Seminars & Colloquia
Thomas La Porta
Penn State University
"Quality of Information-Aware Networking"
Monday February 03, 2014 04:00 PM
Location: 3211, EBII NCSU Centennial Campus
(Visitor parking instructions)
This talk is part of the Triangle Computer Science Distinguished Lecturer Series
In this talk I introduce the concept of QoI-Aware networking. Most communication network theories, designs and control algorithms address performance metrics such as throughput, delay or errors, in terms of data bits. We postulate that communication networks should be viewed as information sources, and thus should be evaluated and controlled in terms of the quality of information they convey. We consider information metrics such as completeness, accuracy, precision and timeliness. Many of these metrics must be specified in the context in which the information is being used. We consider both end-device processing and network transfer when processing QoI-aware information requests. In this talk I define QoI, provide an overview of the research ongoing in the ARL-funded Academic Research Center for Communications Networks led by Penn State, show specific results from the research, and discuss current problems.
Thomas F. La Porta is the William E. Leonhard Chair Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Penn State. He received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from The Cooper Union, New York, NY, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York, NY. He joined Penn State in 2002. He is the Director of the Institute of Networking and Security Research at Penn State. Prior to joining Penn State, Dr. La Porta was with Bell Laboratories since 1986. He was the Director of the Mobile Networking Research Department in Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies where he led various projects in wireless and mobile networking. He is an IEEE Fellow, Bell Labs Fellow, received the Bell Labs Distinguished Technical Staff Award in 1996, and an Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer Award in 1996. He also won a Thomas Alva Edison Patent Awards in 2005 and 2009. His research interests include mobility management, signaling and control for wireless networks, security for wireless systems, mobile data systems, and protocol design.
Dr. La Porta was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, and currently serves on its Steering Committee (he was Chair from 2009-2010). He served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Personal Communications Magazine. He was the Director of Magazines for the IEEE Communications Society and was on its Board of Governors for three years. He has published numerous papers and holds 35 patents. He was an adjunct member of faculty at Columbia University for 7 years where he taught courses on mobile networking and protocol design.
Host: Munindar Singh, Computer Science, NCSU