International Journal of Wireless Information Networks, Vol. 10, No.

2, April 2003 (© 2003)

A Neural Network–Based Connectivity Management

for Mobile Computing Environment

B. P. Vijay Kumar1 and P. Venkataram1,2

The mobile computing environment experiences wireless problems and suffers from limited
bandwidth, which leads to frequent disconnections. This has posed a challenge in maintaining user-
to-user connectivity in the mobile computing environment. In this paper, we propose a neural network
(NN) based connectivity management for mobile computing environment to maintain the mobile user-
to-user connectivity throughout the transaction. Here the connectivity management maintains the sta-
tus information of mobile hosts at the base station to handle frequent disconnection of mobile hosts
(MHs), which occur because of hand-offs and interruptions. The disconnection of an MH because of
wireless problems is called interruption, and the disconnection due to MH crossing the cell boundary
is called hand-off. The neural networks are trained with respect to the status information to provide an
intelligent decision for the connectivity management. The simulation results demonstrate that the pro-
posed technique performs well in terms of percentage acceptance of disconnections and resource uti-
lization (bandwidth and buffer) for the volatile mobile computing environment. It is also observed that
the intelligent decision by neural network has improved the performance of the system.

KEY WORDS: Connectivity management; status information; neural network; back-propagation algorithm.

1. INTRODUCTION disconnections due to MHs crossing the cell boundary

Recently, a mobile computing environment has
emerged from the universe of mobile computers and the
rapid advancement of wireless networking technology
[1–4]. It enables mobile users to communicate anytime
and anywhere without the restrictions of geographical
location [5]. However, because of the intrinsic character-
istics of mobile computing, some problems arise, such as
communication resource deficiency and frequent
disconnections. The disconnections resulting from wire-
less link failure (i.e., obstacles, wireless problems) or vol-
untary disconnections (voluntary disconnections from the
mobile host are requested to save battery life) within a
cell boundary can be called interrupted MH. The
1
Protocol Engineering and Technology (PET) Unit, Electrical
Communication Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, 560 012, India.
2
E-mail: pallapa@ece.iisc.ernet.in
(i.e., hand-off) can be called hand-off MH. We define the
connectivity management as a task that involves handling
frequent re-attachment requests from the interrupted and
hand-off MHs in a mobile computing environment.
In this paper, we propose an NN-based connectivity
management technique for mobile computing environment
to maintain the user-to-user connectivity throughout the
transaction. The technique involves maintenance of status
information of the MHs at the BS to handle frequent dis-
connection of MHs, and a neural network is trained with
respect to the status information to learn the volatile nature
of the mobile computing environment (e.g., average dis-
connection period, rate of disconnection, mobility) to pro-
vide an intelligent decision for connectivity management.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. We dis-
cuss some of the related works in Section 2. In Section 3,
the proposed connectivity management technique, deriving
the training data set from status information and the neu-
ral network training procedures, is described. Simulation

