Research Centers and Labs
Wireless and Mobile Communications Laboratory
The WMC Laboratory aims to advance the state-of-the-art in wireless, mobile, and communications technologies.
WMC provides the most advanced technologies in conducting research and training in communications. It provides the necessary equipment to conduct research on wired / wireless signals and systems that operate at a frequency up to 10 Gigahertz. Also, it provides the necessary modules to conduct research and training on Wireless Sensor Networks. Recently CISCO equipment was acquired using a grant from CISCO for training purposes of students and professionals on networking technologies which prepare them for CISCO certifications.
Facilities
WMC provides the most advanced technologies in conducting research and training in communications. It provides the necessary equipment to conduct research on wired / wireless signals and systems that operate at a frequency up to 10 Gigahertz. Also, it provides the necessary modules to conduct research and training on Wireless Sensor Networks. Recently CISCO equipment was acquired using a grant from CISCO for training purposes of students and professionals on networking technologies which prepare them for CISCO certifications. WMC laboratory has equipment exceeds $200,000.
Projects
- Bit Error Rate Performance of Multi-user Wireless DS-CDMA receivers
- Collaborative Learning Applications for Mobile Devices
- Steganography over wireless systems
- Digital Forensics of Wireless Systems and Devices
- Effect of Curvature on the Conformal Microstrip Antenna
- Femto Cells
- Fundamental Limits and Optimality of Wireless Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
- Handover and authentication in mobile networks
- Multimedia in E-Learning over Mobile Environments
- Multimedia over wireless sensor networks
- Performance Optimization of Multi-user Receivers
- Power-Efficient Wireless CDMA Systems
- QoS of Multi-user communications for Cellular Networks
- Security of ID Document and ID Card Enrollment Stations
Laboratory resources
There are some hardware experiments running in the laboratory by master students, to test the performance of any network, wireless or wired. Some of those experiments are:
- Four 3Com Ethernet client bridges
- Three Cisco access points
- Four 3Com firewalls
- Three 3Com 24 port switch
- Two Allied Telesis 12 port switch
- One 3Com 8 port switch
- One Intel 16 port switch
- Three Net-gear access points
- Fourteen PCI MCI wireless cards
- Three Ericsson Bluetooth devices
- Four power full Antennas
FEKO software
FEKO is a comprehensive electromagnetic simulation software tool, based on state of the art computational electromagnetics (CEM) techniques. It enables users to solve a wide range of electromagnetic problems. The multiple solution techniques available within FEKO make it applicable to a wide range of problems for a large array of industries. Typical applications include:
- Antennas: analysis of horns, microstrip patches, wire antennas, reflector antennas, conformal antennas, broadband antennas, arrays
- Antenna placement: analysis of antenna radiation patterns, radiation hazard zones, etc. with an antenna placed on a large structure, e.g. ship, aircraft, armored car
- EMC: analysis of diverse EMC problems including shielding effectiveness of an enclosure, cable coupling analysis in complex environments, e.g. wiring in a car, radiation hazard analysis
- Bio-electromagnetics: analysis of homogeneous or non-homogeneous bodies, SAR extraction
- RF components: analysis of waveguide structures, e.g. filter, slotted antennas, directional couplers
- 3D EM circuits: analysis of microstrip filters, couplers, inductors, etc.
- Radomes: analysis of multiple dielectric layers in a large structure
- Scattering problems: RCS analysis of large and small structures
TinyOS software
TinyOS is an open source, BSD-licensed operating system designed for low-power wireless devices, such as those used in sensor networks, ubiquitous computing, personal area networks, smart buildings, and smart meters. A worldwide community from academia and industry use, develop, and support the operating system as well as its associated tools, averaging 35,000 downloads a year.
OPNET
OPNET is the industry’s leading network development software. OPNET allows you to design and study communication networks,devices, protocols, and application. It is used by the world’s most prestigious technology organizations to accelerate the R&D process.
OPNET’s object-oriented modeling approach and graphical user interface(GUI) enable relatively easy means of developing models from the actual world network, hardware devices, and protocols. OPNET supports all major network types and technologies, allowing you to design and test various scenarios with reasonable certainty of the output results.
The application areas include:
- Network planning (both LAN and/or WAN) and analysis of performance and problems prior to actual implementation
- Wireless and Satellite communication schemes and protocols
- Microwave and Fiber-optic based Network Management
- Protocol Development and management
- Routing algorithm evaluation for routers, switches, and other connecting devices.
We use OPNET for teaching and research purposes. Research activities in the area of end system multicasting have been carried out using OPNET’s multicast module. Performance analysis of End System Multicast models have been efficiently carried out.
QualNet software
QualNet is the next generation of the scalable GlMoSim (Global Mobile Information Systems Simulator) simulator. Glomosim was designed to simulate large-scale wireless networks with thousands of mobile nodes, each of which may different communication capabilities via multi-hop ground,aircraft and satellite media. QualNet has extended GloMoSim’s capabilities to wired networks as well as mixed wired and wireless networks. QualNet uses the parallel simulation kernel provided by the PARSEC discrete-event simulation language. Thus QualNet is among the few simulators for wireless and wired networks that been implemented on sequential and parallel architectures.
We use QualNet for teaching and research purposes. Research activities in the area of mixed-mode simulations are carried out in QualNet.