Ahmed Helmy
Associate Professor
Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Department
Founder and Director: Mobile Networking Laboratory (NOMADS group)
College of Engineering, University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
email: helmy at ufl.edu

CIS6930/4930 Mobile Networking [Advanced topics in computer networks] - Spring 2015
(Announcements) - (Experiments) - (Instructor's Website) - (Syllabus) - (Course Evaluations)

- "Designing, analyzing and implementing the next killer 'i' mobile social networking app" -

Lecture Slides

(Please check the reading materials links below for related readings and references. Slides and topics subject to update throughout the semester.)

1. Introductory Lectures:Introduction (pptx)
2. Mobility Modeling Tutorial (1): Synthetic Mobiliy 1
3. Mobility Modeling Tutorial (2): Trace-based Mobility 2. [Related talk on 'data-driven design for mobile social networks' (posted Feb 23)]
4. Geo-services in wireless networks: Geographic Routing, Geocast and Geographic storage/retrieval systems
5. Caching for routing and resource discovery in ad hoc mobile networks
6. Hierarchical architectures for routing and resource discovery in ad hoc mobile networks
7. Workshops, group presentations, references, and demos to be added later, based on information provided by the students.
8. Small presentation on Network Simulation NS-2.

Announcements:

1. [Jan 6] Welcome to class and happy new year ! Attendance of the lectures is a must in order to organize the students into groups and start signing up for topics. Here is the syllabus (and more details about grading). If you need to miss a lecture for extraordinary circumstances please let me and your group know. Do your best to attend every lecture. Attendance and discussions count.
2. [Jan 6] Please start teaming up with other students to form groups. The groups will initially be used to conduct experiments and brain-storm about project topics and directions. Later on, you will be performing a semester-long project with a group (does not have to be the same as the experiments group, but in most cases it is, unless you request a change). Once you have formed a group please send me email (and Cc' the TA (TBA)). Please include the names of the people in your group (normally between 3-5), with your emails and a point of contact (one member who's going to be the main point of communication with the group if/when needed). If you are having difficulty forming your group, please let me and the TA know and we'll help out.
3. [Jan 13] Class lectures/meetings are in E119 (CSE119, CISE bldg) Tuesday periods 2-3 (8:30-10:25am) and Thursday period 3 (9:35-10:25am). Due to student demand, we can start Tuesdays at 8:45am and skip the break between period 2 & 3. Office hours are Tuesdays 11:30am-12:30pm, and Thursdays 10:50-11:50am. [Note: office hours subject to change and you should frequently check the announcements for any changes]. Also, the syllabus has been slightly updated with this semester's meeting times, office hours, etc. We do not have a TA so we will discuss and figure out the experiments setup in class.
4. [Jan 13] For the next class (Thursday Jan 15) I would like for each person to come prepared to talk for 2-3mins about background, interests in the area of mobile networking, potential projects they are thinking of, strength & weaknesses (e.g., good in programming, not so much in mathematical analysis), and whether you have (or are search for) a group. This process should facilitate the formation of groups to conduct experiments and semester-long projects.
5. A Google+ group was created for mobile networking discussions related to projects.
6. [Feb 16] Upcoming project deadlines:
   • - Feb 17: 5 min presentation on the project directions for each group (verbal in-class).
   • - Feb. 17 – Feb. 25: The period for submitting the initial project proposals for your group. Please use the appropriate template at the bottom of our class webpage. Proposal submissions can be done during class, right after class, or during office hours. You can also submit it electronically, but I would rather also have a hard copy upon which I can take notes and provide feedback.
   • - Feb. 25 [Wed.] will be the last date that you can submit your initial project report without penalty. The earlier you submit the sooner you can get feedback and you can refine the proposal for the next submission. Each day of delay after the 24th will carry 10% deduction of grade.
   • - March 12: Deadline for submitting the final project proposal.
   • - March 31: Deadline for submitting the initial project report.
   • - April 21: Deadline for submitting the final project report.
7. [Apr 6] Please check the discussions on the Google+ group, on simulation, implementation and lots of useful links.
8. [Apr 6] Experiment II and Experiment III have been posted on the Google+ group (due Apr 14). Here is a document with the same information.

