Wireless Local Area Networks:
Performance, Enhancements and Applications

Dr. Matthew B. Shoemake

IEEE 802.11 Task Group G Chairperson
Research Manager, Wireless Networking Branch
DSP Solutions R&D Center, Texas Instruments, Inc.
12500 TI Boulevard, M/S 8649, Dallas, TX 75243

Friday, April 26th, 3:00 PM, ENS 637

shoemake@ti.com

Abstract

Since the ratification of the IEEE 802.11b standard in November of 1999, IEEE 802.11-based wireless local area networks (WLANs) have become the solution of choice for high speed, wireless data connectivity in the home and office. The seminar will provide an overview of IEEE 802.11, address WLAN technology developments and discuss open issues and R&D topics for next generation WLANs. The seminar will review the key performance metrics for WLANs and discuss recent technical enhancements at the physical and medium access control layers that enable increase performance with respect to these metrics. At the physical layer, topics will include the new 54Mbps IEEE 802.11g draft standard, the application of advanced error control coding and MIMO techniques to WLANs, and the use of bit loading for OFDM in WLANs. At the MAC layer, new quality of service mechanisms will be reviewed. The use of these mechanisms to enable previously unsupportable applications such as wireless video distribution and VoIP over WLANs will be discussed. The use of WLANs and wireless wide area networks will be touched upon as well as some open technical issues for WLANs.

Biography

Matthew B. Shoemake, Ph.D., is manager for wireless networking R&D at Texas Instruments and Chair of the IEEE 802.11g Task Group. He is the co-inventor of the Packet Binary Convolutional Coding (PBCC) mode of the IEEE 802.11b standard. He currently conducts and oversees research related to physical layer performance enhancements to wireless local area networks as well as medium access layer enhancements for quality of service. Dr. Shoemake received doctorate and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Texas A&M University. He can be reached at shoemake@ti.com.

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