last updated 3 August 2000

Please use the drop down menu above to navigate through the WCNC 2000 site.

To receive a paper copy of the WCNC 2000 advance program please email your complete mailing address to wcnc2000@comsoc.org.

A comprehensive update of this page will be posted in the near future.

Tutorial 1 Saturday 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Analytical Tools for Wireless Communications Systems Design

Demand for user mobility has sparked tremendous growth in wireless personal communication systems. Owing to the growing interest in ubiquitous high-speed wireless communications and in testimony to the rapidly increasing penetration of the wireless technology around the globe, it has become important to perform accurate analysis of such systems. As a result, world wide research efforts into the performance of wireless systems have grown rapidly. Therefore, the overall aim of this tutorial is to provide a comprehensive and timely coverage of performance analysis techniques on fading channels. Scanning the literature, we can see that many authors have analyzed the performance of various mobile and wireless systems over the last five decades. Recent developments, tailored towards unified analysis of wireless communications systems, have shown exact solutions to some outstanding problems in wireless and digital communications. In this tutorial, we will review both latest developments (frequency domain methods such as the MGF and CHF methods) as well as more classical results. The coverage of this tutorial is quite broad encompassing review of mathematical tools and their applications to performance analysis of diversity systems for all common binary and Mary signals over generalized fading channels, evaluation of pairwise error probability for coded modulation with and without channel state information, outage analysis for cellular mobile radio, and investigation into low-complexity receiver structures and packet combining strategies.

Dr. C. Tellambura, Monash University , Australia
C. Tellambura received his BSc degree with honors from the University of Moratuwa, Sri-Lanka, in 1986, MSc in electronics from the King's College, UK, in 1988, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Victoria, Canada, in 1993. He was a post-doctoral research fellow with the University of Victoria (1993-94) and the University of Bradford (1995-96). Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University, Australia. He is an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications and the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (Wireless Communications Series). His research interests include coding, communication theory, modulation, equalization and wireless communications.

Dr. A. Annamalai, Virginia Tech
A. Annamalai received his B.Eng. degree with honors from the University of Science of Malaysia in 1993, M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Victoria in 1997 and 1999, respectively. He was an RF design engineer with Motorola Inc. (1993-1995) and a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Victoria (1999). Currently, he is with the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Virginia Tech as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Annamalai was the recipient of the 1997 Lieutenant Governor's medal, 1998 Daniel E. Noble Fellowship from the IEEE, 2000 NSERC Doctoral Prize and the 2000 CAGS-UMI Distinguished Dissertation Award for Engineering, Medicine and the Natural Sciences. His research interests include wireless communications, communications theory, coding and modulation.

From May 1993 to April 1995, he was with Motorola Inc. as an RF Design Engineer. From May 1995 to January 1999, he was a Research Assistant in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, where he was involved in the research of third-generation wireless CDMA systems. His research interests include coding, modulation, communication theory, and wireless communications.

Dr. Annamalai is the recipient of the 1998 Lieutenant Governor GeneralÍs medal from the University of Victoria and the 1998 Daniel E. Noble Fellowship jointly awarded by the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society and Motorola Inc.

Tutorial 2 Saturday 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm

RF Cell Design for CDMA

The objective of this tutorial is to gain an appreciation for the issues affecting the design of a CDMA-based wireless cellular system, especially with a view towards providing an infrastructure for supporting integrated services. The tutorial will begin with a brief service-oriented overview of recent developments in Internet technologies in sufficient detail to introduce the future service environment. Next, the primary system-oriented characteristics, including such characteristics as frequency spectrum of operation, number of channels per frequency, and call set-up, of CDMA-based cellular systems will be discussed. Then, factors limiting the capacity of CDMA systems, including propagation loss, traffic mix, user activity factors, user location distribution, and mutual interference, will be discussed. Finally, there will be a discussion of issues requiring further investigation. Numerical examples will be used throughout to illustrate the basic concepts, and references to tools available for designing systems will be cited.

John N. Daigle, University of Mississippi, Oxford
John N. Daigle is Director, Center for Wireless Communications, and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. He was formerly a Principal Engineer for the MITRE Corporation in McLean, Virginia, where he was responsible for research direction in the MITRE Washington Networking Technical Center. His experience in electrical communications dates back to 1970 and includes a combination of industry, academic, and active military service.

Prof. Daigle has taught in a wide variety of areas related to computing and communications including elementary to advanced graduate level courses in computer architecture, probablistic modeling, mobile and wireless communications, analog and digital communications, and computer communication systems and protocols. His research results have been published in leading IEEE technical conferences and IEEE and ORSA journals. He is also the author of the text book, Queueing Theory for Telecommunications, published by Addison-Wesley.

