sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base
sudo apt-get install texmaker
sudo apt-get install texlive-fonts-recommended
sudo apt-get install texlive-science

Update: I’ve discovered a tex plugin for gedit, which is kind of cool, if you are interested check out this blog post: http://blogs.ethz.ch/ubuntu/2007/06/09/gedit-goes-latex-1-gedit-latexplugin/

References:

• http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=303542
• http://sysad.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/ubuntu-hardy-to-intrepid-upgrade-remnants/

Bradley Farnsworth: http://bfarns.blogspot.com/2008/02/ieee-bibliography-xsl-style-sheet-for.html

Bibword: http://bibword.codeplex.com/releases/view/15365

I found the second version to be what I was looking for, since the first version did something weird with the city and publisher that I wasn’t fond of. Note: if you use the second link, make sure you enter the names in the correct format or else you will also end up with weirdness…the format is: lastname1, firstname1; lastname2, firstname2; …

Note2: This was tested with MS Word 2007. I’m not sure if it works with the latest, so if you find out, post a comment!

Here is an example of what the result looks like:

Abstract:
In wireless networks, conditions may change rapidly and unpredictably. Often wireless networks are not designed to adapt to these changing conditions and perform poorly when they become congested. The multi-hop broadcast nature of wireless mesh networks amplifies the problem of poor wireless performance. Mixed bias scheduling has previously been applied successfully to wireless mesh networks however, it still suffers from similar problems when conditions change rapidly. In this work we propose an adaptive mixed bias (AMB) algorithm which uses a tabu search approach to change based on delay and dropped packets in the network. The proposed scheduling approach consists of three important algorithms, namely, the tabu search algorithm, move generation, and utility function. The adaptive mixed bias approach is compared against IEEE 802.11 and the non-adaptive mixed bias approach. The performance is evaluated using the packet delivery ratio and average end-to-end delay metrics.

Here are the slides from the talk: BWCCA-NGWMN2010-final (pdf)
and here is the link to the pdf from the conference: Adaptive Mixed Bias Resource Allocation for Wireless Mesh Networks (pfd)

Title: Radio Resource Management in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Abstract: Wireless networks are quickly becoming pervasive allowing users to stay connected anytime
anywhere. However, current implementations are not seamless. There are many different radio
access technologies (RATs), for example 802.11 (Wifi), 802.15 (Bluetooth, Zigbee), 802.16 (WiMAX)
and 3g cellular / mobile technologies which are not inter-operable. The aim of heterogeneous
wireless networking is to bridge the technological gap between the existing equipment and software.
When this occurs, the wireless spectrum may be used more efficiently and it is expected users will
have a better experience using the networks. Ideally, the devices should be able to select the best
RAT at a given moment in time based on some criteria, for example cost or capacity. A background
on the architecture of heterogeneous networks will be presented. Problems such as handover, radio
resource management and quality of service (QoS) will be discussed and a direction for further
study will be established.

Update: Here are the slides from the presentation for those who are interested:Research Day 2010 (pdf) – Jason Ernst

While I don’t have a video for you to watch the entire presentation, I do have some pictures, and I’ll post the paper and slides I presented in case any one is interested. If you have any questions feel free to post on here or email me directly and I’ll be happy to answer any of them.

J.B. Ernst and M.K. Denko, “Cross-Layer Mixed Bias Scheduling for Wireless Mesh Networks,” in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Cape Town, South Africa, 2010.

Abstract—In this paper we propose a mixed bias approach which makes use of cross layer optimization. The cross-layer parameters are based on conditions in the network from multiple layers and are used to determine resource and time allocation for nodes in the network. Unlike existing proposals, we propose to bias against several parameters such as link quality and queue size in addition to node distance. We also propose a combined mixed bias approach which takes into account multiple parameters together. The scheme is evaluated using simulation experiments. The performance results are reported in this paper.

