UiA Agder Mobility Lab's Blog

New paper accepted for ICUMT 09'

2009-08-06T08:07:00.001+02:00

Xin He, and Frank Y. Li, "Cooperative RTS/CTS MAC Protocol with Relay Selection in Distributed Wireless Networks", International Conference on Ultra Modern Telecommunications (ICUMT), St.-Petersberg, Russia, 12-14 Oct. 2009.

New paper accepted for WiMob 09

2009-07-26T09:43:00.000+02:00

Hongzhi Jiao, and Frank Y. Li, "Cooperative Medium Access Control in Wireless Networks: the Two-hop Case", The 5th IEEE International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob 2009), Marrakech, Morocco, October 12th-14th, 2009.

New paper accepted for PIMRC '09

2009-07-21T09:45:00.000+02:00

Lei Jiao, and Frank Y. Li, 'MAC Strategies for Single Rendezvous Multihop Cognitive Radio Networks', The 20th IEEE Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications Symposium 2009 (IEEE PIMRC’09), Tokyo, Japan, September 13-16, 2009.

New paper accepted for 34th Annual IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN)

2009-07-12T10:09:00.000+02:00

Lei Jiao and Frank Y. Li, "Single Radio Based Channel Datarate Aware Parallel Rendezvous MAC Protocol for Cognitive Radio Networks", 34th Annual IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN), Zürich, Switzerland, October 20-23., 2009

[ARG] Paper discussion, Week 28, 09'

2009-07-06T11:17:00.001+02:00

T. Kindberg et al., “People, Places, Things: Web Presence for the Real World,” Proc. 3rd IEEE Workshop Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (WMCSA 00), IEEE CS Press, 2000, p. 19–28.

Abstract

The convergence of Web technology, wireless networks, and portable client devices provides new design opportunities for computer/communications systems. In the HP Labs’ “Cooltown” project we have been exploring these opportunities through an infrastructure to support “web presence” for people, places and things. We put web servers into things like printers and put information into web servers about things like artwork; we group physically related things into places embodied in web servers. Using URLs for ddressing, physical URL beaconing and sensing of URLs for discovery, and localized web servers for directories, we can create a location-aware but ubiquitous system to support nomadic users. On top of this infrastructure we can leverage Internet connectivity to support communications services. Web presence bridges the World Wide Web and the physical world we inhabit, providing a model for supporting nomadic users without a central control point.

[ARG] Paper discussion, Week 24, 09'

2009-06-08T14:00:00.001+02:00

Damiani, E.; De Capitani di Vimercati, S.; Samarati, P., "Managing multiple and dependable identities," Internet Computing, IEEE , vol.7, no.6, pp. 29-37, Nov.-Dec. 2003

Abstract

Digital management of multiple robust identities is a crucial issue in developing the next generation of distributed applications. Our daily activities increasingly rely on remote resources and services - specifically, on interactions between different, remotely located parties. Because these parties might (and sometimes should) know little about each other, digital identities - electronic representations of individuals' or organizations' sensitive information - help introduce them to each other and control the amount of information transferred. In its broadest sense, identity management encompasses definitions and life-cycle management for digital identities and profiles, as well as environments for exchanging and validating such information. Digital identity management - especially support for identity dependability and multiplicity - is crucial for building and maintaining trust relationships in today's globally interconnected society. We investigate the problems inherent in identity management, emphasizing the requirements for multiplicity and dependability. We enable a new generation of advanced MDDI services on the global information infrastructure.

[ARG] Paper discussion, Week 23, 09'

2009-06-05T12:15:00.001+02:00

Adjie-Winoto, W., Schwartz, E., Balakrishnan, H., and Lilley, J. 2000. The design and implementation of an intentional naming system. SIGOPS Oper. Syst. Rev. 34, 2 (Apr. 2000), 22. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/346152.346192

