WIRELESS NETWORKING FUNDAMENTALS

The course is aimed at introducing the main techniques of analysis and design for computer networks with particular focus on wireless networks, that, as of today, are fundamental in both private and professional communications. The course is made of two parts, that deal with the fundamental of wireless networks, and the analysis of their performance through modeling and simulation.
1 - understanding of the basis of wireless communications and wireless networks
2 - a primer on interpreting simulation results with statistical instruments.

The course has a theoretical part and a practical one, in which, through the use of a professional simulator we reproduce the theoretical results.
A graphical description of the course themes can be found on the professor website: https://www.dais.unive.it/~maccari/courses.html

At the end of the course the student will be able to:
- understand the challenges of wireless communications, be able to estimate the capacity of a channel under simple conditions, and perform a simple network planning
- program a simulator for the performance evaluation of a network protocol or a network architecture
- scientifically interpret the outcomes of a simulation experiment
- identify the “performance patterns” in a networking system

Students are assumed to have reached the learning objectives of the Probability e Statistics and Programming courses, although it is not formally required to have passed the exams. Specifically, students are expected to be familiar with:
- programming in a procedural or object orientated language like C++/Python
- knowledge of the basics tools of descriptive statistics (average, dispersion index), random variables
- basics of networking, ISO/OSI layers and their organization

The needed background will be reviewed during the course.

- Elements of performance evaluation: bottlenecks, congestion collapse
- Classification of the simulators, design and challenges of discrete event simulators
- Wireless communications:
- Elements of the physics of communications: SNR, Shannon theorem, Friis law
- Deterministic and random Path loss models
- The IEEE 802.11 standard: the MAC layer, bit rates, concepts of MIMO and beamforming
- The omnet++ simulator, how to set-up a network simulation and extract results, condifence intervals for mean and media
- How to interpret the simulation results, when to stop a simulation
- Markov chains to model real networks: the ALOHA protocol.

Notes and slides from the teacher (slides, lecture notes, book chapters)
Le Boudec: Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems. CRC Press. 2011

The exam can be given in two ways:
- an oral exam
- one project assignment and an oral discussion

The written exam consists of open questions on the topics of the course and exercises. The exercises are aimed at verifying the student's skills on the application of theoretical models in problems. The open questions are aimed at verifying the theoretical knowledge of the student.
The projects verifies the skills of the student on applying theoretical notions in practical situations. The course is concentrated in 10 weeks, at the end of which the students can choose a project. This leaves time to the student to finalize the project by the first exam session under the periodic supervision of the professor.
NOTE: the evaluation mode, with particular reference to the realization of lab projects may change due to restrictions for the COVID pandemic

Frontal Lessons and seminars. The lessons will be held in English, all the material will be in English.

English

written and oral