Wireless and Social Networks: Some Challenges and Insights

In sensor networks, the absence of infrastructure mandates the use of ad-hoc network architectures. In these architectures, nodes are required to route data to gateway nodes over a multi-hop network. In the first half of the talk, Dr. Sunny will present a unified framework that can be used to compare different deployment scenarios, and provide a means to design efficient large-scale energy harvesting multi-hop wireless sensor networks. In spite of the presence of voluminous reservoirs of information such as digital libraries and the Internet, asking around still remains a popular means of seeking information. In scenarios where the person is interested in communal, or location-specific information, such kind of retrieval may yield better results than a global search. Hence, wireless networks should be designed, analyzed and controlled by taking into account theevolution of the underlying social networks. This alliance between social network analysis and ad-hoc network architectures can greatly advance the design of network protocols, especially in environments with opportunistic communications. Therefore, in the second half of the talk, I will present a model that captures the temporal evolution of information in social networks with memory.