| Title | : | Pushing the Limits of Wireless Networks |
| Speaker | : | Swarun Kumar (MIT/CMU, USA) |
| Details | : | Mon, 30 Nov, 2015 3:00 PM @ BSB 355 |
| Abstract: | : | Wireless networks are everywhere around us and form a big part of our day-to-day lives. In this talk, I will present my work on addressing the key challenges and opportunities of modern wireless networks. First, can we use the ubiquitous Wi-Fi infrastructure around us to deliver new services, beyond communication? In particular, this talk focuses on indoor positioning, a service that has grabbed the attention of the academia and industry. While GPS has revolutionised outdoor navigation, it does not work indoors. Past work that has explored this problem is either limited in accuracy with errors of several meters, or advocates complete overhaul of the infrastructure with massive antenna-array access points that do not exist on consumer devices. Inspired by radar systems, I developed Ubicarse, the first purely-software indoor positioning system for existing Wi-Fi devices that achieves tens of cm in positioning accuracy. Second, perhaps our biggest expectation from modern wireless networks is faster communication speeds. However, state-of-the-art Wi-Fi networks continue to struggle in crowded environments — airports and hotel lobbies. The core reason is interference — Wi-Fi access points today avoid transmitting at the same time on the same frequency, since they would otherwise interfere with each other. I describe OpenRF, a novel system that enables today’s Wi-Fi access points to directly combat this interference and demonstrate significantly faster data-rates for real applications. Bio: Swarun Kumar is transitioning to an assistant professor position at CMU (starting Spring 2016) from his Ph.D at MIT where he worked on wireless networks and systems. Over his Ph.D, he designed and built new systems that leverage a deep understanding of the wireless physical layer to design and build faster wireless networks and deliver new services. His work has been featured as research highlights in the Communications of the ACM (CACM) and the International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR). Swarun is a recipient of the George Sprowls Award for best Ph.D thesis in Computer Science at MIT and the President of India gold medal at IIT Madras. |
