Virginia Tech's Department of Computer Science and Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering are offering a new 3-credit course in wireless and mobile system design in Spring 2003. This multidisciplinary course integrates topics at all layers of wireless and mobile systems, from wireless physical layer constraints through mobile application design. The course emphasizes "hands-on" learning through experiments, case studies, and design projects. The course is available to qualified Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering students. Graduate students may take the course for graduate credit. (CS students can apply at most one approved 4000-level course to their plan of study. Limits on the number of 4000-level courses used on the plan of study also apply to EE and CPE students.) The course will be offered in Blacksburg and at the Northern Virginia Center.

Topics

• Fundamentals - wireless environment; technology overview
• Wireless networks - IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b; Bluetooth; ad hoc networks
• Mobile networks - mobile routing; Mobile IP; end-to-end protocols; DHCP; NAT; security
• Middleware - client-server, peer-to-peer, and ad hoc computing
• Mobile applications - application design and development; location aware computing

Prerequisites

• ECE 4564-Network Application Design or CS 4254-Computer Network Architecture and Programming or ECE/CS 5516-Computer and Network Architecture II or permission of the instructor.
• Strong programming ability in C or, preferably, C++

Instructors

• Ing-Ray Chen (irchen@cs.vt.edu) - Computer Science, Northern Virginia
• Luiz A. DaSilva (ldasilva@vt.edu) - Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northern Virginia
• Scott F. Midkiff (midkiff@vt.edu) - Electrical and Computer Engineering, Blacksburg

Class Time and Registration Information

• Blacksburg - Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00-5:15 p.m.
  • CS students should register for CRN 16184
  • ECE students should register for CRN 16393
• Northern Virginia - Tuesdays 4:00-6:45 p.m.
  • CS students should register for CRN 16220
  • The CRN for ECE students is to be determined

Links and Related Information

• The official class web site is on the Virginia Tech Blackboard server
• Course information as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file
• Course syllabus and tentative schedule as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file
• "University awarded wireless-technology grant from Intel," Spectrum, Virginia Tech, October 18, 2002
• "Innovation in Education" plaque from Intel

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Comments to: midkiff@vt.edu
Last updated: April 18, 2003
http://www.irean.vt.edu/courses/wmsd.html