Prof. Geoff Voelker (UC San Diego) [Sep 2007─Feb 2008]

alumni

Ganesh Ananthanarayanan (assistant researcher [2005─2007] → Ph.D. student @ UC Berkeley)

interns

2007
Bhavish Aggarwal (IIT Mumbai)
Piyush Agrawal (IIT Kanpur)
Manveer Chawla (IIT Mumbai)
Nilesh Mishra (IIT Kanpur)
Ramya Bharathi Nimmagadda (BITS Pilani)
Sumit Rangwala (USC)
Abhishek Sharma (USC)
R. Srikrishna (BITS Pilani)
Pei Zhang (Princeton))

2005
Rohan Murthy (Cornell)
Anmol Sheth (Univ. of Colorado Boulder)

collaborators

Microsoft Research India
Sean Blagsvedt
Vibhore Goyal
Joseph Joy

projects

Our ongoing research spans the following areas:

• Distributed sensing using mobile phones
• RFID-based sensing
• Network configuration management and diagnosis
• Wide-area network acceleration

We expect these ongoing efforts to yield results in the coming months. In the meantime, here is a description of some of our recently concluded projects: 

:: COMBINE: Collaborative Downloading for Multi-homed Mobile Devices 

Mobile devices are increasingly equipped with multiple network interfaces ― one set of interfaces for local connectivity (WLAN) and the another for wide-area connectivity (WWAN). Examples of WLAN include BlueTooth and Wi-Fi, and those of WWAN include GPRS, EDGE, and EV-DO. These two classes of interfaces offer an interesting tradeoff: the WWAN typically provides much wider coverage but the WLAN typically offers much higher data rates.

To address this range-speed dichotomy, we propose a collaborative download mechanism, wherein a group of mobile nodes in close vicinity pool together their WWAN links, using the high-speed WLAN as the glue. Such collaboration can boost the effective data rate available to the individual nodes. Our work focuses on addressing a number of research challenges that arise in this context, including incentives for collaboration, fast and energy-efficient collaboration group formation, protocol mechanisms to enable deployment with little or no modification to the existing Internet infrastructure, and security and privacy. A position paper describing the research challenges to realizing collaborative downloading appeared at IEEE HotMobile 2007 and a full paper describing the system appeared at ACM MobiSys 2007.

Project Members

• Ganesh Ananthanarayanan
• Venkat Padmanabhan
• Lenin Ravindranath
• Chandu Thekkath

:: SPACE: Secure Protocol for Address-Book based Connection Establishment

The past decade has seen a proliferation of  consumer devices such as mobile phones with integrated wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. While this trend has suggested the possibility of peer-to-peer mobile applications (e.g., collaboration, gaming), this potential has remained large unrealized thus far.  We identify two reasons for this: first, existing connection establishment protocols for Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 have known security flaws, and can be compromised using well-known techniques and off-the-shelf hardware. Second, these protocols require explicit user intervention, like entering a passkey, which is often cumbersome. 

SPACE is an application-level protocol for secure automatic ad-hoc connection-establishment between two devices based on their address book entries. Our  protocol  is  based  on  the  simple premise  that  if  two  people  have  each  other’s contact  details  in  their  address  books,  they probably  know  and  trust  each  other  in  some limited way, and  this can form a basis for a  trust relationship  between  their  devices,  without additional  user  intervention. Our protocol is resistant to specific security attacks and can accommodate privacy concerns. A position paper on SPACE appeared at the ACM HotNets 2006 workshop.

Project Members

• Ganesh Ananthanarayanan
• Ramarathnam Venkatesan
• Prasad Naldurg
• Sean Blagsvedt
• Adithya Hemakumar
• Karthik Kambatla

:: OWeb: A Framework for Offline Web Browsing 

Internet browsing has traditionally been dependent on the real-time network availability and speed. This dependency becomes a significant constraint when accessing the web over slow and intermittent networks. Accessing large chunks of data, or streaming content across the web often incurs problems with latency, interruptions, and poor quality, at least where network connectivity is questionable. In this project, we explore ways in which the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds could be utilized for improving the Internet browsing experience.

