Toronto Networking Seminar


Modeling Tradeoffs in Intermittent-Connectivity Networks

Tara Small
University of Toronto

Date:  September  23,  3pm
Location: BA1210 (Bahen Center)



Abstract:

In this talk, I will introduce the Shared Wireless Infostation Model (SWIM), a model for the propagation of packets in networks with frequent partitions. Using SWIM, a packet propagates through the network by being copied(rather than forwarded) from a node to a node, as links are sporadically created. The goal is that one of the copies of the packet reaches the destination. We will study analytical Markov chains that exhibit tradeoffs between the network resources and non-critical performance such as the tradeoffs between energy, delay, storage, capacity, and processing complexity. To demonstrate how SWIM can be applied to solve a practical problem, we use the example of a biological information acquisition system - radio-tagged whales - as nodes in an ad hoc network.

Bio:

Tara Small is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto. She received her B.Sc. (Physics and Mathematics) from the University of New Brunswick. She was invited to study at Cornell University in the Centre for Applied Mathematics where she earned her Master's and PhD degrees. Her PhD thesis project involved research into wireless networking by studying whale communication. She has developed the Shared Wireless Infostation Model (SWIM), a networking model which gathers information from whale tags and transmits this information to collection stations. Some of her published works on this topic include "The Shared Wireless Infostation Model -- A New Ad Hoc Networking Paradigm (or Where there is a Whale, there is a Way)," published at ACM MOBIHOC '03, and a chapter in "Handbook of Sensor Networks", a book from CRC Press published in July 2004.