List of 4^th year projects to be supervised by Associate Professor Abbas Jamalipour in 2003

School of Electrical & Information Engineering

University of Sydney

Date: 19 February 2003

Note to students: All proposed topics require good (more than average) academic background in data communication networks and wireless communications as well as serious time commitment of not less than 15 hours per week and student enthusiasm in order to get a good result at the end. Many of these projects also involve computer programming, so good programming skill will be an advantage. All projects’ initial literature survey, preliminary investigations and supervisor consultations will be started around May, but the major research will be carried out in the second semester. If you need further information about individual topics, you may contact the supervisor in person in his office, Electrical Engineering Bldg., 7^th floor, room 751.

Number of students: Each project will be carried out by 1 student. Exception is only for AJP4 and AJP10 which would accommodate two students as a group if necessary.

List of projects for 2003

AJP1 – Security techniques in wireless cellular networks

Second-generation (2G) and third-generation (3G) wireless cellular networks have different security techniques for their users, terminals, and the network. In this project, you will research all those techniques including AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) in detail and compare their vulnerability to unauthorized access, either to terminal handset, to personal information, or to the network billing information. 

AJP2 – Security techniques in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs 

Different security techniques have been developed in the past for the wireless LAN standards, including encryption/decryption algorithms, handshaking, SSL, TLS, and handshaking. In this project, you will research on available techniques and analyze their effectiveness. You will also compare those techniques with those used solely in wired LAN.

AJP3 – Implementation and modification of WEP in an IEEE 802.11 network

Wired equivalent privacy (WEP) is the main security technique that has been developed for wireless LAN. In this project, you will analyze WEP in detail and then implement it in a real wireless LAN. You will then analyze the efficiency of this technique.

AJP4 – Feasibility study of increasing security and range of wireless LAN by using directional antennas

It is understood that by using directional beam antennas it is possible to increase typical range of a single wireless LAN access point to 2.5 km or so. In this project, you will develop a prototype directional antenna for the wireless LAN and research on whether this can also increase the security measures or not. Signal interception would be considered mainly. 

AJP5 – Calculation of traffic load increase due to encryption algorithms in data networks

Encryption algorithms are the oldest techniques in securing data networks and many techniques have already been developed and deployed in real networks. In this project, you will analyze modern encryption algorithms and numerically investigate any increase on network traffic due to such deployments. You will then further work on recommending methods that can decrease this increased load for the emerging data networks.

AJP6 – Mapping security into network quality of service metrics

Security in wireless and wired network has usually been considered as an independent factor, particularly from other quality of service (QoS) metrics. This is mainly recognized in network and technology level QoS. In this project, you will investigate on how the security can be mapped into other typical QoS measures. This will increase the security in the network and make the network management easier than its current situation.

AJP7 – Development of excessive traffic monitor module in Internet

Many network viruses increase the traffic load as a result of denial of service (DoS). In this project, you will design a small real-time server that monitors any excessive traffic in part of a network and try to locate the source in an iterative and hierarchical manner. 

AJP8 – Coexistence interference analysis of multiple wireless LANs

These days, every building has a local wireless LAN network, usually working at a frequency band chosen from a limited set. In this project, you will investigate the interference resulted from coexistence of two or more wireless LANs with a small spatial separation and their effects on network performance. Methods to decrease such problems will also be investigated.

AJP9 – Analysis of roaming issues for wireless LAN users to 3G cellular networks

Third-generation wireless cellular networks (3G) will use the wireless LAN technology to support high-speed indoor communications. However, there are many differences in characteristics of the two systems, mainly in their date rate speed and delay. In this project, you will investigate those differences and find out how those issues could affect the implementation of such system difficult.

AJP10 – Dialup-Wireless LAN server implementation

In order to share the dialup Internet access at homes and small offices among several users, an economical way is to use wireless LAN. In this project, you will develop and implement a small server onto a PC operating Windows that can manage the protocol between the dialup and the wireless LAN connection. Your PC will have a dialup modem and a network card.