Ad hoc networks are formed by a group of collaborative nodes that, without the need of any preconfigured or fixed infrastructure, communicate among themselves and potentially with other networks. These networks must self-organize and self- configure, with all nodes, even those with single interfaces, acting as routers. These networks have many design challenges such as: a) intermittent connectivity (e.g., disaster recovery), b) highly mobile nodes (e.g., military networks) or c) limited resources (e.g., battery powered). Sensor networks (e.g., wild-life or seismic monitoring) are an important class of ad hoc networks, with their own requirements and solutions. The goal of this course is to understand the challenges and latest solution in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. Our focus will be on routing, autoconfiguration, clustering, topology management, quality of service (QoS) reliable transport, energy conservation, mobility management, MAC, and service discovery. We will cover both existing and proposed standards (e.g., in the IETF (IP) and IEEE (802)) as well as current research in this field. Students are expected to read articles, make a presentation and participate in discussions.
Course Outline:| Week | Topic | Subtopics |
| 1 | Ad Hoc Networks | Concepts, scenarios, environments, applications, capabilities. Ad hoc networking in 4G. |
| 2 | Standards and Enabling Technologies | Overview important standards such as IETF (MANET, IPv4, IPv6, ...), IEEE (Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, 802.15, ...), Bluetooth. |
| 3 | Architecture | Challenges. Scalability analysis. Hierarchy, clustering and dominating sets. Centralized and distributed protocols. |
| 4 | Architecture - Sensors | Challenges. Duty cycle, topology control (tx power, location), gateways, cross-layer optimization. |
| 5 | Autoconfiguration | Addressing, Neighbor discovery, DAD, DHCP, Prefix Delegation, DCDP |
| 6 | Routing - Unicast | Proactive/Reactive, OLSR, AODV, DSR, HSLS, Spanning Tree, Hierarchical, Geographical. |
| 7 | Routing - Other Types | Flooding, Multicast, Multipath, multi-objective (QoS) routing. |
| 8 | Routing - Sensors | Energy efficient, Data fusion. |
| 9 | Mobility and Services | Mobile IP, SIP, mDNS, 802.21, Rserpool, naming, query |
| 10 | Transport and QoS | Challenges. TCP, SCTP, PEPs, Diffserv, Cross-layer QoS |
| 11 | Security | Challenges. Key Management. Routing & autoconfiguration |
| 12 | Presentations - 1 | Student presentations and group discussions |
| 13 | Presentations -2 and Recap | Student presentations and group discussions. Recap |
| 14 | Final Exam |