Wireless ad-hoc network projects

I am interested in research in ad-hoc networks.

Most of my efforts these days (2011 onwards) are focused on the AllNet project. A list of projects that would help in the development of AllNet is available here.

The following is the summary list of AllNet projects available in September 2012:

• porting the AllNet software to various other systems:
  • Apple: Mac, iPhone, and iPad
  • Android
  • Windows and Windows mobile
  • Blackberry and other mobile OSs
• Adding a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the chat program. This could be part of the porting effort, or could integrate AllNet into other systems such as Pidgin.
• A protocol for web access through AllNet.
• Breaking up larger message into smaller pieces, in two ways: independent pieces sent as separate messages, and, for larger messages, a TCP stream encoded using AES with a session key.
• Keeping track of systems that are consistently available on the Internet (stable peers), using those systems for message storage when the destination is not online.
• Chat profiles.
• Persistent storage of chat data.

Projects from 2010 and earlier

The following are older projects (pre-2010). I think these might still be useful, but any student interested in these should expect to do some preliminary research to find out what has happened since 2006, when I first came up with these projects.

• design and build hardware and firmware for small sensor network nodes. These would have a PIC microcontroller, a serial radio and a few sensors (temperature, light, moisture), and most likely would be solar powered. A good opportunity for hardware and software hacking.
• design and implement a very simple script-like language for wireless sensor network nodes. This language should support data acquisition, communications, and housekeeping. This project is one of language design (which includes usability considerations) and implementation.
• MANET and ad-hoc net protocol analysis. There are many protocols that have been designed for Mobile Ad-Hoc networks, for Wireless Sensor Networks, for Wireless Mesh Networks, and of other wireless ad-hoc networks. Some of these protocols are being standardised, including DSR, AODV, and OLSR. It is generally hard to evaluate which protocol is best for a given situation. This project consists in creating realistic scenarios and evaluating (where possible) existing implementations, using simulators, to try and determine which protocol performs best for each scenario. This project is mostly about network simulation.

Depending on the actual work, the above projects should at least potentially be able to lead to publication of the results.

I am also usually open to projects suggested by the students, as long as I have sufficient expertise to supervise such a project. Please refer to my web page for details of projects I have supervised in the past.

Each project will require a report at the end as well as at least weekly meetings with the instructor.