ACoRN Multihop Wireless Networking Workshop

Call for Papers, Posters and Presentations

Wireless multihop networks, such as ad hoc, sensor, and mesh networks, have gained widespread research attention in recent years. Ad hoc networks are thought of as the preferred solution to provide communication capability in environments devoid of fixed infrastructure (e.g., remote areas, battlefields) or in emergency situations (e.g., bushfires, floods and other natural disasters). Sensor networks have a diverse application in environmental monitoring, agriculture, health and many other industries, while mesh networking offers new possibilities of providing low-cost broadband internet access to the Australian population, as well as traffic and industrial control applications. More recently, there has also been growing interest in wireless multihop network applications in underwater scenarios, such as for marine biology, monitoring of underwater structures, etc. Due to the extreme attenuation for traditional electromagnetic wave frequencies in the underwater environment, communications in this environment typically focus on acoustics-based physical layers.

Despite the significant worldwide research effort dedicated to these areas, there remain many open challenges, including: medium access and power control; routing; congestion control; quality of service; mobility management; middleware, security, and new applications or services. Continual development of researchers in these areas is necessary to expand Australia’s growing expertise and capability in the field.

Following the success of the first such workshop last year in Sydney, which was aimed at early career researchers, the ACoRN Workshop on Wireless Multihop Networks this year provides a forum for all researchers in Australia (including postgraduate students) working on these areas to present and discuss their current research directions, identify peers working on similar topics, and facilitate the process of establishing successful collaborations. The workshop will feature:

  • a keynote talk by Prof. Songwu Lu from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA);
  • a single track of presentations, with significant time after each presentation for questions, discussions, and uncovering any similarities with other ongoing works;
  • a special session on Underwater and Acoustic Networks (see below for details);
  • and a poster session.

Submission Instructions

Researchers are encouraged to submit extended abstracts describing their work, to be included for presentation or displayed as posters at the workshop. In line with the workshop goals, we encourage accounts about current or very recent research directions and work in progress, rather than reports of completed work. All abstracts will be included in the Proceedings of the workshop, which will be published online on the ACoRN website. A complementary copy of proceedings on a CD-ROM will also be available to the workshop participants. There is no requirement for the material to be previously unpublished, and vice versa, presenting it at the workshop will not prevent it from future publication in another venue.

Abstracts should be submitted by email to wirelessworkshop@acorn.net.au.. The deadline for submission is 2 July 2007. There is no set format or space limit for the abstracts; however, they should be detailed enough to describe the work, and the recommended length guideline is at least 2-3 pages.

This workshop is supported by the ARC Communications Research Network (ACoRN). ACoRN aims to stimulate creativity, innovation and breakthrough science, leading to technological advancement in telecommunications. ACoRN members attending the workshop are encouraged to apply for ACoRN Attendance Grants to cover the cost of travel, accommodation and registration. Contact your ACoRN Local Representative, or see http://www.acorn.net.au/membersarea/grants.html, for more details on how to apply for ACoRN Attendance Grants.

 Special session on Acoustic and Underwater Networks : Call for Presentations

The underwater environment poses many difficult challenges from a networking perspective. Physical properties of the environment such as thermoclines, fish schools and multipath reflections create a highly noisy and interchangeable environment; in addition, background noise sources, such as engines and wave motion, create burst noise of varying length, which severely affects the communication properties of these networks. It is not well understood how all these aspects affect the physical channels and how the above layers in the communication stack need to be adopted to function well.

The special session on Acoustic and Underwater Networks will bring together researchers from Australia who have an interest in this emerging research area. Researchers from all relevant disciplines, including networking, radio/acoustic physical layer, and the application side (marine biology, climate, geology, etc), are invited to submit their contributions about experiences, needs or interest in this area. Selected contributions will be scheduled for presentation and/or included in the poster session. Please follow the same format and submission instructions as outlined above in the general workshop call.