Tutorials

TU01: Infrastructure-based Wireless Multihop, Relay, Mesh Networks
Instructor: Halim Yanikomeroglu, Carleton University, Canada\

Wednesday 5 April 2006
9:00 – 12:30

Simple calculations indicate that the provision of very high data rates, beyond small pockets, is not feasible with the conventional wireless network architectures. Even the recent advances in antenna technologies (such as smart antennas and MIMO systems) and signal processing techniques (such as advanced channel coding methods) do not seem to be sufficient to alleviate the tremendous potential stress that will be incurred on the link budget in future wireless networks with the aggregate rates of 100 – 1000 Mbps. Towards that end, the augmentation of the current networks with the multihop capability is considered to be the most feasible architectural upgrade to facilitate almost ubiquitous high data rate coverage in the most cost-effective manner.

In this context, there has been growing interest in both academia and industry in the concept of relaying in infrastructure-based wireless networks such as next generation cellular (B3G, 4G), WLAN (WiFi, HiperLAN2), and broadband fixed wireless (802.16, WiMax, HiperMAN) networks. Multihop communications can be facilitated through the use of low-power/low-cost fixed relays deployed by the service provider, or through other wireless terminals in the network. This tutorial will present the concept of relaying in infrastructure-based networks, with its fundamental dynamics, potentials and limitations. The tutorial will cover physical layer issues (including novel diversity techniques, virtual antenna arrays, and cooperative relaying), systems level issues (including multiple access, ARQ, radio resource management, coverage, capacity, and throughput) and networking issues (including intelligent routing, load balancing, and handoff).

This tutorial is a survey of almost anything related to infrastructure-based relay, multihop, and mesh networks, from physical layer, to multiple access layer, up to networking layer. Some of the concepts discussed in the physical layer has also relevance to ad hoc and sensor networks.

Relay networks, mesh networks, cellular ad hoc networks, multihop networks, cooperative diversity, cooperative communications, collaborative communications, cellular 4G deployment concepts

Halim Yanikomeroglu was born in Giresun, Turkey, in 1968. He received a B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1990, and an M.A.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering (now ECE) and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1992 and 1998, respectively. Dr. Yanikomeroglu was with the Research and Development Group of Marconi Kominikasyon A.S., Ankara, Turkey, from January 1993 to July 1994.

Since 1998 Dr. Yanikomeroglu has been with the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University, Ottawa, where he is now an Associate Professor with tenure. His research interests include almost all aspects of wireless communications with a special emphasis on infrastructure-based multihop/mesh/relay networks. At Carleton University, he teaches graduate courses on digital, mobile, and wireless communications.

Dr. Yanikomeroglu has been involved in the steering committees and technical program committees of numerous international conferences in wireless communications; he has also given several tutorials in such conferences. He was the Technical Program Co-Chair of the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference 2004 (WCNC'04). He was an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications during 2002-05, and a guest editor for Wiley Journal on Wireless Communications & Mobile Computing; he was an Editor for IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials for 2002-03. Currently he is serving as the Chair of the IEEE Communications Society’s Technical Committee on Personal Communications (TCPC), he is also a member of IEEE ComSoc’s Technical Activites Committee (TAC). He is a member of the Advisory Committee for Broadband Communications and Wireless Systems (BCWS) Centre at Carleton University. Dr. Yanikomeroglu is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario, Canada.