Personal Information:

Name:  Matt Crane
College: Case Western Reserve University
Major: Electrical Engineering
Planned Graduation Date: May 2005


SURE Program Information:

Office: 340 EIB
E-mail: mattc@ces.clemson.edu or matthew.crane@case.edu
Advisor:  Prof. Michael Pursley


My Research Project:

The research project I am currently working on is a combination of ad-hoc wireless networking and spread spectrum communication. Ad-hoc networks are different from the infrastructure based networks that we are more familiar with. Infrastructure networks are based around access points that coordinate all of the traffic between different nodes trying to communicate. Examples of this infrastructure based system are the cellular communications network or WiFi. In both of these systems there exists some sort of central 'brain' or access point to coordinated efforts. In ad-hoc networks there are no access points to coordinate communication between nodes. Instead, each node must communicate with its neighbors to determine how data can be best transmitted across the network. Ad-hoc networks are of special interest for military applications as they don't require intensive infrastructure and are also more resilient. If a single node fails in an ad-hoc network, the network can work around that failure, however, if an access point fails in an infrastructure-based network there are more significant repercussions.

Many ad-hoc wireless networks, especially in military applications, are created around small, mobile, battery powered nodes. These nodes have limited transmission range as well as limited battery life. Due to the battery life constraints, it is imperative to optimize the signal transmission quality in relation to the energy required for the transmission. One method of optimizing this is through adaptive transmission protocols. When a signal is transmitted, it must travel through a channel (the air) to the receiver. There are certain characteristics that describe the channel, and like all real world descriptions, they change as a function of time. For example, if the weather changed from a clear, sunny day to an overcast drizzle, the channel would change and the transmission would be impacted. The channel could also change due to increased RF interference, movement of the nodes, or a number of other factors. As the channel changes, several factors could be modified in the transmission to to increase the signal quality while minimizing energy consumption.

In this project I am working to simulate adaptive transmission in direct-sequence spread-spectrum packet radio networks using Matlab. This work is based off of a paper by Frederick J. Block and Michael B. Pursley that was recently accepted for publication by the IEEE Transactions on Communications.

Project Poster
Oral Presentation Slides