Newswise — A South Dakota State University scientist's research could make it easier for cell phone users in a given area to share information and save money. That's the goal behind assistant professor Sunho Lim's research in SDSU's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. A recent $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation is helping move the research along. Lim said data access in Internet-based wireless mobile networks — for cell phone users in a given city or area, for example — is a hot research topic now as more and more people use handheld or mobile devices to find data. Lim's research tries to help private industry providers and ordinary citizens by developing algorithms and communication protocols to make that process more efficient. His work could make it faster, cheaper and easier for cell phone users to get information without having to access the Internet. Depending on what plan a cell phone user has, there can be a charge for getting on the Internet. And even with unlimited access plans, there is frequently a charge for downloading data. However, when a cell phone user in a peer-to-peer communication range accesses the Internet and downloads the day's weather forecast, for example, he or she could make that information available to other mobile device users in the area. Such ad hoc peer-to-peer communication could save users the Internet access and/or download fee. "If cell phone users connect to the Internet, then there may be an additional fee for access or download, but if they connect directly to another cell phone user by ad hoc peer-to-peer communication, then they may not have to pay an Internet access fee or download fee," Lim said.
"When one person in an ad hoc network elects to share this kind of information with other cell phone users in an area, he or she could receive a financial reward." Similarly, cell phone users who have elected to receive advertisements from businesses in the area such as restaurants could choose to make such advertisements available to other cell phone users in the ad hoc peer-to-peer communication range. Lim and other scientists at other institutions are focusing some of their research on "vehicular ad hoc networks," or VANETs, a term for the emerging communications that are now possible among vehicles in a given area and between each vehicle and nearby fixed roadside equipment. VANETs are already used in a limited fashion to allow vehicle-to-vehicle communications that can help motorists to avoid collisions, for example. But the idea of the vehicle as part of a communications network to exchange other kinds of information is still developing. By focusing on communication protocols, Lim hopes to make it easier for cell phone users to pass information to others, thus minimizing their need to connect directly to the Internet for routine information that already exists in the ad hoc network.
A photo is available at this link:http://agbiocom.sdstate.edu/photos/Lim1264.jpgCutline: SDSU assistant professor Sunho Lim's research could improve communications in wireless mobile networks.
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