63
1068-9605/03/0400-0063/0 © 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation
64
model along with the results and discussions are given in
Section 4. Finally, we present the conclusions in Section 5.
2. RELATED WORKS
In this section we discuss some of the related
works carried out in mobile computing environment. In
Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) [6],
timer-based call re-establishment services are pro-
posed. In this approach, a radio link may be temporar-
ily disconnected when there is a propagation loss due to
obstacle (e.g., bridges and tunnels) shielding. In such
an environment, to avoid forced termination or to
reduce call dropping due to call interruption, the call
re-establishment services [6] and an analytical model to
study the performance [7] has been proposed for the
connectivity management.
The periodic attachment in future mobile com-
munications and the induced signaling load are evalu-
ated as influenced by the selection of the time-out
period. A method for dynamic time-out period selection
to fit the varying traffic conditions is proposed and
evaluated [8]. In [9], a periodic attachment is considered
as an alternative location updating scheme (i.e., the
mobile host re-attachment actions provide location
information).
Some of the other works carried out in mobile com-
puting environments involve the connection manage-
ment for hand-off mobile hosts [10,11]. Several other
schemes (e.g., multicast based, predictive based) are pro-
posed for maintaining network connections in a mobile
computing environment during the hand-off situation
[12–14]. These algorithms modify the existing connec-
tions to MHs by partial re-establishment of connections
to perform hand-off.
3. THE CONNECTIVITY MANAGEMENT
TECHNIQUE
The main objective of the proposed connectivity
management technique (CMT) is to maintain the mobile
user-to-user connectivity throughout the transaction. The
CMT keeps track of the interrupted and hand-off MHs by
maintaining the status information at the currently regis-
tered BS. The status information contains the activities
of all the MHs registered with the BS. The CMT uses a
neural network that is trained with respect to the status
information, both online and offline training, to learn the
volatile nature of the mobile environment for an intelli-
gent decision.
Kumar and Venkataram
3.1. Status Information of a Mobile Host
The status information of each registered MH in a
cell is as follows. This status information is maintained
at the BS.
MH ID Connectivity status Disconnection time Service class
MH ID: MH identification number, a positive integer.
Connectivity status: The connectivity status of MHs can
be categorized into connected, interrupted, and hand-
off. The connectivity status is maintained for each
MH and updated based on the reception of periodic
attachment signals from MH or by continuous moni-
toring of signal-to-noise ratio. The connectivity status
of MH is said to be connected if the periodic attach-
ment signals are received regularly, and is said to be
interrupted if the BS stops receiving periodic attach-
ment signals from MH. If the signal-to-noise ratio for
MH has reached less than the threshold value, then
MH connectivity status is said to be hand-off.
Disconnection time: Disconnection time is a time at
which a MH is either interrupted from the BS or a
hand-off is initiated to the neighboring cell.
Service class: Service class indicates the type of the
applications running on the MH. The type of appli-
cations may be the following: audio, video, real-time,
and non–real-time data applications.
3.2. Use of Status Information
The status information parameters are chosen such
that the connection information regarding interrupted or
hand-off MH is abstracted. The CMT uses the status
information for handling interrupted and hand-off MHs
for the purpose of re-connection establishment.
In mobile computing environment there are various
types of applications used, such as real-time and non–real-
time applications. Non–real-time applications require
error-free services. Real-time applications require guaran-
teed services in terms of delay, jitter, throughput, and
reliability. These service parameters depend on the main-
tenance of connections throughout the lifetime of applica-
tions. Because of frequent disconnections it may not be
possible to maintain the continuity of application. Consider
an example to illustrate the use of status information
parameters: Service class and Disconnection time. These
two parameters help in providing delay-sensitive blocking
and error-free services for the applications. Such services
are provided by buffering the transmitted data packets from
correspondent host (CH) (may be server in case of on-
demand applications) to interrupted MH at the BS. Here
A Neural Network–Based Connectivity Management for Mobile Computing Environment 65

buffering helps in maintaining the continuity of applica-

tion. A threshold time can be fixed for each service class to
buffer the packets. For example, a real-time video cannot
be buffered for longer duration because the delayed video
packets are as good as dead. Therefore different threshold
time can be fixed for real-time and non–real-time applica-
tions. If the MHs disconnection period is more than the
threshold time limit of the application type, then such
request can be rejected or aborted.
Fig. 1. Neural network model for CMT.