Successful models for offline data access include SMS and E-mail synchronization over mobile phones. The important characteristic of this class of applications is that the end-user never needs to wait for access to data. The content is always available and offline, which results in a positive user experience, since the user is insulated from the vagaries of the network. To this end, our OWeb system incorporates a number of techniques including intelligent prefetching, graceful handling of intermittent network connectivity, and template identification and page stitching based on RSS feeds. We also propose extensions to the RSS protocol to enable a more effective utilization of the feeds by clients with intermittent connectivity. Our initial results are reported in an LA-WEB 2006 paper.  

Project Members

• Ganesh Ananthanarayanan
• Sean Blagsvedt
• Kentaro Toyama

publications

L. Ravindranath, V. N. Padmanabhan, and P. Agrawal, "SixthSense: RFID-based Enterprise Intelligence", ACM Mobisys, Breckenridge, Colorado, USA, June 2008

P. Mohan, V. N. Padmanabhan, and R. Ramjee, "TrafficSense: Rich Monitoring of Road and Traffic Conditions using Mobile Smartphones", Microsoft Research Technical Report MSR-TR-2008-59, April 2008

N. Bansal, R. Bhagwan, N. Jain, Y. Park, D. Turaga, and C. Venkatramani, "Towards Optimal Operator Placement in Partial-Fault Tolerant Applications", IEEE Infocom, Phoenix, AZ, USA, Apr 2008

R. Alimi, L. E. Li, R. Ramjee, H. Viswanathan, and Y. R. Yang, " iPack: in-Network Packet Mixing for High Throughput Wireless Mesh Networks", IEEE Infocom, Phoenix, AZ, USA, Apr 2008

R. Chandra, J. Padhye, and L. Ravindranath, "Wi-Fi Neighborcast: Enabling Communication Among Nearby Clients", IEEE HotMobile, Napa Valley, CA, USA, Feb 2008

L. E. Li, R. Alimi, R. Ramjee, J. Shi, Y. Sun, H. Viswanathan, and Y. R. Yang, " Superposition Coding for Wireless Mesh Networks", Extended Abstract (4 pages) in ACM Mobicom, Montreal, Canada, Sep 2007

S. Agarwal, V. N. Padmanabhan, and D. A. Joseph, " Addressing Email Loss with SureMail: Measurement, Design, and Evaluation", USENIX Technical Conference, Santa Clara, CA, USA, June 2007

G. Ananthanarayanan, V. N. Padmanabhan, L. Ravindranath, and C. A. Thekkath, " COMBINE: Leveraging the Power of Wireless Peers through Collaborative Downloading", ACM MobiSys, San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 2007

L. E. Li, R. Ramjee, M. Buddhikot, and S. Miller, " Network Coding-Based Broadcast in Mobile Ad hoc Networks", IEEE Infocom, Anchorage, AK, USA, May 2007  

A. Sheth, C. A. Thekkath, P.Mehta, K. Tejaswi, C. Parekh, T. N. Singh, and U. B. Desai, “Senslide: A Distributed Landslide Prediction System”, ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, April 2007

G. Ananthanarayanan, V. N. Padmanabhan, L. Ravindranath, and C. A. Thekkath, "Collaborative Downloading for Multi-homed Wireless Devices", IEEE HotMobile, Tucson, AZ, USA, Feb 2007

R. Chandra, J. Padhye, L. Ravindranath, and A. Wolman, "Beacon-Stuffing: Wi-Fi Without Associations", IEEE HotMobile, Tucson, AZ, USA, Feb 2007

G. Ananthanarayanan , R. Venkatesan, P. Naldurg , S. Blagsvedt, and A. Hemakumar, “SPACE: Secure Protocol for Address-Book based Connection Establishment”, ACM HotNets, Irvine, CA, USA, Nov 2006

