Wireless Internet Conference Held at UCLA
Nearly 100 Companies, Venture Firms Participated

Leading experts from industry and academia met this month to explore the future of wireless technology and how it will change the way people live and work at the Wireless Internet Data and Enterprise Application Conference. The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science hosted the event.

The conference, the fourth of its kind to be held at UCLA, drew more than 300 researchers, chief executives, vendors, consultants, investors, mobile operators, carriers and wireless technology aficionados.

"The deployment of wireless Internet technology is growing rapidly, and with that growth comes new challenges," said Rajit Gadh, conference organizer and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. "Industry and academia have to work together to meet these challenges before they become major problems."

According to some market research firms, by 2004 more than 70 percent of laptops will be equipped for Wi-Fi, technology that provides wireless broadband access to the Internet. The estimated number of Wi-Fi chipsets - which power laptops and PDAs - to be sold in 2003 tops 33 million, an amount that will almost triple in four years.

"With a rate of adoption this fast," said Gadh, "some of the more challenging issues -- like security, shared networks and infrastructure -- risk being sidelined." Gadh believes the combined focus of industry leaders and researchers is necessary to avoid costly mistakes.

More than 80 specialists participated in presentations, demonstrations or discussion panels at the conference, including a number of UCLA wireless Internet experts. They traded insights and advice on the latest business models and technologies, the convergence of WLAN and WWAN, and tackled ongoing issues such as security, mobility and billing.

Security was at the top of the agenda for conference participants. "Security is probably the number one concern for companies that want to adopt wi-fi in their enterprise networks," said Songwu Lu, UCLA assistant professor of computer science and a conference speaker. "Unless companies are sure about the security aspect, they will not switch to wireless networking solutions."

"Wi-Fi's original security protocols were easily hackable," said Gadh. "People in homes and businesses are installing Wi-Fi access points very quickly, often without heeding security issues. Anyone within range of an access point with a Wi-Fi enabled laptop has full access to the network and its data." Identity theft or the pilfering of precious company information can occur, according to Gadh.

UCLA is ideally situated to host a conference on wireless technologies, with its proximity to the Los Angeles entertainment and media industries as well as Silicon Valley. In addition to the defense and aerospace industries, which require wireless connectivity, Southern California is also home to numerous software gaming companies.

"It is fitting that UCLA's engineering school has a strong involvement in the growth of the most important advance in Internet technology in a generation, since one of our School's engineers invented the original Internet technology," said Gadh.

UCLA computer scientist Leonard Kleinrock is credited with creating the basic principles of packet switching and in 1969 he directed the transmission of the first message ever to pass over the Internet.

A number of UCLA engineering faculty members discussed where and when new technologies will have an impact on the wireless industry. In some cases, the professors explained some of their own wireless research projects.

One such project is the Multimedia Intelligent Network of Unattended Mobile Agents (Minuteman), a portable airborne network system that will provide local communications for the increasing array of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) used by the U.S. military. This agile, dynamic "Internet in the sky" will support the demanding communications requirements of unmanned missions, according to Mario Gerla, professor of computer science at UCLA's School of Engineering.

"Minuteman will enable the Navy to bring a fully networked force to the battlefield," Gerla said. "This will be the 'glue' that holds together supporting technologies such as mission planning, path planning, reasoning, decision making and distributed real-time computing and control."

Gerla, who co-directs the $11 million, five-year project funded by the Office of Naval Research, says such a network could also aid emergency workers responding to natural or manmade disasters.

Gerla has also teamed up with Gadh to explore how wireless technology can change the field of education. Thanks to a grant delivered through the Hewlett-Packard University Mobile Technology Solutions initiative, the two engineers are developing a wireless infrastructure that will connect students with their classrooms, instructors and peers through wireless access devices. "The type of wireless network we're envisioning will increase student-teacher interaction - both in and out of class - provide online background material to the students during lectures and allow students to collaborate with their classmates more easily," said Gerla.

Another UCLA group is building a wireless network of common classroom objects -- books, tables and building blocks -- rigged with embedded sensors that can gather and send information to powerful databases. Researchers are working with educational experts to determine how the information stored in these databases can help teachers improve the learning environment.

"We expect that the measurement of meaningful behavior over time with respect to the activities children are engaged in, when they are doing them, and the context in which they are working, will allow educators to comprehensively investigate student learning processes on a scale and at a level of detail never before attempted," said Mani Srivastava, electrical engineering professor and head of the project.

In addition to organizing the Wireless Internet Conference, Gadh also heads the UCLA Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium, a group of industry insiders and academics who are trying to solve key challenges that are slowing the expansion of wireless technology use.

"The Wireless Consortium brings together the carriers, infrastructure providers and CEOs and educates them on the benefits of a coordinated effort toward wireless technology development," Gadh said. Similar consortiums have proven successful in Europe and Asia, according to Gadh.

Founding members include Hewlett-Packard; Intel Corporation; Siemens; Sun Microsystems; Northrop Grumman Information Technology; Computer Associates; Hughes Network Systems; Tata Consultancy Services; Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP; Eizel Technologies Inc.; Istituto Superiore Mario Boella, Italy; Vario; Satyam; and Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth.

-Chris Sutton
05/12/03