3.3. Training Data Set

This section describes the method of deriving train-
ing data set from the status information, which is used
for training neural network. The training data set consists
of input parameters such as connectivity status, service
class, disconnection period, and resource requirement.
The disconnection period for an MH is a time duration
from when the MH is interrupted or a hand-off is initi-
ated. This period may be measured in terms of number
of periodic reattachment signals or a fraction of it.
Resource requirement is the quantity of resources
required by an application, such as bandwidth and buffer.
An example of the training data set derived from sta-
tus information of seven disconnected MHs in a cell along
with the expected output is shown in Table I. The expected
output indicates the decision of the CMT and the result that
should be obtained after training a neural network.
3.4. Training Procedure for Neural Network
The neural network model devised for connectivity
management is based on the back-propagation learning
algorithm [15,16]. The neural network model we consider
has three layers: input, hidden, and output layers. The input
layer accepts the input parameter values from the training
data set, and the output of neural network is expected to
indicate success/failed/abort as shown in Fig. 1.
Table I. Training Data Set with Expected Output
Connectivity Disconnect Resource
status Service class period requirement
3.4.1. Selection of Neurons for NN Model
The selection of number of input, hidden, and out-
put layer neurons for CMT is as follows. The set of input
layer neurons are selected based on the status informa-
tion parameters.
For example, if the Connectivity status is repre-
sented by a one bit information n1, i.e., n1 ⫽ 1 if inter-
rupted MH, n1 ⫽ 0 if hand-off MH.
Service class: A two bit information n2, if audio, video,
real-time, and non–real-time data applications
are considered, then n2 can take values as follows,
n2 ⫽ 00 for audio; n2 ⫽ 01 for video, n2 ⫽ 10 for
real-time data, and n2 ⫽ 11 for non–real-time data
applications.
Disconnection period Td: A five bit n3 to represent a dis-
connection period of up to 20 units, so n3 can take
any one value from (00000, 00001, . . . ,11111).
Resource requirement: A two bit information to represent
n4 ⫽ 11 (high), 10 (medium), 01 (low), 00 (very low)
resource requirement.
The total number of input layer neurons is equal to
n1 ⫹ n2 ⫹ n3 ⫹ n4 ⫽ 10.
The number of neurons required in the hidden layer
depends on the number of input parameters and the esti-
mate of the number of training data provided for training
[16]. The number of output layer neurons depends on the
possible output values. In this problem, there are three
possible output values; therefore 2 output neurons are
sufficient to represent the same.
Output

