We are pleased to host the first POWDER-RENEW Mobile and Wireless Week on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Utah, from September 9-13, 2019.
Attendees will be exposed to research on wireless and mobile networks and will learn about the features of the POWDER platform and how it can drive existing and future research. The Mobile and Wireless Week will include lectures, talks, and significantly, hands-on exploration towards setting up and conducting exciting wireless experiments.
We expect most of the participants of the Mobile and Wireless Week to be students who are ready to use the POWDER platform for their research. However, we would like to keep the enrollment open to a broader set of students and also include a few somewhat junior students who might use the platform later in their research.
The cost of travel, lodging, and meals for up to 25 students from US institutions selected for the Mobile and Wireless Week will be covered by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Non-students and students from non-US institutions are welcome to apply to attend and if selected will be expected to cover their own costs.
Application due: July 24, 2019
Advisor's letter due: July 24, 2019
Decision Notification: July 31, 2019
Start: Monday, September 9, 2019 at 8:30 AM
End: Friday, September 13, 2019 at 5:00 PM
The topics to be covered during the first four days of the Mobile and Wireless Week are described below. (Subject to some change...)
Each session will be a combination of talks/lectures and hands-on exercises using the POWDER platform. The last day of the week will be dedicated to small hands-on research projects on the platform.
This session will provide an overview of the POWDER platform, its features and building blocks. Topics covered will include:
This session will cover the evolution of the radio access network (RAN), from an inflexible purpose-made and proprietary hardware infrastructure, to a flexible, open infrastructure aligned with broader trends associated with software-defined networking, network function virtualization and network programmability. Topics covered will include:
This session will cover using Powder to observe the multipath radio channel and the RF spectrum. We will provide an overview of path loss models, multipath fading, and link budgeting for communication systems designers. We will describe several GNU radio tools which can be used to measure and display channel measurements. Particular topics:
This session will introduce basic blocks of a modern wireless communication link:
By completing the exercises, the participants will have an introductory understanding of the key PHYsical Layer blocks in wireless communication links. The participants will be provided with lab handouts, presentations and use scripts to understand the concepts. The scripts will be used in MATLAB simulation environment. Thus, our only prerequisite is a working knowledge of MATLAB. Solutions to all the exercises will be provided at the end of each session.
This is an introduction to the practice of antenna design for communication systems (POWDER in particular). Basic antenna theory will be presented followed by hands on antenna simulation in the CST Design environment.
The main goal is for the students to become adept in using the POWDER-RENEW platform. Thus, all the concepts learned in “Communications basics” will be repeated on over-the-air channel using the POWDER-RENEW platform and hardware.
Documented scripts will be provided to the participants to get them started, with each exercise building upon those to reinforce the communication concepts and especially their implementation on the POWDER platform.
