Prof. Falko Dressler

Biography: Falko Dressler is Full Professor for Computer Science and head of the Distributed Embedded Systems Group at the Heinz Nixdorf Institute and the Dept. of Computer Science, University of Paderborn, where he is also a member of the University Senate. Dr. Dressler received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Dept. of Computer Science, University of Erlangen in 1998 and 2003, respectively. He is an editor for journals such as IEEE Trans. on Mobile Computing, Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks, Elsevier Computer Communications, and Elsevier Nano Communication Networks. He has been guest editor of special issues on self-organization, autonomic networking, vehicular networks, and bio-inspired communication for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks, and others. Dr. Dressler has been General Chair of IEEE/ACM BIONETICS 2007, IEEE/IFIP WONS 2011, IEEE VNC 2014, and ACM MobiHoc 2016, TPC Co-Chair for IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE VNC, IEEE VTC, IEEE GLOBECOM, and ACM MSWiM, and Poster/Demo Chair for ACM MobiCom. He regularly serves in the program committee of leading IEEE and ACM conferences. Dr. Dressler authored the textbooks Self-Organization in Sensor and Actor Networks published by Wiley in 2007 and Vehicular Networking published by Cambridge University Press in 2014. Dr. Dressler has been an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer as well as an ACM Distinguished Speaker in the fields of inter-vehicular communication, self-organization, and bio-inspired and nano- networking. Dr. Dressler is a Senior Member of the IEEE as well as a Senior Member of ACM (SIGMOBILE). He also acts in the IEEE COMSOC Conference Council. He is actively participating in the IETF standardization. His research objectives include adaptive wireless networking, self-organization techniques, and embedded system design with applications in ad hoc and sensor networks, vehicular networks, industrial wireless networks, and nano-networking.

Title: Smart Cities and the Vehicular Cloud: From Applications to Protocols and Back

Abstract: Cities around the world are currently under quick transition towards a low carbon environment, high quality of living, and resource efficient economy. Information and communication systems play a critical role in building smart cities and supporting comprehensive urban informatics. In this talk, we will focus on the connected cars vision in relation to some of the most needed components in modern smart cities: improved road traffic safety combined with reduced travel times and emissions. Using selected application examples such as cooperative adaptive cruise control or platooning, we assess the needs on the underlying system components with a particular focus on inter-vehicle communication. With the standardization of the vehicular networking protocol stacks, the vehicular networking community converged to a common understanding of data dissemination schemes that already have high potentials for many applications. Yet, vehicular networks are way more dynamic than originally considered. Radio signal fading and shadowing effects need to be considered in the entire design process as well as the strong need for low-latency communication, fairness, and robustness. We bring all these aspects together outlining necessary ingredients for future connected cars applications.