Hand-off Audio 2 Low Success 3.4.2. Procedure

Hand-off Video 4 Very low Success
Interrupted Audio 10 Medium Abort We discuss the training procedure for a neural
Hand-off non–real-time 7 Low Success network by considering L layers with M input neurons
data by using back-propagation learning algorithm. The
Interrupted Video 3 High Failed
output of one layer is fed as the input of the next. The
Hand-off Audio 8 Low Failed
Interrupted Real-time data 15 Low Success neurons in one layer are connected to those in the next
with an adaptive weight. For M neurons in the input
66
layer, the net input to the j-th neuron in the first hid-
den layer is
T j ⫽ 兺M
i⫽1
(wji * outputi ) (1)
where wji is the weight of the link connecting neuron i in
the input layer to the neuron j in the hidden layer and
outputi is the output from the neuron i in the input layer.
The output of each neuron is determined by applying a
transfer function f (⭈) to the net input to the neuron. We
use the sigmoid activation function:
f (x) ⫽ (1 ⫹ e⫺x)⫺1 (2)
The training is done by using back propagation in two
passes. The forward pass is used to evaluate the output
of the neural network for the given input in the existing
weights. In the reverse pass, the difference in the neural
network output with the expected output is compared
and fed back to the neural network as an error to change
the weights of the neural network.
In the reverse pass, suppose for the particular neuron
i in the output layer L, the output is oiL while the expected
output value is diL. The back propagated error ␪ Li is:
␪Li ⫽ f ¿ (T iL)[diL ⫺ oLi ] (3)
where TLi represents the net input to the i-th neuron in the
output (L-th) layer and f⬘ (⭈) is the derivative of f (⭈).
For layers l ⫽ 1, 2, . . . , (L ⫺ 1), and for each
neuron i in layer l the error is computed using:
␪li ⫽ f ¿ (Ti l)兺 j (wl⫹1 l⫹1
ji *␪j ) (4)
The adaptation of the weight of the link connecting neu-
rons i of layer l and neuron j of layer (l ⫺ 1) is done by
using:
w lij ⫽ wlij ⫹ K*␪li*ol⫺1
j (5)
where K is the learning constant that depends on the
rate at which the neural network is expected to
converge. This neural network algorithm essentially
minimizes the mean square error between the NN out-
put and the expected output using gradient descent
approach [15].
This training procedure is iterated over all the
entries of the training data set for several times until
the mean square error (∑[ dLi⫺oLi]2) between neural net-
work output and the expected output reaches some
specified threshold. This procedure is also repeated
when a new entry to the training data set has occurred.
Kumar and Venkataram
The criteria for the NN to train repeatedly can be based
on the following: (a) The expected output is not same
as the neural network output for new entry in the train-
ing data set; (b) The mean square error between the
neural network output and the expected output is not
less than the specified threshold (e.g., the threshold
may be 0.005).
3.4.3. Neural Network Training Algorithm
Begin
1. Construct a neural network with 1, 2, . . . , L
layers and in each layer select number of neurons
that suits the problem.
2. Initialize, wij ⫽ ␦ ∀i, j, a random value in the
range (0, 1).
3. Choose an entry in the training data set.
4. Feed it to the input layer and propagate it
through hidden layer until the output layer.
5. For each of the neuron i in the output layer (layer
L), compute the error using equation (3).
6. For l ⫽ 1, 2, . . . , (L ⫺ 1) and for each neuron
i in layer l compute the error using equation (5).
7. Update the weights using equation (4.5).
8. If the error in the output layer is (∑[dLi⫺oLi ]2)
with in the permissible limits,
then go to step 9; /* for CMT decision */
else Repeat by going to step 3, until all the
entries in the training data set are learned by neu-
ral network.
9. Stop
End.
3.5. CMT Algorithm
On receiving a reattachment request from a discon-
nected MH, the CMT processes the corresponding entry
of the training data set of the MH. If there is no entry, it
appends the same into the training data set and trains the
neural network; subsequently the CMT process takes
place. Fig. 2 gives the flow chart of the CMT procedure.
The pseudo-code for the connectivity management
technique is as follows.
3.5.1 Pseudo-code: Connectivity Management
Technique
Begin
1. CMT maintains the status information based on
the messages exchanged between MH and BS.
2. Training data set is derived from the status infor-
mation and network resource requirement.
A Neural Network–Based Connectivity Management for Mobile Computing Environment 67

Fig. 2. Flow chart of the CMT procedure.

3. Neural network is trained on the training data set

using back-propagation learning algorithm.
4. On receiving a reattachment request from a
disconnected MH, the CMT processes the
corresponding entry of the training data set of the
MH.
If there is no entry, it appends the same into the
training data set;
then
goto step 3;
else
Output the decision on the received re-attachment
request; goto step 4.
Stop
Fig. 3. (a) Message flow between MH and BS (case 1). (b) Message
End. flow between MH and BS (case 2).

