Unit of Study Outline

 

ELEC5509 Mobile Networks

Semester 1, March 2008

 

Text Box: Notice Board:

•	Your in-semester Marks are available here.
•	22/4: Some corrections on grouping are made for the Research Assignment. Please see the updated grouping list here.
•	21/4: Information about Research Assignment are updated. Check the topic assigned to you and find your group members. Reports due on 23 May.
•	5/3: For the first tutorial on Mon 10/3, remember to bring your report and submit it at the beginning of the tutorial session.
•	25/2: Tutorials will start on Monday 10 March.
•	25/2: The UoS web officially opened.
 

 

Instructor: Dr Abbas Jamalipour, Room 732, Bldg. J03, Email: abbas at ee dot usyd dot edu dot au                     

 

Tutor: Mr. Kumudu S. Munasinghe, Room 730, Email: kumudu at ee dot usyd dot edu dot au

 

Classes:           Lectures:          Wednesdays 11am – 1 pm, Lecture Theatre 450, Bldg. J03 (EEB)

Tutorials:          Mondays 2 pm – 4 pm, Lecture Theatre 450, Bldg. J03 (EEB)

 

Supporting Web Page for updated announcements: http://www.ee.usyd.edu.au/~abbas/courses/E5509/

  * Please make sure to check this page (and the notice board on the right side) regularly for any last minute update.

  

Text and Course Materials:

Text: A. Jamalipour, The Wireless Mobile Internet: Protocols, Architectures, and Services

John Wiley & Sons Publishers, Chichester, England, 2003

 

For a one-to-one mapping between lecture notes and the text, click here.

To help with understanding the contents, Review Questions are also prepared. 

Lecture Notes are available here.

 

Assumed Knowledge:

Basically, students need to know the concepts of data communications and mobile communications, which could be gained in one the following units of study: ELEC3505 Communications, ELEC3506 Data Communications and the Internet, or similar units. If you are not sure, please contact the instructor.

 

UoS Aims and Objectives:

This unit of study serves as an introduction to research on mobile networks and mobile Internet. The unit relies on a good understanding of the data communications and mobile networks. The unit introduces some of the currently most debated research topics in mobile networking and presents an overview of different technical solutions. The students are expected to critically evaluate these solutions in their context and produce an objective analysis of advantages/disadvantages of the different research proposals. Areas covered will be wireless Internet, mobility management, quality of service in mobile and IP networks, ad hoc networks, cellular network architectures, voice over IP, and related topics.

 

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of semester, students will be able to critically examine the new developments in the field of mobile communications and mobile Internet; and will get sufficient knowledge in the existing technologies for mobile Internet and will become ready for designing new elements for the next generation networks.

 

Graduate Attributes:

Through lectures, tutorials, and seminars students will become able to:

1.   Develop knowledge in advanced and modern mobile communications systems

2.   Apply this knowledge to real situations and understand the merits and limitations of specific communication systems

3.   Have the ability to use appropriate technology to develop communication systems addressing specific needs

4.   Develop and present their ideas to others

 

Teaching and Learning Approach:

The unit consists of lectures which provide theoretical background for advanced communication networks and mobile Internet and, tutorials which provide the opportunity for students to get more specific knowledge on a particular technology. The students will be asked also to do some research and present their ideas in order to find a good practice environment for research opportunities in the future and to learn how to present their ideas to other people.

 

Workload requirements:

1.   Contact Hours: 2 hours lecture and 2-hour tutorial per week

2.   Students are expected to spend at least 4 hours/wk besides tutorials and lectures

 

Consultation Times:

§         Wednesdays 1pm-2pm

Your Instructor and Tutor will be available at all times to answer your enquiries, particular question on the topics, your comment and feedback on how to improve any component of the unit. You can come directly to our office or send us an email. Your comments will be seriously considered and your constructive feedback to improve the learning and teaching is greatly appreciated.

 

Student Feedback:

We would like to improve the teaching and learning methods of this unit as early as there is any shortcoming. So please help us by providing comments and suggestions at any time, by email or in person. Don’t wait for the student evaluation questionnaire at the end of semester.

 

Assessments and Examinations:

 

1.       Report on weekly assignments, which is 10% of the overall semester mark. The guideline for this assignment is available here. Complete list of Review Questions is available here. The 10% mark consists of tutorial attendance too. This is to encourage you to attend the tutorial and to participate in the discussions.

2.       During semester students will need to do some literature survey and summarize their finding in the form of written reports and PowerPoint presentation. This will be count as 15% of the overall semester mark. The guideline for this assignment is available here.

3.       A two-hour exam at the end of semester will be count as 75% of the semester mark.

 

Syllabus (subject to change/modification*):

   * This course is designed to be as flexible as possible to respond to the new research and development activities in the field and to respond to the feedback from students. We want to keep its contents as up-to-date as possible thus being the most useful for all students.

 

1.      Introduction to wireless and mobile Internet

2.      Wireless cellular data networks

3.      Cellular mobile networks (GPRS, EGPRS, UMTS, cdma2000)

4.      Mobile networks of the future

5.      Quality of service in a mobile environment

6.      Voice over IP (VoIP)

·         An overview of VoIP technology

·         Advantages and disadvantages of VoIP technology

·         Overview and comparison of voice compression schemes such as: PCM (a-law and mu-law), ADPCM, CELP, ACELP, CS-ACELP

·         Voice activity detection (VAD)

·         VoIP signaling protocols – SIP and H.323

·         VoIP QoS protocols – RSVP, Diffserv, RTP and RTCP

·         Overview of VoIP soft-phones – Skype and Linux platform based soft-phones

·         Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) – Residential Gateways and different kinds of IP phones

·         Network components – Media Gateway, Media Server and switches

·         e911  - Current developments

7.      Wireless Internet security

8.      Transport protocols for mobile networks

9.      Traffic modeling and management for wireless Internet

10.     Network protocols for mobile networks

11.     Mobile IPv6