SEECS Colloquium

The convergence of mobility, multimedia and the Internet is currently being developed through third generation (3G) networks. A key component of this evolution is ensuring the quality of service (QoS) requirements for different types of traffic (voice, video, data). Essential to the notion of QoS is the efficient allocation of the network resources to the mobile units such their QoS requirements are maintained. In this talk, we present a novel wireless resources allocation algorithm that controls both the transmission power and bit rate of the mobile units cooperatively while previous work has focused on handling them separately. The algorithm utilizes Genetic Algorithms to optimally assign both the transmitting power and bit rate to every mobile unit. Optimal allocation is in the sense that every unit gets only enough resources necessary for meeting or exceeding its QoS requirements. Having done that, we gain further benefits as well. In addition to QoS provisioning, lower transmitting power extends the mobile unit battery life-time and minimizes the interference seen by other users. Moreover, improved coverage efficiency reduces infrastructure costs by requiring fewer base stations per square kilometer. The proposed algorithm also increases the number of QoS-satisfied mobile users in a network, thus increasing revenues to the network operator.

Ibrahim Habib is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, CUNY, where he has been since 1991. His research interests include traffic engineering in IP optical networks, QoS management in IP networks, and allocation of resources in wireless networks. He has published more than 60 papers in the above areas. He has also been consulting in the industry. He has been a Guest Editor of the IEEE JSAC twice, IEEE Communications Magazine twice. He has chaired and organized many sessions and panels in different IEEE conferences. He was the co-chair of the High Speed Networks symposium in ICC 2001. He is also the chair of the optical networks symposium in Globecom 2003 and the wireless networking symposium in ICC2004.