Prof. Daigle is a Fellow of the IEEE and has served in numerous capacities in that organization. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Network and is an Editor for IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and the Journal of Operations Research. He holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering; his doctorate, from Columbia University, is in operations research.

Tutorial 3 Saturday 1:30 pm - 5:00pm

Satellite Supported Global Wireless Communications

This tutorial is tailored for engineers and scientists with a basic knowledge of communications systems. It aims to present a technical overview of emerging mobile satellite systems and technologies which will provide support for global wireless voice, data and multimedia services. The course will begin with the basics of satellite systems engineering and will enable a clear understanding of the key technical issues in system design for satellite network support for terrestrial wireless communications. Systems operating with low earth-orbit (LEO) and medium earth-orbit (MEO) satellites as well as geostationary orbit (GSO) satellites will be discussed. Advanced modulation and multiple access methods that support broadband access to satellite media will be presented. A detailed discussion of several specific emerging operational systems will follow. Technical and business lessons learned from pioneer ventures (such as the recently operationalized and terminated IRIDIUM and the currently restructuring ICO Global Communications) will be analyzed. The course will conclude with a prospective view of the rapidly evolving future in this fascinating technology.

Dr. George Thomas, University of Louisiana Lafayette
Dr. George Thomas was Manager for the INSAT national satellite program of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Bangalore, India where he worked for ten years following his Ph.D. in Electrical Communications Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. During this time he was involved in all aspects of satellite communications including space and ground segments and user applications technologies. He also carried out research in novel multiple access schemes with packet collision recovery for satellite and wireless channels. Since 1988 he has been on the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he teaches courses in satellite, wireless and optical communication networks. His recent research interests include wireless multiple access techniques.

Tutorial 4 Saturday 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm

The Theory of Transmit Power Control and Its Implementation in 3rd Generation CDMA Systems

Transmit power is the most precise radio resource, and consequently, its adaptive control constitutes a major method of interference regulation in all cellular communication systems, especially in CDMA types. This tutorial will give a comprehensive exposure to the theory of power control and will elaborate on many implementation issues in the 3G CDMA systems. In the first part, the underlying theory of power control and channel reallocation techniques will be presented. The theory is quite important since it reveals what can ultimately be achieved by employing power control, and therefore, gives a direction to future research in this area. In the implementation of power control schemes, various practical constraints have to be taken into consideration. The second half of the tutorial will focus on power management techniques in 3G wireless cellular systems. The implementation of both the inner and outer loops, in the forward as well as in the reverse links, will be described. All the major practical issues (such as base station power monitoring, effects of power control rate and step size, and power control during soft handoff, site-selection transmit diversity, and slotted mode) will be addressed. The combined knowledge and expertise of the presenters, both from industry and academia, will enable the discussion of various aspects of this essential part of all cellular wireless systems, especially the future multimedia systems.

Dr. Halim Yanikomeroglu, Carleton University, Ottawa Canada
Halim Yanikomeroglu 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. and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1992 and 1998, respectively. From 1993 to 1994, he was with the R&D Group of Marconi Kominikasyon A.S., Ankara, Turkey. In 1998, Dr. Yanikomeroglu joined Carleton University, Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, as an Assistant Professor.

Dr. Yanikomeroglu's research interests include almost all aspects of wireless communications with a special emphasis on multimedia radio resource management and CDMA multi-antenna systems. He was the Technical Program Chairman for the CITO/OCRI Workshop entitled "Radio Resource Management in Personal and Fixed Wireless Communications" held in April 2000 in Ottawa, and currently he serves in the Program Committee of this conference. Dr. Yanikomeroglu is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario.

Dr. Bassam Hashem, Nortel Networks, Ottawa Canada
Bassam Hashem was born in Amman, Jordan, in 1968. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from KFUPM University, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in 1991 and 1994, respectively. In 1998, he received the Ph.D.degree in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada. From 1994 to 1995, he was the Motorola Division Technical Manager at NASCO (Motorola Agent), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1998, he joined Nortel Networks, Ottawa, where he is now a Senior Wireless Radio System Engineer. Dr. Hashem was involved in defining the next generation (3G) cellular systems. His research interests include power control, handoff, admission control, and fixed wireless technologies.

Tutorial 5 Sunday 8:30 am - 12:30 pm

Broadband Wireless Access Technologies

There has been tremendous interest recently in broadband wireless access systems (BWA), scheduled to start services around the year 2000. It has been the hot subject of much research and many standardization activities throughout the world. ITU-R JRG 8A-9B, ETSI-BRAN and IEEE 802.16 are taking the initiative to produce proposals of radio transmission technologies (air interface) and advanced systems prototype for BWA.