Download the paper (pdf)
Download the presentation slides (pdf)

The biggest lesson I’ve learned this semester is that the profs in undergrad were always right. Math is very important in CS. While it may not have been apparent at the time, (I always questioned the relevance of much of it since it was all presented very abstractly and disconnected from anything I was doing in undergrad) I now find some of my math skills to be my greatest weakness as a CS researcher. This is why this past semester I have gone out of my “comfort zone” and tried a couple of courses which I would generally shy away from. First is discrete optimization (Classifications of Optimization Problems, VRP, TSP, Bin-Packing, Cutting Stock, Simplex Method, PSO, Tabu Search, Branch & Cut etc). Second is a system performance and evaluation course (Queuing Theory, Markov models, Operational Analysis, etc). In each case, I have been pushed to the limits of what I know (and what I remember from my undergrad days). On the other hand, it has been easy to identify my weakest areas in my knowledge so that I can hopefully improve in them significantly before my quals in a couple of semesters. As an added benefit, perhaps because of the perspective I have gained as a grad student, I have started to realize the larger picture and see how many of the mathematical ideas can be applied to improve the state of the art in a particular problem area.

Lastly, I have been working at formulating my research and solidifying what it is I am working towards with this PhD. The very general description is “heterogeneous wireless networks”. Within this area, I am interested in particular type of heterogeneous wireless network. It is made up of a wireless mesh network as the backbone. Instead of traditional client nodes such as laptops, pdas etc, the clients are actually other types of wireless networks, for example: 802.11 WLAN, RFID, 3g Mobile etc. There are many problems when this type of network is considered. One is the gateway placement problem (where to place gateways between the types of networks, how many etc.). Also in each sub-network, there may be a particular set of parameters which cause the sub-network to perform very well. However when the sub-networks are joined, this set of parameters may not be optimal for the entire network as a whole. The problem then is how to optimize these sets of parameters with respect to the entire network.

The first part of the talk showed a network learning how to recognize written characters. The approach was unique (at least to what I’ve encountered in my soft computing class) in that it didn’t assign and back-propagate the labels from the start. The network learned “features” based on the input patterns and then assigned the labels after the pattern had been learned. The coolest feature was being able to “visualize what the network is thinking” by doing the process sort of in reverse. The second part of the talk applied a similar technique to the motion of person wearing sensors. The network could be trained to recognize the style of motion of the person and then from that, new styles of walking could be “imagined” by the network. For example the network could image the person changing walking styles midwalk through the visualization even though it hadn’t been trained in this way. In all it was very interesting. It would be fun to try to apply some of these techniques to wireless networks. Perhaps the motion modeling could be applied to mobile wireless devices to help with hand-offs?

Anyway, if anyone is interested and you are at one of the Universities which is a part of the groups putting these on, they happen every other week. You can see at schedule at the SHARCNET website, or probably at the group you are a part of at your school. As far as I know, anyone can attend!

There were people from 40 different countries there and I feel like I met someone from almost every one of them at some point. There were over 300 people at AINA this year, which apparently is down from the last couple of years (where they had 4-500) but it was still a great conference for me. I will post my slides from my presentation in this post in case anyone is interested, along with a link to the paper once it is available. I submitted another paper last night for a conference in Toronto and am working on two more papers, so hopefully I’ll be travelling soon. I am trying to aim for ICC in South Africa next year.

Here are a few pictures from the conference.

Abstract:
This paper addresses the problem of scheduling in Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). The paper first discusses existing scheduling algorithms and classifies them based on the technique they use and their implementation frameworks.Then detailed discussions of the proposed scheduling method are presented. Simulation experiments are conducted to compare the performance of fair scheduling with the method that does not use fair scheduling. The simulation results confirm that the proposed scheduling method has better performance with respect to the metrics used for performance evaluation.

J.B. Ernst, M.K. Denko, “Fair Scheduling with Multiple Gateways in Wireless Mesh Networks”, in Proc. of the 22nd IEEE Int. Conf. on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA 2009), Bradford UK, 2009.

The paper itself is available through IEEE Xplore

Here are some pictures from the day:

Preparing for the Defense before Everyone Arrives

Some Members of Pervasive Computing and Wireless Network (PerWin) Research Group, University of Guelph

Answering Questions from the Committee at Guelph

After some relaxing, a conference in UK and some business related projects I will finally have some time (hopefully) to update the site with all the projects, articles and source I have been slowly working on the past few months in between working like crazy on my M.Sc. This fall I start my Ph.D. which will likely at least start from the work I just worked on.