Past Projects

The WOMEN project aims to design, implement and test a mobile and self-organizing wireless mesh network architecture and related protocols, required to support multimedia Internet services to users moving at vehicular speeds, in a large-scale, dynamic and interference-limited (possibly high-faded) environment. At the core of the WOMEN system is the mobile mesh router that exploits multiple antennas techniques and multiple radios capabilities to self-establish and self-manage an adaptive, scalable, high-capacity, and easily deployable mobile wireless backbone. WOMEN is a two-year italian research project partially supported by MIUR under the PRIN (Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale) funding program 2005-2006.

TWELVE (ToWards Enhancing 802.11 support of differentiated service LeVEls) is a two-year italian research project partially supported by MIUR under the PRIN (Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale) funding program 2005-2006.

TWELVE addresses service differentiation in complex and realistic 802.11 networks. Service differentiation and QoS support at the MAC level in a single 802.11 cell (i.e. a BSS) is an important and hot research issue. Channel access priority mechanisms and admission control issues have been (and are being) thoroughly tackled in both the 802.11e Task Group and in recent literature, and they deserve specific attention also within our project.

But service differentiation is much more that just channel access priorities when mobile users, involved in different types of traffic sessions, ranging from plain file transfer to voice over WLAN communication to video information retrieval, roam within (and through) complex and emerging 802.11 network scenarios, such as hot-zones bases on 802.11 ESS or even wireless ESS Mesh (where QoS-aware switching/routing enters into play). Moreover, in order to thoroughly exploit technological advances at the physical layer (such as adaptive modulation and coding schemes and multiple/smart antenna technologies for higher rates and capacity), as well as to take full advantage of innovative network architectures (such as the above mentioned wireless mesh networks), significant modifications at the radio access layer appear necessary, and this adds great complexity to the service differentiation dimension. Finally, when dealing with public spaces and paying customers, service differentiation is not limited to performance issues, but involves differentiated management of customers, of their security levels, and of the service portfolio (including location/context-aware applications) they are offered.

There are two issues concerning the transport of IP packets:routing (determining the path a packet travels on from source to destination) and flow control -or flow for short- (how a packet is forwarded (and stored), primarily with respect to time, along the selected path.)

The proposed research will focus on the second issue regarding the flow of IP packets.

Timing and flow control are critical since they directly affect how users perceived the quality of IP applications, such as, streaming media, and how much they are willing to pay for such applications. Thus, the proposed research will establish a centre, in the host institute, to investigate of all aspects of IP flows and timing.

The IP-FLOW project will have three research areas:
Research Area 1. UTC-based pipeline forwarding for IP flows for solving switch and link bottlenecks.
Research Area 2. TrustedFlow: a general method for run-time authentication that guarantees correct execution of service level agreements and window flow control.
Research Area 3. Delivering high fidelity content over wireless (Wi-Fi) with directional antennas.

The main goal of the project is the evaluation of a system for localizating, managing, and coordinating rescue teams. (Description in italian follows)

La ricerca dei dispersi nell'ambito della Protezione Civile e del Soccorso Alpino in particolare presenta spesso notevoli problemi di coordinamento delle squadre di ricerca sul territorio, aggravato, quando le persone coinvolte sono molte e non tutte profonde conoscitrici dl territorio, dal problema della certa localizzazione della squadra stessa, per garantire la certezza della copertura dell'area di ricerca.

In questo progetto si affronta lo studio della possibilità di automatizzare e centralizzare la localizzazione e la gestione delle squadre tramite uso di ricevitori GPS e invio della posizione e dell'istante di passaggio ad una centrale operativa. La centrale operativa è dotata di una applicazione GIS che consente la gestione e la visualizzazione in tempo reale di tutte le squadre coinvolte nella ricerca.