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of the Intentional Naming System (INS), a resource discovery and service location system for dynamic and mobile networks of devices and computers. Such environments require a naming system that is (i) expressive, to describe and make requests based on speciﬁc properties of services, (ii) responsive, to track changes due to mobility and performance, (iii) robust, to handle failures, and (iv) easily conﬁgurable. INS uses a simple language based on attributes and values for its names. Applications use the language to describe what they are looking for (i.e., their intent), not where to ﬁnd things (i.e., not hostnames). INS implements a late binding mechanism that integrates name resolution and message routing, enabling clients to continue communicating with end-nodes even if the name-to-address mappings change while a session is in progress. INS resolvers self-conﬁgure to form an application-level overlay network, which they use to discover new services, perform late binding, and maintain weak consistency of names using soft-state name exchanges and updates. We analyze the performance of the INS algorithms and protocols, present measurements of a Java-based implementation, and describe three applications we have implemented that demonstrate the feasibility and utility of INS.

New paper accepted for NGMAST09

2009-06-03T13:55:00.003+02:00

A. Häber, J. R. De Mier Gómez, F. Reichert, "Virtualization of Remote Devices and Services in Residential Networks," 3rd International Conference and Exhibition on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies (NGMAST 2009), Cardiff, Wales, 2009.

Abstract

So far remote access solutions for residential services require modifications to clients. In addition, remote access adds complexity to the client application. We propose here a solution that decouples remote access from the client itself with an entity that creates virtual instances of remote services in a local network. Thereby, clients will be able to discover the virtual instance and use it. Moreover, client applications do not need to distinguish between local and remote services hence reducing complexity.

Further info on the conference is available at:
http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/NGMAST09/

[ARG] (AML Reading Group) We're back on business

2009-05-25T11:06:00.000+02:00

Kruchten, P. 1995. Architecture blueprints—the “4+1” view model of software architecture. In Tutorial Proceedings on Tri-Ada '91: Ada's Role in Global Markets: Solutions For A Changing Complex World (Anaheim, California, United States, November 05 - 10, 1995). D. Cook, Ed. TRI-Ada '95. ACM, New York, NY, 540-555. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/216591.216611

Abstract

This article presents a model for describing the architecture of software-intensive systems, based on the use of multiple, concurrent views. This use of multiple views allows to address separately the concerns of the various ‘stakeholders’ of the architecture: end-user, developers, systems engineers, project managers, etc., and to handle separately the functional and non functional requirements. Each of the five views is described, together with a notation to capture it. The views are designed using an architecture-centered, scenario- driven, iterative development process.

Metochi study trip - paper discussion - Day 5

2009-05-20T13:30:00.001+02:00

Hartmann, J., Sutcliffe, A., and Angeli, A. D. 2008. "Towards a theory of user judgment of aesthetics and user interface quality". ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 15, 4 (Nov. 2008), 1-30. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1460355.1460357

Abstract

The article introduces a framework for users' design quality judgments based on Adaptive Decision Making theory. The framework describes judgment on quality attributes (usability, content/functionality, aesthetics, customisation and engagement) with dependencies on decision making arising from the user's background, task and context. The framework is tested and refined by three experimental studies. The first two assessed judgment of quality attributes of websites with similar content but radically different designs for aesthetics and engagement. Halo effects were demonstrated whereby attribution of good quality on one attribute positively influenced judgment on another, even in the face of objective evidence to the contrary (e.g., usability errors). Users' judgment was also shown to be susceptible to framing effects of the task and their background. These appear to change the importance order of the quality attributes; hence, quality assessment of a design appears to be very context dependent. The third study assessed the influence of customisation by experiments on mobile services applications, and demonstrated that evaluation of customisation depends on the users' needs and motivation. The results are discussed in the context of the literature on aesthetic judgment, user experience and trade-offs between usability and hedonic/ludic design qualities.

Metochi study trip - paper discussion - Day 4

2009-05-19T13:26:00.001+02:00

J. Scott, J. Crowcroft, P. Hui, and C. Diot, “Haggle: a Networking
Architecture Designed Around Mobile Users,” Proceedings of the Third
Annual Conference on Wireless On-demand Network Systems and Services,
2006, pp. 86, 78.