Below are some common questions and relevant information:
9. [-] Q & A regarding topic presentations:
   • - Q: Should my topic presentation be very different from my project topic?
   • - A: On the contrary. Your topic presentation can (and should) be closely related to the topic of your project. You will present the background and related work during the topic presentation. In the project presentation you will present 'your own work' on the project.
   • - Q: Should everyone in my group present in every presentation?
   • - A: No. You can have a subset of the members present in the topic presentation (e.g., 2 or 3 of 5). The only restriction is that every student in class must present at least once in the semester (i.e., must take part in at least one of the two presentations). Students presenting in the first presentation can still take part in the 2nd presentation, but that's optional. It is up to the group to decide who is going to present and for how long. Each group should manage its time carefully. Based on prior experience time is hard to manage with unexpected questions coming your way. But your total time as a group is limited to 50 mins and will be enforced to keep the class schedule. The presenters should clearly indicate their name on the slides and say it before the presentation. Grading for the presentation is done individually, with credit given to the presenter and those who helped prepare the presentation. I will follow up with email feedback to each of you in the week after each presentation.
   • - Q: What should I do before my presentation and when should I do it?
   • - A: You should (as a group) send me email as soon as you can, including the suggested topic presentation title, abstract and a list of references (4-6 suggested readings). I will send you feedback as soon as I read the email.
   • - Note that the presentation is 'NOT' only a summary of the papers your read, but it is a presentation in which you will discuss and analyze the papers presented, and compare them in your own way. I hope to see a 'high level' summary of the presented studies at the beginning, and a qualitative comparison at the end. If you are able to motivate specific ideas in your project based on the presentation, then do that towards the end; this will provide a nice bridge to your project presentation later in the semester. Good luck to all, and let your efforts show !
10. [-] Note on paper reviews and submission of material:
    • - Paper reviews should have complete paper citation (please include the conf, year, authors, title, just as you would when referencing the paper in your report).
    • - At the end of the 'Summary' section, please provide a summary of results and findings (qualitatitively and quantitatively).
    • - Please keep all the papers you get back from me (especially those that were graded or had written comments on them). You will be asked to provide those papers along with your final report (at the end of the semester) so I can include them in the final grading round without missing anything. I would suggest you keep a copy for your records too. You can also include email exchanges with me if you think they had an evaluation or something that can help your evaluation.
11. [-] Pointers are added (and may be further added during the semester) to some apps that may be relevant to the projects under the 'Reading materials -> Misc.' link below. If you know of other pointers that we should add please let me know.
12. [-] For those interested in Android development you can start early by installing the software development kit (SDK) "Android Studio" or "Eclipse ADT" [check this download and install link for more details. Also, if you are not familiar with Android development please take a look at the fundamentals. Another relevant and excellent starting point is from Prof. Sumi Helal's class and book (available freely through UF's network), chapter 3, pgs 21-31 of this book.
[There are potentially several other good sources and tools for mobile platform development (e.g., MIT AppInventor, PhoneGap, among others) that we'll try to post in the future. If you have a good reference please share it! Thanks!]. [If you have experience with development, or otherwise, that you want to share with the class (either in this workshop if there's time, or in another workshop) please let me know. Thanks!].
13. [-] General comments on initial proposals in available in these two slides.
14. [-] If you have an Android device, you can download the 'iTrust' app and run it. We may use it in our lab experiments. The more you run it the more you will collect useful traces for the experiments (and your project if you need it). You can use the 'power-efficient' mode in the settings. The open source version runs on Android devices. If you do not have an android device you can have your group run it, and you can put your devices' bluetooth in discoverable mode. The link for the iTrust app is here.
15. [-] Please send me email with the group number, names of the students in the group and their emails. Please include '6930:' in the subject so I can easily locate earlier communication. The group formation is initial and can change but I hope for it to be close to final, and in the past it hasn't changed much after the initial formation. Good luck to all !
16. [-] Final day of class: Every group will get 10-15mins if they so choose to demo the latest in their projects, either using actual implementation, simulation, visualization/animation, graphs, or results/findings. Please come to class to submit your latest project reports, and discuss any final items regarding class. Also submit any missing paper reports. Remember, you are not only submitting the final report, but also a file that contains all the hard copy material you've gotten back throughout the semester. Hope you had a great learning experience this semester, and wish you all the best of luck in this class and in your future careers. Best Regards, -Ahmed.
17. [-] Q: How many paper reviews should I submit? A: At least four (either individually or with your group, but you need to know the details even if you submit with your group). The papers that you submit reviews for have to be different from those that you use in your presentations. You also need to 'spread' the reviews in time (i.e., do not submit 4 or 3 paper reviews at one time, and plan ahead).
18. [-] Note: think of the final project report as a working document starting with the initial proposal, and growing/maturing over the course of the semester into a conference-like paper to be submitted at the end of the semester. It is not intended that you start a new document with every submission.
19. [-] All groups should follow up on their presentations, sending updated slides and emails with answers to questions raised in the presentation (and not answered). These all count towards your grade. Also for those presenting in upcoming slots, you should send topic and reference information ahead of time so that it counts towards your grade.

