Nei Kato of Tohoku University, Japan

In this talk, we first provide the research trends in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Then a new system focusing on the terminal-to-terminal communication technology will be introduced, which enables communication without requiring any fixed infrastructure. We refer to the new system as “Relay-by-Smartphone” network. In the network, users are able to transmit messages via relaying through other mobile terminals such as smartphones, laptops, and tablet PCs, exploiting both mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) and delay tolerant network (DTN) features. Since the transmission methods of MANET and DTN are inherently different, their performance depends on the communication environment such as in terms of user mobility and overall terminals density. MANET is suitable for the environment where the terminals are static and are in a dense area. On the other hand, DTN is more suitable for the environment where user terminals have high mobility and are mostly isolated. In order to take advantage of the different characteristics of MANET and DTN, and to avoid waste of network resources, we propose a method which switches a terminal communication mode between MANET and DTN depending on the environment. In addition, we implement our proposed algorithm in actual smartphones, and demonstrate its effectiveness through experiments. The newly developed system can be effectively used in disaster-affected areas where the fixed communication infrastructures are damaged. We also demonstrate that “Relay-by-Smartphone” can be applied to VANETs.

Biography:

Nei Kato is a Professor with the Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University. He has been engaged in research on computer networking, wireless mobile communications, satellite communications, ad hoc & sensor & mesh networks, smart grid, and pattern recognition. He currently serves as a Member-at-Large on the Board of Governors, IEEE Communications Society, a Vice Chair of Fellow Committee of IEEE Computer Society, a member of IEEE ComSoc Award Committee, the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Network Magazine, the Associate Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Internet of Things Journal, an Area Editor of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. His awards include the TELCOM System Technology Award from Foundation for Electrical Communications Diffusion(2008), the IEICE Network System Research Award (2009), the IEICE Satellite Communications Research Award(2011), the KDDI Foundation Excellent Research Award (2012), IEICE Communications Society Distinguished Service Award (2012), Distinguished Contributions to Disaster-resilient Networks R&D Award from Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan (2014), seven Best Paper Awards from IEEE GLOBECOM/WCNC/VTC, and IEICE Communications Society Best Paper Award (2012). He is a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Communications Society and Vehicular Technology Society. He is a Fellow of IEEE.

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Nei Kato of Tohoku University, Japan

Biography:

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