Energy-Aware Building Model

Energy-Aware Building Model (EABM) is the use of one or more computers to control basic building functions and features automatically and sometimes remotely, via cell phones or computers. The main difference between EABM and a so called Smart Home or Automated Home is its ability to educate building occupants. A number of projects have been suggested reduce energy consumptions inside buildings. Here are some suggestion:

1. A green building model can actually teach people how change their behavior to become more aware about energy consumption. In this intelligent model smart sensors are used to help the user to choose the best energy conserving practice inside the building (see notes).

Simulation Tools

We highly encourage students to examine various existing network-based simulation tools and become proficient in one or more. A number of surveys have been published including the one by Jianli Pan. A good comparative study is provided by V. Soares; refer to their work for more information and references. Also Begg compares a number of simulation tools for next generation networks. Here are some examples of available simulation tools:

OPNET

Network Simulator (NS)

SimReal

Tangram

Network Simulator 2: a Simulation Tool for Linux

ONE (The Opportunistic Network Environment)simulator- simulator specifically designed for evaluating DTN routing and application protocols. It allows users to create scenarios based upon different synthetic movement models and real-world traces and offers a framework for implementing routing and application protocols.

There are also other general network simulators which can help understanding how switches and routers operate. Use GNS3 as the graphical interface for any of these. 

• Dynamips, a Cisco IOS emulator.
• Dynagen, a text-based front end for Dynamips.
• Qemu, a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer.
• VirtualBox, a free and powerful virtualization software.

In addition, there are many simulators for wireless network. A number of surveys, including the work by Koksal, compare these simulators.

General Miscellaneous Projects

This page provides a wide variety of projects for undergraduate and graduate students. The main idea of this page is to give some general project ideas:
1- Design bidirectional communication system to transmit voice over fiber using low cost laser.

Green Optical Networking

The amount of energy spent for network infrastructures can be significantly reduces using energy-aware protocols. This in turn can reduce CO2 emission in order of million metric tons. Recently, the idea of energy conservation in network infrastructure has been presented in a number of works. However, thus far, less attentions are given on power-conserving issue for optical networks. Our research focus is to design new architectures and protocols to improve energy consumptions of optical networks. We are currently working on a number of approaches:
1- Using Optical Burst Switching as an underlying switching mechanism to reduce energy consumptions.
2- Designing an energy-aware approach to improve overall energy consumption of optical nodes.
3- A number of works in wireless sensor networks have suggested cluster-based energy-adaptive MAC protocols to conserve total network energy requirements. Similar approach can be used by utilizing bundle layer in optical networks.

Optical Burst Switching (OBS)

Optical burst switching (OBS) has been proposed as a new paradigm to achieve a practical balance between coarse-grained circuit switching and fine-grained packet switching, hence, better utilizing the available bandwidth. In this dissertation, we analyze a number of issues involving the development of OBS technology, including reactive and proactive contention resolution mechanisms with service differentiation capability, hardware implementation of the scheduler, and data burst grooming. We also propose OBS as an alternative technology to support computationally intensive Grid applications. You can read this introductory work to learn more about OBS. I am currently involved in the following projects in OBS:
1- Using general algorithm (GA) for anycast routing in Grip-over-OBS (GOBS)
2- Utilizing an OBS to conserve energy in optical networks.

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN)

A number of DTN-based projects for graduate students are currently available. These projects are mainly for graduate students, however, undergraduate students are highly encouraged to participate. A very interesting and practical project for undergraduate students in this area is design of a DTN network using a Lego Mindstorms Nxt. Here is a tutorial paper about delay tolerant network. We are currently working on a number of issues in DTN:
1- Anycast routing and how to interface disconnected DTN regions to the Internet.
2- Security in DTN; each intermediate node can have the custody of its messages. New security measurements must be considered to ensure the intermediate nodes cannot access or modify messages they have custody of.
3- Implementing Car-to-Car Communication or a Vehicular-Delay-Tolerant Network.
4- Implementing a TCP/IP -based DTN protocols using a Linux based system.
5- Describing the Inter-domain protocols between a VDTN and a non-VDTN (e.g., Internet) or multiple VDTNs administered by different organizations.
6- Using the ONE simulator to implement a VDTN system with different routing protocols.
5- Using omni-directional wireless optical communication systems in Vehicular DTN, possibilities, and challenges.
6- Applications of Mobile-DTN: Tracking hikers, animals, etc. using Google map
7- Predictions of future connectivity information - the important issue here is how to choose an appropriate next hop in Vehicular-DTN.
8-and more...

Healthcare Technology Projects

Healthcare Technologies Laboratory (HTLab) at Sonoma State University is dedicated to providing an invaluable resource in assisting individuals with special needs. The laboratory focuses on developing concepts, products, and services which improve the interaction between technical and social systems aimed at enhancing the quality of life for all people of all age groups.

If you are interested in Sonoma Healthcare Technologies Laboratory Projects offered by the HTLabratory at Sonoma State University please go to HERE.

Workout Training with Android

Develop a general purpose Android application that can be used while working out. The application is interfaced with a simple general purpose sensor via Bluetooth and keeps track of goals and daily activities.