Soon after the connection is re-established, the

required resources are allocated to the MH. The sus-
pended data transfer would be restored. Hence the con-
nectivity is restored without loss of any data.
Based on the re-attachment request before and after
the specified maximum disconnection period, the
decision of CMT varies. Fig. 3(a) illustrates case 1: a
reattachment request from disconnected MH before the
maximum disconnection period tolerated by the service
class. An ACK message is sent for MH to maintain the
connection. Fig. 3(b) illustrates case 2: a reattachment
request from disconnected MH after the maximum dis-
connection period tolerated by the service class. A NAK
message is sent to abort the connection.
4. SIMULATION MODEL
The simulation model is composed of a single cell
with base station, which will keep contact with its neigh-
boring cells and provide the services to MHs on a city
zone area with buildings and tunnels acting as obstacle
shielding. We assume that the MHs are frequently dis-
connected due to obstacles, wireless problems, or volun-
tary disconnections. In such environment, the frequency
of disconnection and disconnection time depends on the
speed of mobile host, length of different obstacle shield-
ing, and traffic, which are random in nature.
In the simulation, a sample of 100 MHs are consid-
ered moving within a cell and hand-off from the neigh-
boring cells. Connectivity services are provided for both
interrupted and hand-off MHs. Four application services
are considered (audio, video, real-time, and non–real-
time data applications). These applications are identified
with the specific parameters, such as maximum discon-
nection time (threshold time), bandwidth, and buffer
requirement. The parameters considered in the simula-
tion model are as follows.
Pd ⫽ Probability of disconnection, which is Bernoulli dis-
tributed for each of the connected MHs.
68
Pr ⫽ Probability of re-attach request, which is
Bernoulli distributed for each of the discon-
nected MHs, and (1 ⫺ Pr) is new connection
request from the MHs that are not connected
earlier. The total number of connection
requests is uniformly distributed between 1 and
the maximum number of MHs allowed.
Td ⫽ Disconnection period;
Tha ⫽ Threshold time for audio service class;
Th␷ ⫽ Threshold time for video service class;
Thrd ⫽ Threshold time for real-time data service class;
Thnrd ⫽ Threshold time for non–real-time data service
class;
BW ⫽ Total bandwidth capacity of a cell;
Buffer ⫽ Total buffer capacity;
The bandwidth requirements for different service
classes are as follows.
bwa ⫽ Bandwidth requirement for audio service class
(⬃100 kbps);
bw␷ ⫽ Bandwidth requirement for video service class
(⬃2 to ⬃5 Mbps);
bwrd ⫽ Bandwidth requirement for real-time data serv-
ice class (⬃2 to ⬃5 Mbps);
bwnrd ⫽ Bandwidth requirement for non – real-time data
service class (⬃1 Mbps to 5 Mbps);
The threshold times for different applications are
taken relatively, depending on the service classes and
interims of certain time units. Buffer requirement is
based on the threshold time fixed for each service
class.
The numerical values for different parameters in the
simulation are given in Table II.
The NN model is devised with 10 neurons in the
input layer, 8 neurons in the hidden layer, and 2 neurons
in the output layer. The simulation model is developed in
Table II. Numerical Values for Parameters
Parameter Numerical Values
Pd 0.3, 0.6, 0.9
Pr 0.3, 0.6, 0.9
Td 2 to 20 time units
Tha 5 a total of 1000 to 2000 iterations (see Fig. 7).
Th␷ 8 The results are taken for different values of thres-
Thrd 10
Thnrd 15
BW 100 Mbps
Buffer 1000 Mbytes
Kumar and Venkataram
C⫹⫹ programming language on a Pentium III worksta-
tion running Red Hat Linux OS.
The simulation is carried out for 10000 time units,
with different values of Pd and Pr to consider the
volatile nature of mobile computing environment. The
simulation results are taken to trade-off between
resource requirement and connectivity services. The
graphs plotted for the simulation results are given in the
next subsection.
4.1. Results
The simulation results are taken for success/failure
/abort for re-attachment request with respect to the num-
ber of hand-off and interrupted MH requests for different
values of probability of disconnection (Pd) and probabil-
ity of request (Pr) from disconnected MH. The graphs
are plotted to depict the same (see Fig. 4). Fig. 4(a)
shows the percentage of success for interrupted MH with
Pd ⫽ 0.3 and Pr ⫽ 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9. From the graphs in
Fig. 4, it is clear that as the total number of requesting
mobile hosts increases, the percentage of success
decreases. But as Pd increases, the percentage of success
increases with Pr because new connection requests will
be less, and highest priority is given to hand-off MHs.
The success/failure of requesting MH may also depend
on the disconnection period (Td) (hand-off delay or
interruption duration) and threshold time fixed for each
service class. The results are taken for the success and
failure of hand-off MH with respect to the total number
of requests from MHs for Pd ⫽ 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9. The
graph in Fig. 5 shows the success ratio for hand-off MH.
Here we observe that the success ratio increases as Pd
increases.
The graphs for resources utilization (bandwidth and
buffer) with respect to the number of MHs in a cell are
plotted for different values of Pd ⫽ 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 (see
Fig. 6). Here we observe that the resource utilization
increases with the number of MHs in a cell.
During training of neural network, different learn-
ing rates (K ⫽ 0.1, 0.2) are chosen until the error con-
verges to a specified error limit. We have chosen the
error limit 0.005. In each case the learning error is meas-
ured while presenting the input data for training. It is
observed that the neural network started converging after
hold time for service classes with respect to the variation
of disconnection period and failure rate. The neural net-
work is trained online to adapt to the volatile nature of
the mobile computing environment.
A Neural Network–Based Connectivity Management for Mobile Computing Environment 69