Abstract

Current mobile computing applications are infrastructure-centric, due to the IP-based API that these applications are written around. This causes many frustrations for end users, whose needs might be easily met with local
connectivity resources but whose applications do not support this (e.g. emailing someone sitting next to you when there is no wireless access point). We identify the general scenario faced by the user of Pocket Switched Networking (PSN), and discuss why the IP-based status quo does not cope well in this environment. We present a set of architectural principles for PSN, and the high-level design of Haggle, our asynchronous, data-centric network architecture which addresses this environment by
“raising” the API so that applications can provide the network with application-layer data units (ADUs) with high-level metadata concerning ADU identiﬁcation, security and delivery to user-named endpoints.

Metochi study trip - paper discussion - Day 3

2009-05-18T13:17:00.001+02:00

D. D. Clark, J. Wroclawski, K. R. Sollins, and R. Braden, "Tussle in cyberspace: defining tomorrow's internet", IEEE/ACM Trans. Netw., vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 462-475, June 2005. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TNET.2005.850224

Abstract

The architecture of the Internet is based on a number of principles, including the self-describing datagram packet, the end-to-end arguments, diversity in technology and global addressing. As the Internet has moved from a research curiosity to a recognized component of mainstream society, new requirements have emerged that suggest new design principles, and perhaps suggest that we revisit some old ones. This paper explores one important reality that surrounds the Internet today: different stakeholders that are part of the Internet milieu have interests that may be adverse to each other, and these parties each vie to favor their particular interests. We call this process "the tussle." Our position is that accommodating this tussle is crucial to the evolution of the network's technical architecture. We discuss some examples of tussle, and offer some technical design principles that take it into account.

Metochi study trip - paper discussion - Day 2

2009-05-17T13:13:00.000+02:00

Campbell, A.T.; Eisenman, S.B.; Lane, N.D.; Miluzzo, E.; Peterson, R.A.; Hong Lu; Xiao Zheng; Musolesi, M.; Fodor, K.; Gahng-Seop Ahn, "The Rise of People-Centric Sensing", Internet Computing, IEEE , vol.12, no.4, pp.12-21, July-Aug. 2008
URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=4557974&isnumber=4557967

Abstract

Technological advances in sensing, computation, storage, and communications will turn the near-ubiquitous mobile phone into a global mobile sensing device. People-centric sensing will help drive this trend by enabling a different way to sense, learn, visualize, and share information about ourselves, friends, communities, the way we live, and the world we live in. It juxtaposes the traditional view of mesh sensor networks with one in which people, carrying mobile devices, enable opportunistic sensing coverage. In the MetroSense Project's vision of people-centric sensing, users are the key architectural system component, enabling a host of new application areas such as personal, public, and social sensing.

Metochi study trip - paper discussion - Day 1

2009-05-16T12:57:00.001+02:00

Paper 1

I. G. Niemegeers and S. M. Heemstra de Groot, "From Personal Area Networks to Personal Networks: A User Oriented Approach," Wireless Personal Communications, vol. 22, pp. 175-186, 2002.

Abstract

This paper introduces Personal Networks (PN), a new concept related to the emerging ﬁeld of pervasive computing that extends the concept of a Personal Area Network (PAN). The latter refers to a space of small coverage (less than 10 m) around a person where ad-hoc communication occurs, typically between portable and mobile computing devices such as laptops, Personal Digital Assistants, cell phones, headsets and digital gadgets. We envision a PN to have a core consisting of a PAN, which is extended on-demand and in an ad-hoc fashion with personal resources or resources belonging to others. This extension will physically be made via infrastructure networks, e.g., the Internet, an organisation’s intranet, or a PAN belonging to another person, a vehicle area network, or a home network. The PN is conﬁgured to support the application and takes into account context and location information. The resources, which can become part of a PN, will be very diverse. These resources can be private or may have to be shared with other people. They may be free or one may have to pay for their usage. They can be physically close or far away. In this paper, we discuss a number of challenging research problems and potential directions for solutions. Speciﬁcally we address the architecture of PNs, techniques for resource and environment discovery, self-organisation, routing, co-operation with ﬁxed infrastructures, and security and accounting.

