsoft Research, among others. He is a member of the Center for Wireless Communications (CWT), associated faculty at the Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group (MPRG), and a member of the Governing Board of the NSF-funded Integrated Research and Education in Advanced Networking (IREAN) program at Virginia Tech. Dr. DaSilva is a senior member of IEEE, a member of ASEE, and a past recipient of the ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education New Faculty Fellow award. He frequently teaches distance and distributed courses on network architecture and protocols and on mobile and wireless networking.

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