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Fig. 4. (a) Interrupted MH success for Pd ⫽ 0.3. (b) Interrupted MH Success/Failure/Abort for Pd ⫽ 0.3 and Pr ⫽ 0.3. (c) Interrupted MH
Success/Failure/Abort for Pd ⫽ 0.6 and Pr ⫽ 0.6. (d) Interrupted MH Success/Failure/Abort for Pd ⫽ 0.9 and Pr ⫽ 0.9.

Fig. 5. Hand-off MH success for Pd ⫽ 0.3, 0.6, 0.9.
5. Conclusion
In this paper, we have proposed a neural network–
based connectivity management for mobile computing
environment to maintain the mobile user-to-user connect-
ivity throughout the transaction by maintaining the status
information of mobile hosts. The neural network is
trained offline with respect to the status information and
also trained online for different disconnection rate to
adapt to the volatile nature of mobile computing envir-
onment, thus facilitating an intelligent decision for
connectivity management. The simulation results demon-
strated that the proposed technique performs well in terms
of success ratio for disconnections and resource utiliza-
tion (bandwidth and buffer) for the volatile mobile com-
puting environment.
70 Kumar and Venkataram

(a) (b)

(c)
Fig. 6. Resource utilization. (a) Pd ⫽ 0.3. (b) Pd ⫽ 0.6. (c) Pd ⫽ 0.9.