Paper 2

G. Kortuem and Z. Segall, "Wearable communities: Augmenting social networks with wearable computers," Pervasive Computing, vol. 3, pp. 11-19, January 2003. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1.1.65.5202

Abstract

Wearable communities—social networks based on augmented face-toface encounters—present both social and technical design challenges. Our WearCom design methodology permits rapid prototyping of wearable community systems to facilitate community building.

Best paper award at NGMAST 2008

2008-09-26T09:53:00.001+02:00

The paper "Phone-controlled Delivery of NGN Services into Residential Environments" won the Best paper award at the NGMAST 2008 conference.

What a nice surprise for us! The paper "Phone-controlled Delivery of NGN Services into Residential Environments", co-authored by Frank and Andreas from AML, won the Best paper award at the conference. Andreas Fasbender, from Ericsson, presented this paper at the conference. It is based on a prototype jointly developed by UiA and Ericsson in 2007.

(Originally published by Andreas Häber 21/09/2008)

Lab hardware - new equipment

2008-06-06T11:52:00.001+02:00

So far we didn't write much about the hardware we've got in our lab. Perhaps people will find it interesting to read about what kind of equipment we've got and our experiences with them, so here is a start on sharing that.

Our lab is primarily setup for research in residential and next-generation networking. We have a core network, to be described later, with two home networks connected to it. This allows us to setup scenarios like "home network" and a visited network like "hotel room network", "friend's network", etc. Will try to describe this part in more detail in future posts, in addition to the various devices in them.

Lately we got the following new equipment: a Macbook Air and a Synology DS207+ disk station. More on the Synology disk drive in a future article.

Macbook Air
Probably many people have written similar about the Macbook Air: Reading about it is one thing, but holding it in your own hands is really a big surprise because it is so thin and light. Especially in the beginning I was worried to break it in two, but so far it is in one piece!

To be specific, the machine we've got is the standard version with 1.6 GHz CPU. Since we don't plan to use it as part of our core network that should be enough horsepower. Rather, we will use it as a client device in various scenarios and as a travel companion when necessary.

We had some trouble setting up Time Machine to use our new NAS device (more about the Synology NAS later) for storage of the backups. After we Google'd around a bit we found some helpful posts. First, support for using external disk drives must be enabled in OSX:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Next, because Apple did some changes to OSX (and possibly later, to be tried) it still won't work. It seems like it works, because Time Machine will create files on the network drive but after some time it stops with the message "The backup image could not be created". Sounds very strange since it seems to successfully create it. That is probably one reason why Apple does not officially support this configuration (the root reason might be that they would like us to buy the Apple Time Capsule instead of using other vendor's products).

Anyhow, Johnny Chadda seems like he found a workaround for this. In addition, Kuro5hin has an article describing the problem more in depth and a similar workaround. We have yet to try these workarounds, but hopefully it will finally work.

Then, after playing a little around with OSX the Boot Camp Assistant came handy to install Microsoft Windows Vista on a separate partition. Together with Microsoft Office it works very fine on the laptop. Fortunately, they've added support for using the Apple Remote Control from Windows too now.

Two papers for NGMAST 2008 accepted

2008-06-06T11:38:00.001+02:00

We got two papers accepted for the 2nd IEEE Conference and Exhibition on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies (NGMAST 2008). The conference takes place 16.-19. September in Cardiff, Wales.

The two papers accepted are:
[1] A. Häber, M. Gerdes, F. Reichert, A. Fasbender, and R. Kumar, "Delivering Services to Residential Appliances by Utilizing Remote Resource Awareness," in 2nd IEEE Conference and Exhibition on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies (NGMAST 2008), Cardiff, Wales, 2008.

Abstract:

Service providers are nowadays offering a variety of services, and in particular multimedia content delivery. Besides, consumer appliances are increasingly becoming digitalized including support for communication networks. However, it is difficult, and in many cases impossible, to use these services with standard consumer appliances, such as TV and media player devices. Rather, usage is often restricted so that they can only be accessed through web browsers from PCs, mobile phones and similar terminals. This is unfortunate, because dedicated consumer appliances are often better suited to handle the content and thereby give consumers a better experience. Within this paper, three design approaches that support such services are described and compared, along with a prototype that shows this concept.

