Lists of Projects

1. Design and implement a cellular network information plane
The goal is to build a map for the cellular networks. The map is a graph with nodes representing cellular network entities such as base stations, gateways. The edges will be annotated with link capacity.
Research questions: how to infer Radio Resource Control (RRC) state, cellular access and core network parameters. How to probe scalably?
Implementation considerations: deploy your clients in iOS or Android, and your server in Google AppEngine or Amazon EC2.

2. Mobile cloud platform services
Similar to push notification services Apple iCloud or Amazon Silk Split Browser, we can build other common cloud platform services for mobile applications. These services include video proxy and codec adaptation, speech recognition, presence. The goal is to build a scalable platform service for mobile applications.
Research questions: How to partition the tasks between clients and servers?
Implementation considerations: deploy your clients in iOS or Android, and your server in Google AppEngine or Amazon EC2.

3. A data locker service for p2p applications on mobile clients
p2p applications can consume lots of network resources and battery power. The goal is to build a data locker inside the network so that files will be served to peers inside the network.
Research questions: How to optimize for maximum performance benefit?
Implementation considerations: deploy your locker in Google AppEngine or Amazon EC2 (e.g. S3), and modify your p2p mobile client software (e.g. BitTorrent). Need to understand IETF DECADE protocols.

4. Detect mobile OS or cell network security vulnerabilities
Mobile OS such as iOS or Android may have specific security risks. Demonstrate that attackers can make use of these vulnerabilities to attack mobile devices or cellular networks. Describe how to fix them.
Research questions: What are the vulnerabilities in mobile OS that are not present in desktop OS? What are the security risks of cellular networks that are not present in fixed Internet?
Implementation considerations: expose the risks using a number of mobile devices, but do not attack the network.

5. Redesign the cellular network architecture
Today's cellular networks are built without consideration of cellular network traffic characteristics. Given our understanding of mobile data traffic, how to improve the current cellular networks?
Research questions: What can cellular networks provide to improve mobile application performance?
Implementation considerations: How to realistically demonstrate the gains of the proposed new architecture?