Experiments

[Note: This section will be updated for the Spring 2015 class.] [Note: Please check the annoucements section also for more information on experiments.]

1. TBD

Reading materials pointers

(Note: part of the student exercise in this course is to search for and identify high quality reading material)

1. ieeexplore.ieee.org then search by author or title,. etc
2. www.acm.org then digital library and then search
3. Google Scholar.
4. www.cise.ufl.edu/~helmy and look up the following topics: Mobility Modeling and Analysis, Robust Geographic Protocols and Services, Resource Discovery and Query Resolution. Other journal publications, conference papers or book chapters.
5. Earlier CIS6930 Courses:
   1. CIS6930 Spring 07
   2. CIS6930 Spring 08
   3. CIS6930 Spring 09
   4. CIS6930 Spring 10
   5. CIS6930 Spring 11
   6. CIS6930 Spring 12
   7. CIS6930 Spring 13
6. Earlier course EE499 including:
   1. Reading list
   2. Announcements
   3. Projects
7. Earlier course EE599 including:
   1. Announcements
8. The following book chapters:
   1. Resource Discovery using Contact-based Loose Hierarchies.
      Full reference: A. Helmy, "Efficient Resource Discovery in Wireless AdHoc Networks: Contacts Do Help", Book chapter in "Resource Management in Wireless Networking", Springer, ISBN: 0-387-23807-7, Vol. 16, 2005.
      [Earlier Version in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Jan '05]
      Also, see the work on TRANSFER, MARQ and CARD.
   2. A Survey of Mobility Models. Full Reference: F. Bai, A. Helmy, "A Survey of Mobility Modeling and Analysis in Wireless Adhoc Networks", Book Chapter in the book "Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks", Springer, October 2006, ISBN: 978-0-387-25483-8.
   3. The IMPORTANT Framework for Modeling and Analysis of Mobility.
      Full reference: F. Bai, A. Helmy, "The IMPORTANT Framework for Analyzing and Modeling the Impact of Mobility in Wireless Adhoc Networks", Book Chapter in the upcoming book on "Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks", Springer, October 2006, ISBN: 978-0-387-25483-8.
      [Earlier versions of this work appeared in Ad Hoc Networks Journal - Elsevier, Vol. 1, Issue 4, pp. 383 - 403, November 2003, and IEEE INFOCOM, pp. 825-835, April 2003.]
      Also see the work on PATHS
   4. Geographic routing and geographic services protocols in wireless networks.
      Full reference: K. Seada, A. Helmy, "Geographic Services for Wireless Networks", Book Chapter in the "Handbook of Algorithms for Wireless Networking and Mobile Computing" published by Chapman & Hall/CRC, pp. 343-364, January 2006, ISBN: 1-58488-465-7.
      Also see the work published at SenSys 04 for the effect of lossy links on geographic routing (extended version in ACM Trans. on Sensor Networks, Spring 08), and the work in IPSN 04 on effects of localization errors on geographic routing (extended version in Ad Hoc Networks Journal - El-sevier, Aug 07).
9. Some recent and closely related papers: (more coming soon. Pls check instructor's webpage for links to papers and tools)
   1. Time-variant community (TVC) mobility model
   2. Mining mobile societies
   3. Profile-cast
   4. Gender-based analysis
10. Misc. links:
    • - Relevant mobile apps (to evolve over time with your suggestion):
      • - Sonar.
      • - Side.car
      • - Waze
    • - TED talk on social media.

How to start research? (A personal note for networking students)

Paper Reviews: (also available through the EE499 website)

1. Review template (.pdf)
2. Review instructions (.pdf)
3. Review sample 1 (.pdf), Review sample 2 (.pdf)

Outline and format for the Project proposal and Project report:

1. Project proposal outline
2. Project report outline

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Office Hours: Prof. office hours are: Tues/Thurs: TBA. Office: CSE 426, Lab CSE401. TA office hours are: TBA.
[Office hours may vary, watch for potential occasional updates. If you can't come to the above office hours send me email and we will try to setup an appointment at another time for you.]

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