[2] A. Fasbender, S. Hoferer, M. Gerdes, T. Matsumura, A. Häber, and F. Reichert, "Phone-controlled Delivery of NGN Services into Residential Environments," in 2nd IEEE Conference and Exhibition on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies (NGMAST 2008), Cardiff, Wales, 2008.

Abstract:

The horizontally layered architecture of the
IMS/NGN standards family enables the delivery of services
independent of access network and requesting device. In this
article, the authors propose a further separation of service
control and delivery, allowing the requesting device – in
particular a user’s mobile phone – to invite other devices –
we will focus on DLNA appliances – into the service
delivery, thereby enhancing both user experience and service
design flexibility. The proposed solution builds on
exploiting proximity technologies (e.g. barcodes, NFC) for
pairing the control device with a remote environment.
Motivated by scenarios, the architecture concepts are
explained and a prototype implemented for validation is
described. Selected findings and a short overview of related
standardization efforts conclude the paper.

The Next Generation Mobile Application Architecture

2008-05-11T16:39:00.002+02:00

Guest Lecture: Trends in Mobile Communications

2008-05-11T16:22:00.001+02:00

Hi all,
We are pleased to invite you all to the following guest lecture/seminar:

When:Tuesday 6th May 2008, 10:00-11:00

Where: Aud F (on the first floor close to faculty's administration office)

Title: Trends in Mobile Communications

Invited speaker: Prof. Ulf Körner, Dept. of Electrical and Information
Technology, Lund University, Sweden

We are back!!!

2008-03-12T16:16:00.001+01:00

Finally, after a long break from updating this blog, we are back!!

We had a hectic few months (most of all, for our boss!!), with transitions from 'Hogskolen' to 'Universitet' (University). We are now officially 'University of Agder'!

Our group has grown in numbers too, with a few talented people joining our fold. Here is a quick intro:

Fang Chen (Ken)

Fang Chen (a.k.a Ken) was granted his MSc in ICT in 2007 by Høgskolen i Agder (HiA). His MSc project, with Ericsson Research Germany, was about designing a suitable architecture to enable non-IMS devices to use the IMS services.

Ken joined the AML since August 2007, and he is now focusing on research of people centric Next Generation applications.

Hongzhi Jiao (Jason)

Hongzhi Jiao (Jason) received the M. Sc. degree with specialization in control theory and control engineering from Wuhan University of Technology (WHUT), China, in 2007.
He joined AML in August 2007 where he is currently working towards a Ph.D. degree. His research interests include ad hoc networks, wireless mesh networks and cognitive radio networks.

Xin He (Silvia)

Xin has been majoring in signal and information processing, especially the space/time/frequency signal processing technology in mobile communications as a PHD candidate in Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) in China.

She joined AML in the 'Secure and reliable Wireless and Ad hoc COMmunications (SWACOM)' research project in March 2008. Her current research focuses on the wireless mesh networks, Ad Hoc networking, routing, MAC and cross-layer design in multi-hop wireless networks and related areas.

We are building a new homepage for our group as well. You can find the partly finished pages here . We will keep working on the pages.

And finally, Ken will be in charge of the blog (updating and kicking others to do so...), so we expect a more relevant and recent blog for the lab here!

Paper accepted - PIMRC in Athens, here we come!

2007-06-01T13:51:00.001+02:00

Our paper, "Remote Service Usage through SIP with Multimedia Access as an Use Case", was accepted at the 18th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC) in Athens, Greece. The conference takes place 3rd to 7th September in Athens Hilton.

Abstract:
"The IP Multimedia Subsystem is under deployment, as an IP-based service control and access infrastructure, but how it interconnects with residential appliances is currently unclear. With IMS access for the residential appliances they can be used as both service consumers and service providers. In this paper we present a protocol which allows residential services to be remotely invoked, through the IMS, and consumed in a different network, along with a prototype implementation and early results. With our protocol services of two distinct service protocol systems can cooperate."