The objective of this tutorial is to gather the research and development updates in this field and present an overview of the-state-of-the-art of this BWA wireless storm - globally or locally, as well as perspectives on future development in order to promote future research activities.

Dr. Willie Lu, Siemens - Infineon
Dr. Lu, Principal Wireless Architect of SIEMENS-Infineon, has extensive research, publication, consulting, and industrial experiences in the design and analysis of advanced wireless telecommunication systems and networks, computer communication systems, local, metropolitan, and wide area communications networks, marketing analysis and planning. He has profound expertise in the implementation of software definable base station technology, wireless mobile ATM technology, third generation mobile communications, broadband wireless access, Wireless Mobile Internet and high-speed packet networks as well as IP/ATM network interconnections. Previously, Dr. Lu served as guest scientist of German National Research Center for Information Technology (GMD) in Berlin. His other work has involved the design of USA CDMA system in Nortel, wireless data network in NTT, etc. Dr. Lu is highly accredited and the invited technical advisor by major telecom industries in USA and Europe as well as senior consultant of many telecom authorities in the world. He is a chairman of IEEE Globecom'00 Broadband Wireless Symposium and IEEE 3Gwireless'00 and feature editor of Wireless Communications Series in IEEE Communications Magazine and J-SAC. Dr. Lu has guest edited over 10 special issues on next generation wireless communications and over 100 publications in the field.

Tutorial 6 Sunday 8:30 am - 12:30 pm

WAP

This tutorial will provide the attendee with an overview of WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) including an overview of WAP itself, how WAP is different from HTML & the WWW, the architecture of implementing WAP and WAP servers, how WAP is implemented over wireless protocols such as CDMA, GSM via mediums such as SMS and others. Additionally, you will learn how WAP handles the different types and sizes of phone screens.

Yoram Mizrachi, CTO of Exalink, Inc. Exalink, is a leading global supplier of router-based WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) gateways and applications software for the delivery of Internet-based services to all types of wireless devices. Exalink was recently purchased by Comverse Network Systems.

Tutorial 7 Sunday 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Ad-Hoc Networks are network architectures that can be rapidly deployed and that do not rely on preexisting communication infrastructure. Due to mobility, the topology of a mobile ad-hoc network is continuously changing. Thus, a self-reconfiguration capability is required. Furthermore, because of the large span of the networks, multi-hop routing is usually employed. Finally, due to lack of centralized entities all algorithms are distributed. Challenges in design of ad-hoc networks stem from their two main characteristics: the topology is unstable and there is no centrally available information. This tutorial addresses four areas in the design of ad-hoc networks: Medium Access Control Schemes, Routing Protocols, Mobility Management Algorithms, and Application of the Ad-Hoc Networking Technology. The goal of the tutorial is to introduce the attendees to the state-of-the-art in ad-hoc networking. It is a focused course with the emphasis on the applicability of the ad-hoc technology to current and future systems in both, the commercial and the military markets.

Dr. Zygmunt Haas, Cornell University
Zygmunt J. Haas received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1988 and subsequently joined AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he pursued research on wireless communications, mobility management, fast protocols, optical networks, and optical switching. From September 1994 till July 1995, Dr. Haas worked for the AT&T Wireless Center of Excellence, where he investigated various aspects of wireless and mobile networking, concentrating on TCP/IP networks. As of August 1995, he joined the faculty of the School of Electrical Engineering at Cornell University, where he is currently a tenured Associate Professor.

Dr. Haas is an author of numerous technical papers and holds twelve patents in the fields of high-speed networking, wireless networks, and optical switching. He has organized several Workshops, delivered tutorials at major IEEE and ACM conferences, and serves as editor of several journals. He has been a guest editor of three IEEE JSAC issues ("Gigabit Networks," "Mobile Computing Networks," and "Ad-Hoc Networks"). Dr. Haas is a Vice Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Personal Communications. His interests include: mobile and wireless communication and networks, personal communication service, and high-speed communication and protocols. His e-mail is: haas@ee.cornell.edu and his URL is: http://www.ee.cornell.edu/~haas/wnl.html.

Tutorial 8 Sunday 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Wireless IN

This presentation covers the basics of Intelligent Networks from a wireless network perspective. Basic IN elements are defined, such as service control points, service switching points, and service management systems and how they work together with home and visitor location registers to provide services within a wireless network. The similarity between Bellcore based AIN, TIA-based WIN, and ETSI-based CAMEL standards are explained. The call model, service architecture, and types of services enabled by each standard are also discussed.

