CS Talk
February 28, 2012
10:30 a.m., AKW 200

Speaker: Shyamnath Gollakota
Title: Cutting Across Layers: A New Approach to Wireless Interference and Security


Abstract: The past twenty years have seen significant advances in wireless networks. These advances have mostly followed the traditional layered structure of networked systems. However, the shared broadcast nature of the wireless medium is in direct conflict with the isolation assumed in the layered abstraction. As wireless networks get more congested and are incorporated into critical application like healthcare, this conflict comes into greater focus. I will show you that by cutting across these traditional layers, we can address the fundamental problems in wireless, i.e., interference and security.

To achieve this, instead of hiding broadcast and interference from the higher layers, we are going to turn them into opportunities to achieve higher throughput and security. In particular, we design network protocols and security mechanisms that encourage strategic interference to address difficult networking problems and provide security guarantees that are traditionally not possible.

In this talk, I will present systems that leverage these opportunities. First, I will present ZigZag, which is the first WiFi receiver that can decode packet interference; hence rendered interference harmless. Then, I will show you how to exploit strategic interference to achieve much higher throughput gains, using a system called Analog Network Coding. In wireless security, I will show you how to use interference to secure devices like medical implants that can not be modified. Finally, I will present tamper evident pairing, which exploits the broadcast nature of wireless, to establish secure wireless connections, without having the users enter passwords or have pre-shared secret keys.


Bio: Shyamnath Gollakota is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research in networking focuses on addressing wireless interference and security. He has been awarded the ACM SIGCOMM 2008 Best paper award for ZigZag decoding, ACM SIGCOMM 2011 Best Paper Award for securing medical implants, and AT&T Applied Security Award for password-free wireless security. His work has appeared in venues like Slashdot, BBC Radio, Forbes, and Network World. He received his masters in Computer Science at MIT, and a bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Madras.