We started the design work early in the autumn, 2006, and later we developed the prototype during the autumn and winter. In November, 2006 we did an integration test in Kista and at the end of January, 2007 we finally had our prototype working. Early March, 2007 the prototype was demonstrated to Ericsson in Kista. Due to the inherent nature of prototype, we needed three attempts before the prototype worked as expected.

See the AML Publications website for the publication when it is available (approximately 16th June), or in the conference proceedings when available.

Disney World and TridentCom 2007

2007-05-15T17:27:00.003+02:00

On 19. May Andreas will travel to Disney World, Orlando, FL., USA to attend the TridentCom 2007 conference and present a paper titled "Migration of Enterprise VoIP/SIP Solutions towards IMS".

Server farm moved

2007-05-15T16:46:00.001+02:00

Because our servers are quite noisy (Dell SC1435, do you copy?) we have moved it to its own server room now. Currently we are working on configuring them to work correctly together, and also reconfigure our older infrastructure to take advantage of them.

Will probably write more about what we've got in our infrastructure at a later time...

The agder mobility lab server farms (?!)

2007-01-30T16:17:00.001+01:00

Server farms (?). well, not really. But we are on our way! We started off with a Dell 4210 (42U) rack cabinet (we are now very attached to rack as we personally carried and assembled it!) and mounted a few servers. A couple of Dell power edge sc1435 servers will be sitting beside not-so-good looking self assembled (yes, by us!) 2U and 3U servers. The plan is to build a extensive network environment including gateway/firewall, openIMS testbed, AAA server, file server, Asterisk testbed etc etc. The wiring looks a bit unprofessional now, but works nonetheless. Once the initial setup had been done, the tower will be moved to a server room near by, contrary to our initial plan of setting it up in the lab (a bit too noisy). More to come as we get cracking on the hapless servers...

Search & destroy in Aachen: Prototype finally working!

2007-01-29T18:49:00.001+01:00

After the interoperability testing at Ericsson headquarters at Stockholm, Sweden during the end of November last year we have been busy killing all bugs discovered during the last round of testing. Now, late January, there was still one last "show stopping issue" left. To be able to work together with Ericsson in Aachen, where they had set up the testing environment, Andreas traveled there on Wednesday, 24th of January.

Thursday morning the root cause was found, and it was just a misconfiguration of a NAT-binding due to a misunderstanding of the product by the developer who had setup the testbed. After we fixed that NAT-binding the system worked as expected, finally, which was a great relief. Later we worked on more testing and co-located some of the functionality to reduce the amount of computers necessary to demonstrate the system. We started with 5 computers and ended up with 3 computers and 1 mobile phone.

The Burning Crusade starts ... and I am on a ferry to Danmark

2007-01-19T18:00:00.001+01:00

On Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 00:01 the "Dark Portal" was opened while Andreas and I were on a ferry to Danmark. Aarggghhh! My sons will be level 70 by the time I come back ....

Writing a book with our friends from Mobile Devices Lab @ AAU

2007-01-19T17:50:00.002+01:00

Andreas and Frank visited Frank Fitzek's team at the Mobile Devices Lab at Aalborg University (Danmark). While storm "Kyrill" was causing havoc in Europe, we sat safely and continued work on our common book on "Mobile Phone Programming and its Application to Wireless Networking" (Springer). As soon as the flyer is available I'll link it here.

Interoperability Testing at Ericsson in Stockholm

2006-12-11T15:20:00.001+01:00

At the end of November Andreas traveled to Ericsson's headquarters at Kista in Stockholm, Sweden to perform an interoperability test for a prototype developed as part of the ONE Project. Parts of the tests went fine, but unfortunately it was not a 100% success.

Just before this interoperability testing it was discovered that a library we used in our prototype wasn't supported on our target platform. This forced us to replace that library with a different library suitable for our target platform, which wasn't easy in such a short time frame.

Another lesson that it is very important to test early & often on the correct platform, instead of assuming that the target platform will behave as a different platform.

Will get back to more details about this prototype in January (such as describing what it is and how it makes life much more convenient)!