G. Ananthanarayanan , S. Blagsvedt, and K. Toyama, “OWeB: A Framework for Offline Web Browsing”, 4th Latin American Web Congress (LA-WEB 06), Mexico , Oct 2006

A. Sheth, K. Tejaswi, P. Mehta, C. Parekh, R. Bansal, S. Merchant, T. Singh, U. B. Desai, C. A. Thekkath, and K. Toyama, “SenSlide ― A Sensor Network Based Landslide Prediction System", Poster abstract in ACM SenSys, San Diego, CA, USA, Nov 2005  

professional activities

Members of the MNS group are active in professional activities. Here's a sampling of recent and ongoing service on conference program committees and other activities:

careers

Microsoft Research India’s mission is to do cutting-edge, world-class research, to transfer research technology to Microsoft's product groups, and to support the growth of advanced research education in India. The lab offers a unique environment for research: researchers have the freedom to pursue projects of interest to them, receive excellent support in terms of equipment, travel, etc., enjoy an open environment that strongly encourages publication, and have rich opportunities for collaboration with researchers in MSR's worldwide network of labs, colleagues across the company, and external researchers. Researchers also have the opportunity to work with and mentor students during their internships at MSR India and beyond. The lab also offers researchers the unparalleled opportunity to impact millions of users worldwide by transferring research technology to or otherwise influencing Microsoft's product groups.

The MNS group at MSR India is actively recruiting for a range of positions in the broad areas of networking and systems. Note that these positions are open to applicants from the world over, regardless of nationality. So wherever you may currently be, we hope that you will consider a career with us in Bangalore, the garden city and hi-tech capital of India! Here's a brief description of the positions:

1. Researcher: We encourage recent or soon-to-be PhDs with a strong record of research and publication to apply. We also welcome applications from people who completed their PhD some time ago but have remained active in research and publication. We may consider more senior appointments for researchers who have significant experience and a track record of research impact.

2. Assistant Researcher: This is a unique position targeted at fresh bachelors and masters students who are interested in research but haven't yet decided to make that their long-term career choice. Assistant researchers work shoulder to shoulder with researchers at the lab on cutting-edge projects, write papers based on their work, participate in conferences, etc. This is a fixed-term position ─ typically of a 2-year duration ─ which prepares the assistant researchers to pursue a PhD, if they so wish (indeed, several of our assistant researchers in the recent past were admitted to PhD programs at top universities such as Berkeley, CMU, and MIT). Note: We have concluded our hiring of assistant researchers for 2008. We will start considering applications for positions next year in the Dec 2008/Jan 2009 timeframe.

3. Intern: We have an active year-round internship program although the majority of our interns come during the summer. We encourage students with a strong interest in research to apply whether they are in a doctoral, masters, or bachelors program. If you are a student outside of India, this would be an opportunity to gain valuable international experience! Note: We have concluded our hiring of interns for summer 2008. We expect to have a limited number of positions during Fall 2008 and Spring 2009.

4. Visiting researcher/post-doc: We welcome researchers to visit the lab, whether for a few weeks or for several months. Visiting researchers are typically faculty members or other researchers who share our interests and who would enrich the group and the lab through mutually beneficial collaboration. Post-docs are typically fresh PhDs who may have an unconventional background but show strong promise of connecting with the group's thrust (e.g., an algorithms PhD with a keen interest in applied research).

If you believe that your record and interests are a fit for the MNS group, we encourage you to apply. Please submit your application online here (be sure to select the Mobility, Networks, and Systems group). Please include a URL that points to your research publications. Feel free to also send email to Venkat Padmanabhan at padmanab@microsoft.com, especially if we have communicated about your application before. However, we do receive a large volume of email from applicants whose record and interests are clearly not a fit for the group, so please be considerate of our time when sending email.