Network Security

The next research area we are looking at in Networking is Network Security. Now while Wireless Networking may have a lot of promise in terms of research, I feel Network Security does also, maybe moreso than Wireless Networking. The problem with Network Security is that people are always finding ways to work around them, which means that there will also need to be new innovations in Network Security.

From what I have heard about Network Security, it would be interesting to see how Quantum Computing will affect the area. I am sure that Quantum Computing will change every area of computing especially in all areas networking, but the most I have heard about Quantum Computing is in security in general (which I am sure will affect Network Security).

Dealing with Contention

One of the most interesting ideas I have seen related to wireless networks is the concept of contention. In wireless networks we have to deal with contention regions and different routing techniques. In wireless mesh networks we note that the nodes are fixed, but having to deal with mobile networks seems like an extremely difficult task.

In our research we are trying to look at measurements in wireless networks. Even knowing the topology of the network, it seems difficult to be able to discern key ideas in the network using such fundamental principles are round trip times and delays. Contention doesn't seem to work in a specific way for a specific network, so I am looking into running simulations to see what we can discover.

It may have taken a few months, but the work I've been doing in research and the reading I have done for class seem to have helped me vastly improve my research skills and I am excited to apply directly the things I am learning to my research.

Wireless Networking

For our networking research group and our upcoming lectures in our networking class, we are looking at wireless networks. The only work I've done with wireless networks in my life is setting up a wireless router in my home so that I can link several laptops, smartphones, and a wireless printer on the same network. However, I am excited to read more into wireless networks as I feel, as I may have mentioned before, that wireless networking is the most promising field in networking research at this moment.

For research we are looking into Internet measurements similar to the ones we previously discussed in class, but this time for wireless networks. It is interesting to see how different wireless and wired networks act. For example, in wireless networks we need to consider the contention between various routers or end systems, where as in wired we are more focused on throughput, etc.

Since wireless is still a fairly new area of research, I believe there are plenty of useful contributions in the area of wireless networking that will be beneficial to the field. Some ideas for our specific area of research would include tracking wireless/mobile networks on the battlefield or tracking criminals using wireless devices, but other approaches could you useful for different situations.