Singapore A*Star Colleagues visit HiA

2006-12-11T10:23:00.001+01:00

A*Star, Singapore, is one of the world's largest institutes on industrial research, and hosts the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC), the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC), Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd (ETPL), the A*STAR Graduate Academy (A*GA) and the Corporate Planning and Administration Division (CPAD). Their activities on, e.g., MPEG4, 3G and UWB/Wireless USB are world-leading, and many of A*Star's contributions are part of key standards.

Prof. Lye Kin Mun and Gavin Ang of the A*Star Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R) were visiting us to discuss research and possible future collaborations.

I tried to impress our visitors with the new HiA Campus Grimstad, ready 2009. However, compared to their new "Fusionopolis" with about 1 Miosqm in the first phase, I must admit we are at least one order of magnitude smaller. :-) check: Fusionoplois.com.

IEEE Spring VTC 2007

2006-12-11T10:15:00.001+01:00

The IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference is one of the longest running and important conferences in the wireless community. The 65th event will be the Spring IEEE VTC 2007 in Dublin, April 22-25, 2007. Ram and Frank helped reviewing papers, and we can expect many quality presentations.

WEBIST 2007

2006-12-11T10:06:00.003+01:00

The WEBIST 2007 in Barcelona, March 3-6, will have interesting papers on eEducation and mobile devices. Fortunately they invited me to be part of the Program Committee and some of the submitted papers looked very promising.

NFR Seminar on 7th Framework

2006-11-20T10:55:00.001+01:00

NFR held an information meeting on the EU 7th Framework on Nov. 16 in Olso. More info about the 7FP can be found here at NFR.

The EU 7th Framework web is here.

Viking Research Lab of Mobile Devices and Applications

2006-11-20T10:44:00.002+01:00

Together with our friends at "Mobile Devices" at Aalborg University we are seriously considering of creating a virtual lab for mobile devices and applications research across academic boundaries. We have no idea how that lab could be organized or called, but we love the idea.

Here is our name proposal: "Viking Research Lab on ... " or "Northern Research Lab on ...". I like the Viking name best. Sounds exciting and easy to remember.

Ram - making us a triumphirat

2006-11-20T10:37:00.001+01:00

Sept. 2006 - Ram looks quite serious on this photo. And obviously he takes his work seriously. Fortunately he laughs a lot with us and since October we are finally three in our lab. We're still small but gwoing and growing and ... At this rate we would be about 1000 people in 3006 ... if noone would leave the lab.

Ram will look at mobility in service oriented architectures, And we wish him all the luck with this topic. It won't be easy.

Andreas joins

2006-09-25T18:40:00.001+02:00

Oct. 2005 - Andreas joins and - voilà - we are a team at Agder Mobility Lab, since a team has at least two persons. Andreas dived immediately into UPNP, XML, SOAP, J2ME. Of course he faces now the usual surprises between specifications and reality, e.g., lack of broad IP support in Bluetooth, ad-hoc network support with only ip to 3 nodes, no WiFi multicast on some mobile devices, non-working media libraries ... a nice nightmare. I hope he survives ...

ONE ... Our first project ... sponsored by Ericsson

2006-09-11T11:25:00.001+02:00

Ericsson is interested in all things that deal with mobility and future mobile applications. And so are we.

The "ONE" project 2005-2008 is going to solve all (of course!) challenges when it comes to your mobile phone, multimedia, and access to home networks, locally or remote.

As a warm-up exercise we will implement a full UPNP stack, server, client, and control point for Java enabled phones. If we survive that, we'll be able to access our music, videos, and photos from wherever we are.

Didn't you always wish to be able to do that? :-)

Agder Mobility Lab starts ... hurrah

2006-09-11T11:06:00.001+02:00

On July 1st, 2005, Frank started his job as "Prof." for Mobile Communications at Agder University College (HiA). The first thing that came to his mind was "We need a logo and a name"!

Fortunately, Gunnar Tyrsing, an old friend, approved the name "Agder Mobility Lab". If friends don't like your ideas, that's not good for your ideas. :-) The logo was bought over the Internet by a design service which promised to work until I was satisfied. Well, I hope you like it ...