Architecture and Design for Heterogeneous Networks

Wireless networks will become progressively heterogeneous, with cellular, wireless LAN and ad-hoc network components. Such heterogeneity has practical advantages – a cellular network can grow cheaply and flexibly through wireless LANs and ad-hoc networks, while overcoming the scalability problems of stand-alone ad-hoc networks. We are interested in addressing the challenges associated with this growth, in particular component placement, and routing, scheduling and security across heterogeneous networks. We are also investigating end-to-end QoS support for various traffic over heterogeneous networks, in general networks traversing Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), Wireless Metro Area Networks (WMAN), Wireless Wide Area Networks (W-WAN), and Internet.