Karen Goettler, Clarent Corporation
Karen Goettler, a Senior Analyst at PEAK Software Solutions, has extensive industry experience in IN. She has focused on intelligent peripheral (IP) design and the design of IN services utilizing the IP, and has developed requirements for service management systems. In addition to working at PEAK Software Solutions, Ms. Goettler teaches an IN architectures and services course at the University of Denver.

Tutorial 9 Sunday 8:30 am - 12pm & 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Future 3G Wireless Systems

This course provides necessary foundation material for understanding of the proposed CDMA/TDMA based 3G wireless systems. The course describes the services and capabilities of 3G systems that are expected in the near future. It focuses on local and regional regulatory issues and provides spectrum allocations for 3G systems in different parts of the world. The course explains how current 2G systems form the technical foundation of the 3G systems.

This course is designed for technical community. It is for hardware and software developers and system engineers who are engaged in design, implementation, testing, and other technical aspects of the 3G wireless systems.

Dr. Vijay Garg, University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Vijay Garg is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at the Bell Labs of Lucent Technologies in Naperville, Illinois where he has been working since 1985. Dr. Garg is also an adjunct Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Garg received his Ph.D., degree from the Illinois Institute of Technologies, Chicago, IL. in 1973 and MS degree from the university of California at Berkeley, CA in 1966. Dr. Garg has co-authored several technical books including four in telecommunications area and one in Railway Vehicle Dynamics, which was translated in Russian and Chinese. He is fellow of ASCE and ASME, and a Senior Member of IEEE. Dr. Garg is a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of Maine and Illinois. He is an Academic Member of the Russian Academy of Transport. Dr. Garg has served on various technical committees of IEEE and ASME.

T10 Sunday 8:30 am - 12pm & 1:30 pm - 5:00pm

UMTS / IMT 2000

Europe has decided to adopt an evolutionary approach for the UMTS Core network based on migration from the GSM/GPRS infrastructure. For the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), ETSI SMG2 has selected the wideband CDMA concept, for the paired band (FDD mode) and the TD/CDMA concept for the unpaired band (TDD mode). The process of deriving a common set of technical specifications for both W-CDMA and TD/CDMA with a GSM-MAP core was given to the 3rd-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) last year. 3GPP is a partnership project of regional standard bodies ETSI, ARIB, T1, CWTS, TTA and TTC. 3GPP released the first set of technical specifications (Release 99 and Release 00) in December 1999 and March 2000. However, there are still many open issues remaining.

Regarding IMT-2000, the ITU-R Task Group 8/1 approved a comprehensive set of terrestrial radio interface specifications in November 1999. This set is referred to as IMT-2000 Terrestrial Radio Interfaces. Also, ITU Study Group 11 has selected three core networks as a family of core networks for IMT-2000. Two of them are evolved second generation core networks: evolved GSM-MAP and evolved ANSI-41 and the third one is based on IP-based technology . The ITU intends to focus its standardization work on the required interfaces between the two "families" to provide roaming between operators for mobile users.

The course starts with an introduction to UMTS/IMT 2000. It is followed by a description of UTRA, after which, both W-CDMA and TD-CDMA techniques will be addressed. Network Aspects as well as Traffic and Spectrum issues will be dealt with. Finally, the latest activities within 3GPP and ITU will be discussed.

Dr. Hamid Aghvami, King's College London
Hamid Aghvami obtained his MSc and PhD degrees from KingÍs College, The University of London, in 1978 and 1981, respectively. In April 1981 he joined the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at KingÍs as a postdoctoral research associate and worked on Digital Communications and Microwave techniques projects sponsored by EPSRC.

He joined the academic staff at King's in 1984. In 1989 he was promoted to Reader and Professor in Telecommunications Engineer-ing in 1992. He is presently the Director of the Centre for Tele-communications Research at KingÍs. Professor Aghvami carries out consulting work on Digital Radio Communications Systems for both British and international companies. He has published over 200 technical papers and given invited talks all over the world on various aspects of Personal and Mobile Radio Communications as well as giving courses on the subject world wide. He was Visiting Professor at NTT Radio Communication Systems Laboratories in 1990 and Senior Research Fellow at BT Laboratories in 1998-1999. He is currently Executive Advisor to Wireless Facilities Inc., USA and Managing Director of Wireless Multimedia Communications LTD (his own consultancy company).

He leads an active research team working on numerous mobile and personal communications projects for third generation systems, these projects are supported both by the government and industry. He was a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Communications Society in 1993. He has been member, Chairman, Vice-Chairman of the technical programme and organising committees of a large number of international conferences. He is also the founder of International Conference on Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC). He is a fellow member of the IEE and senior member of the IEEE.