Keynote I

Prof. Xuemin (Sherman) Shen

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Waterloo, Canada

Title: Vehicular Communications Networks – Design and Applications

Abstract: The pervasive adoption of IEEE 802.11 radios in the past decade has made possible for the easy Internet access from a vehicle, notably drive-thru Internet. However, originally designed for the static indoor applications, the performance of IEEE 802.11 in the outdoor vehicular environment is still unclear especially when a large number of fast-moving users transmitting simultaneously. In this talk, we first introduce the Vehicular Communications Networks (VANET). We then discuss on the throughput performance of fundamental IEEE 802.11 DCF (distributed coordination function) in the in-motion drive-thru Internet scenario. Due to the high mobility and transient connectivity of vehicles, we show that the DCF MAC should be adaptively adjusted according to the vehicle velocities. We then describe the adaptive mechanisms to achieve smooth video delivery to passengers based on the Interrupted and variable download throughput of vehicles.

Biography: Xuemin (Sherman) Shen is a Professor and University Research Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada. Dr. Shen's research focuses on wireless resource management, wireless network security, wireless body area networks and vehicular ad hoc and sensor networks. He is the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Network, Peer-to-Peer Networking and Application, and IET Communications. He served as the Technical Program Committee Chair for IEEE VTC'10, the Symposia Chair for IEEE ICC'10, the Tutorial Chair for IEEE ICC'08, the Technical Program Committee Chair for IEEE Globecom'07, the Chair for IEEE Communications Society Technical Committee on Wireless Communications. He also served as a Founding Area Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications; Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology; Computer Networks; and ACM/Wireless Networks, etc., and the Guest Editor for IEEE JSAC, IEEE Wireless Communications, and IEEE Communications Magazine. Dr. Shen received the Excellent Graduate Supervision Award in 2006, and the Outstanding Performance Award in 2004, 2007, and 2010 from the University of Waterloo, the Premier's Research Excellence Award (PREA) in 2003 from the Province of Ontario, Canada. Dr. Shen is a registered Professional Engineer of Ontario, Canada, an IEEE Fellow, an Engineering Institute of Canada Fellow, a Canadian Academy of Engineering Fellow, and a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Vehicular Technology Society and Communications Society.

Keynote II

Prof. Nei Kato

Graduate School of Information Sciences

Tohoku University

Title: Relay-by-Smartphone: A New Paradigm Toward Autonomous Communications in Disaster-affected Areas

Abstract: In this talk, a new system focusing on the terminal-to-terminal communication technology, which enables communication without requiring any fixed infrastructure, will be introduced. We refer to the new system as “Relay-by-Smartphone” networks. In these networks, the users are able to transmit messages by relaying them through other mobile terminals such as smartphones, laptops, and tablet PCs. Since the transmission methods of Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) and Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) are inherently different, their performances depend on the communication environments such as users’ mobility and overall terminals density. MANET is suitable for the environment where the terminals are static and are in dense area. On the other hand, DTN is more suitable for the environment where user terminals have high mobility and are mostly isolated. In order to take advantage of these different characteristics of MANET and DTN, and also to avoid waste of network resources, we propose a method which switches a terminal's communication mode between MANET and DTN depending on the environment. In addition, we implement our proposed algorithm in actual smartphones, and demonstrate its effectiveness through experiments. The newly developed system can be effectively used in disaster-affected areas where the fixed communication infrastructures are damaged.

Biography: Prof. Nei Kato received his Bachelor Degree from Polytechnic University, Japan in 1986, M.S. and Ph.D. Degrees in information engineering from Tohoku University, Japan, in 1988 and 1991, respectively. He joined Computer Center of Tohoku University at 1991, and has been a full professor with the Graduate School of Information Sciences since 2003. He became Strategic adviser to the President of Tohoku University since 2013. He has been engaged in research on satellite communications, computer networking, wireless mobile communications, smart grid, image processing, and pattern recognition. He has published more than 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He will serve as elected Member-at-Large(2014-2017) on the Board of Governors, IEEE Communications Society. He currently serves as the Vice Chair of IEEE Ad Hoc & Sensor Networks Technical Committee, the Chair of IEEE ComSoc Sendai Chapter, the steering committee member of WCNC and a voting member of GITC, an editor of IEEE Wireless Communications(2006-), IEEE Wireless Communications(2006-), IEEE Network Magazine(2012-), IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications(2008-), IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology(2010-), and IEEE Trans. on Parallel and Distributed Systems(TPDS, 2011-). From 2013, he also serves as an Associate Editor-in-Chief of TPDS and IEEE Internet of Things Journal. He has served as the Chair of IEEE Satellite and Space Communications Technical Committee(2010-2012), the Chair of IEICE Satellite Communications Technical Committee(2011-2012), guest-editor of many IEEE transactions/journals/magazines, a symposium co-chair of GLOBECOM’07, ICC’10, ICC’11, ICC’12, Vice Chair of IEEE WCNC’10, WCNC’11, ChinaCom’08, ChinaCom’09, Symposia co-chair of GLOBECOM’12, TPC Vice chair of ICC’14, and workshop co-chair of VTC2010. His awards include Minoru Ishida Foundation Research Encouragement Prize(2003), Distinguished Contributions to Satellite Communications Award from the IEEE Communications Society, Satellite and Space Communications Technical Committee(2005), the FUNAI information Science Award(2007), the TELCOM System Technology Award from Foundation for Electrical Communications Diffusion(2008), the IEICE Network System Research Award(2009), the IEICE Satellite Communications Research Award(2011), the KDDI Foundation Excellent Research Award(2012), IEICE Communications Society Distinguished Service Award(2012), IEEE GLOBECOM/WCNC/VTC Best Paper Awards, and IEICE Communications Society Best Paper Award(2012). Besides his academic activities, he also serves on the expert committee of Telecommunications Council, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and as the chairperson of ITU-R SG4 and SG7, Japan. Nei Kato is a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Communications Society(2012-2014) and the co-PI of A3 Foresight Program(2011-2014) funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences(JSPS), NSFC of China, and NRF of Korea. He is a fellow of IEEE and IEICE.