Designing, Deploying, and Managing Wireless Communication Networks

Mr. Roger Skidmore

President
Wireless Valley Communications, Inc.

Friday, October 25th, 3:00 PM, ENS 637

Abstract

Today, the ability to communicate wirelessly is taken for granted. The typical cellphone or wireless LAN user gives little thought to the myriad things that must occur to implement the wireless network. Decisions must be made regarding equipment purchases, placement, configuration, and interconnectivity. The state-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure technology offered by manufacturers today can vary radically. Which type of equipment is best for a given network? How much equipment is needed? What services will be offered? Is it easy to upgrade in two years? Most importantly, who is going to pay for it? These and other questions will be touched on and discussed. Design trade-off decisions will be analyzed for various technologies, and case studies will be presented.

Biography

Mr. Skidmore started his wireless career at Ericsson in the early 1990's where he did work with the first generation of digital cellular and PCS base stations and phones. He received a master's degree from the University of Virginia Tech in 1997. His studies at the Mobile and Portable Radio Group (MPRG) of Virginia Tech focused on radio wave propagation in and around buildings. In 1998, he co-founded Wireless Valley Communications, Inc., a pioneering company in the area of the design, measurement, and management of wireless communication systems. Mr. Skidmore now serves as president of Wireless Valley Communications, which relocated its headquarters to Austin, Texas, in May of 2002. He has over two dozen patents issued or pending, and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in wireless communications from the University of Virginia Tech.

A list of Wireless Networking and Communications Seminars is available at from the ECE department Web pages under "Seminars". The Web address for the Wireless Networking and Communications Seminars is http://signal.ece.utexas.edu/seminars