2. G. H. Forman and J. Zahorjan, “The Challenges of Mobile

Fig. 7. Error behavior during training of neural network.
REFERENCES
1. D. Duchamp, “Issues in Wireless Mobile Computing,”
Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE Workshop on Workstation Operation
Systems, pp. 1–7, April 1992.
Computing,” IEEE Computers, Vol. 27, No. 6, pp. 38 – 47, April
1994.
3. B. R. Badrinath and T. Imielinski, “Wireless Mobile Computing:
Challenges in Data Management,” Communications of the ACM,
Vol. 37, No. 10, pp. 18–28, October 1994.
4. T. Imielinski and H. F. Korth, Mobile Computing, Kluwer
Academic Publishers, 1996.
5. A. Helal, B. Haskell, J. L. Carter, R. Brice, D. Woelk, and
M. Rusinkiewicz, Any Time, Anywhere Computing, Kluwer
Academic Publishers, Boston 1999.
6. M. Mouly and M. B. Bautet, “The GSM System for Mobile
Communications,” 49 rue Louise Bruneau, Palaiseau, France, 1992.
7. Phone Lin and Yi-Bing Lin, “Improving GSM Call Completion by
Call Re-establishment,” IEEE J. on SAC, Vol. 17, No. 7, July 1999.
8. G. M. John and E. A. Miltiades “Periodic Attachment in Future
Mobile Telecommunications,” IEEE Trans. on Veh. Technol, Vol.
44, No. 3, pp. 555-564, August 1995.
9. S. T. S. Chia, “Location Registration and Paging in a Third
Generation Mobile System,” BT Technol. J., Vol. 9, No. 4, October
1991.
10. L. Taylor, R. Titmuss, and C. Lebre, “The challenges of Seamless
Handover in Future Mobile Multimedia Networks,” IEEE Pers.
Commun., Vol. 5, pp. 32–37, April 1999.
11. S. Ramanathan and M. Steenstrup, “A Survey of Routing
Techniques for Mobile Communication Networks,” J. Mobile Netw.
Appl., Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 89–104, 1996.
A Neural Network–Based Connectivity Management for Mobile Computing Environment
12. K. Keeton, et al., “Providing Connection-Oriented Network Services
to Mobile Hosts,” Proceedings of the USENIX Symposium on Mobile
and Location-Independent Computing, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
August 1993.
13. Andreas Festag, et al., “Rerouting for Handover in Mobile Networks
with Connection-Oriented Backbones: An Experimental Testbed,”
Proceedings of Conference on High Performance Switching and
Routing (ICATM’2000), Germany, pp. 491–499, June 2000.
14. R. Ramjee, T. F. Porta, J. Kurose, and D. Towsley, “Performance
Evaluation of Connection Rerouting Schemes for ATM-based
Wireless Networks,” IEEE/ACM Trans. Netw., Vol. 6, No. 3, June
1998.
15. R. P. Lippman, “An Introduction to Computing with Neural Nets,”
IEEE ASSP Mag., pp. 4–22, April 1987.
16. Simon Haykin, Neural Networks: A Comprehensive Foundation,
Macmillan College Publishing Company, New York, 1995.
Pallapa Venkataram received the M.Sc. degree in Mathematics
from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupathi, India, in 1973, and Ph.D.
degree in Information Sciences from the University of Sheffield, U.K.,
in 1986. He is currently a professor of electrical communication
engineering with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India,
where he is involved in wireless access research and protocol
engineering. He was with Hindustan Aeronautical Limited, Bangalore,
India, as a Deputy Manager (Computers) from 1980 to 1982, where he
worked mainly on systems design for financial and material manage-
ment systems.
Dr. Venkataram was a visiting scientist at the University of
Maryland, Baltimore, and at the University of Montreal, P.Q., Canada,
in 1992. In 1995, he was a Visiting Scientist at the SK University,
Anantapur, India. In 1998 he spent 6 months with Northern Telecom
(NORTEL), Canada, on sabbatical. He is a governing council member,
core research and development division, Indian Telephone Industries
(ITI) Ltd., India. He serves on several advisory committees and fre-
quently consults to government of India and industry.
71
His current research interests are in the areas of communication
protocols, wireless networks, computational intelligence applications in
communication networks, and multimedia systems. He has published
around 200 papers and has edited a book, Wireless Communications for
the Next Millennium. He has written a chapter in the book Computational
Intelligence in Telecommunications Networks and co-authored a chapter
in the book Mobile Multimedia Communications.
He holds a Distinguished Visitor Diploma from the Orrego
University, Trujillo, Peru. He received a Communication Devices India
Ltd. (CDIL) Award for a paper published in the IETE Journal.
Dr. Venkataram has served in various capacities in many IEEE and
ICCC conferences and workshops. He is a Fellow of the Institution of
Electrical Engineers (IEE), England, a Fellow of the Institution of
Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), India, and a
senior member of IEEE computer society.
Vijay Kumar B. P. received the B.E. degree in Electronics and
Communication from Mysore University, Mysore, India, in 1988,
M.Tech. degree in Computer Science and Technology with honors
from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, U.P., India, in 1992,
and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Communication Engineering from
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, in 2003.
Dr. Kumar is currently a Professor of Computer Science and
Engg. with the Jawaharlal Nehru National College of Engineering,
Vishweshwaraiah Technological University, Shimoga, Karnataka,
India, where he is involved in mobile network and computational intel-
ligence applications research in association with protocol engineering
and technology unit, Electrical Communication Engineering Dept.,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. His areas of research are
neural network applications in mobile networks, protocol engineering,
computational intelligence applications in mobile networks. He has
published several papers in referred international journals and confer-
ences. He is a student member of IEEE computer society and life mem-
ber of India Society for Technical Education (LMISTE).