Mobile and Sensor Systems

Lecture 1: Introduction to

Mobile Systems



Dr Cecilia Mascolo

About Me

 In this course

The course will include aspects related to
general understanding of

Mobile and ubiquitous systems and networks

Sensor systems and networks

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 List of Lectures

Lecture 1: Introduction to Mobile Systems.

Lecture 2: Mobile Medium Access Control and
Wireless Systems.

Lecture 3: Infrastructure, Ad-hoc and Delay Tolerant
Mobile Networks.

Lecture 4: Sensor Systems and MAC Layer Protocols.

Lecture 5: Sensor Networking Routing Protocols.

Lecture 6: Sensor Systems Reprogramming and Mobile
Sensing.

Lecture 7: Mobile Phone Sensing.

Lecture 8: Practical: Mobile Phone Programming.

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 Teaching Material


No required textbook.

Some suggested readings:

Schiller, J. (2003). Mobile communications. Pearson
(2nd ed.).

Karl, H. & Willig, A. (2005). Protocols and
architectures for wireless sensor networks. Wiley.

Agrawal, D. & Zheng, Q. (2006). Introduction to
wireless and mobile systems. Thomson.

Specific lectures will reference research papers
which can be used for additional reading.

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 In this lecture

We will describe mobile systems and their
applications and challenges.

We will start talking about wireless networks.

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 Smart Phones: 
the Computing Platform of the Future

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 Smart Phones:
the Computing Platform

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 Some Numbers

Number of worldwide mobile cellular
subscribers increased from 34 million in 1993
to nearly 5.5 million subscribers by 2011.

The number of cellular subscribers surpasses
the number of wired phone lines.

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Source: The Economist

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 Location-based 
Social Network Systems

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Geographic Recommender Systems

Mirco Musolesi
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Credit: CNet

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 Fundamental Challenges 
in Mobile Computing

Mobile devices are resource-constrained.

Mobile connectivity is highly variable in
performance and reliability.

Mobile devices are inherently less secure.

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 Mobile Devices are Inherently
Resource Constrained

Mobile devices rely on batteries.

Energy consumption due to:

Computation (CPU, co-processors)

Display

Communication

Sensing

Energy-efficient algorithms are needed.

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 Mobile Devices are Inherently
Resource Constrained

Computational constraints

But, for example, in the Samsung
Galaxy SIII you have1.4 GhZ quad-
core Cortex A-9 +GPU

Memory constraints

But, for example, in the Samsung
Galaxy SIII you have1GB or 2GB
of RAM

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 Mobile Connectivity is Highly Variable
in Performance and Reliability


Various types of connectivity:

Cellular (GSM, 3G, 4G, etc.)

WiFi

Bluetooth

Near Field Communication (NFC)



Constraints related to:

Coverage issues

Trade-offs: energy consumption, throughput, costs

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 Mobile Devices are Inherently
Less Secure


Wireless not wired communication:

Eavesdropping.

Need for encrypted communication.

Devices can be stolen:

Devices might also be accessible by everyone (for
example, sensors).

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Ubiquitous and Mobile Computing

The most profound

technologies are those
that disappear.

Mark Weiser (1952-1999)

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Copyright: PARC

Mirco Musolesi 21
Mirco Musolesi 22
 Issues in Designing 
Mobile Computing Systems

Distributed systems issues:

Remote communication

Fault tolerance

Remote information access

Distributed security

Networking issues:

Wireless communication

Transport layer for wireless channel

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 Issues in Designing 
Mobile Computing Systems

Databases issues:

Disconnected operations

Weak consistency

Energy issues:

Adaptation in terms of communication

Intelligent uploading of data

Hardware aspects

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 Issues in Designing 
Mobile Computing Systems

HCI issues:

Limited interface

Interaction with the devices (input, etc.)

Ergonomics

Privacy issues:

Location sharing

Activity recognition

Security issues:

Encrypted communication

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 Wireless and Mobile Networks

Background:

Number of wireless (mobile) phone subscribers now
exceeds number wired phone subscribers!

Number of wireless Internet-connected devices soon
to exceed number of wired Internet-connected
devices

laptops, Internet-enabled phones promise anytime Internet
access

Two important (but different) challenges

wireless: communication over wireless link

mobility: handling the mobile user who changes point of
attachment to network

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Elements of a wireless network

wireless hosts
v laptop, PDA, IP phone
v run applicaQons
v may be staQonary (non-
mobile) or mobile
network wireless does not always
infrastructure mean mobility

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Elements of a wireless network

base staQon
v typically connected to
wired network
v relay - responsible for
sending packets between
wired network and
network wireless host(s) in its
infrastructure area
e.g., cell towers,
802.11 access points

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Elements of a wireless network

wireless link
v typically used to connect
mobile(s) to base staQon
v also used as backbone
link
v mulQple access protocol
network coordinates link access
infrastructure
v various data rates,
transmission distance

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 Characteristics of selected wireless link standards

200 802.11n

54 802.11a,g 802.11a,g point-to-point data

Data rate (Mbps)

5-11 802.11b 802.16 (WiMAX)

4 UMTS/WCDMA-HSPDA, CDMA2000-1xEVDO 3G cellular

enhanced
1 802.15

.384 UMTS/WCDMA, CDMA2000 3G

.056 IS-95, CDMA, GSM 2G

Indoor Outdoor Mid-range Long-range

10-30m 50-200m outdoor outdoor
200m 4 Km 5Km 20 Km

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Elements of a wireless network

infrastructure mode
v base staQon connects
mobiles into wired
network
v hando: mobile changes
base staQon providing
network connecQon into wired
infrastructure network

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Elements of a wireless network

ad hoc mode
v no base staQons
v nodes can only transmit
to other nodes within
link coverage
v nodes organize
themselves into a
network: route among
themselves

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 Wireless network taxonomy

single hop mulQple hops

host connects to host may have to

infrastructure base staQon (WiFi, relay through several
(e.g., APs) WiMAX, cellular) wireless nodes to
which connects to connect to larger
larger Internet Internet: mesh net

no base staQon, no
no
connecQon to larger
no base staQon, no
infrastructure Internet. May have to
connecQon to larger
relay to reach other
Internet (Bluetooth,
a given wireless node
ad hoc nets)
MANET, VANET

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 Suggested Readings

Mark Weiser. The Computer for the 21th
Century. Scientific American. September 1991.

Mark Weiser. Some Computer Issues in
Ubiquitous Computing. Communications of the
ACM.Vol. 36. Issue 7. July 1993.

M. Satyanarayanan. Pervasive Computing: Vision
and Challenges. IEEE Personal Communications.
Vol. 8 Issue 4. August 2001.

Chapter 6 of James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross


Computer Networking. A Top Down Approach.
6th Edition. Pearson 2012.


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 Acks


Some material for the slides of this course has been
contributed by:

Dr Christos Efstratiou,

Dr Nicholas Lane,

Dr Mirco Musolesi,

Dr Sarfraz Nawaz.

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