Abstract:
Cellular offloading is increasingly being used to move traffic from cellular networks to other networks such as Wi-Fi to reduce the traffic load on cellular networks due to the rapid increase in mobile data consumption. Multi-connection and IP Flow Mobility represent an area of research and standardization by bodies like ITU-T and 3GPP. The capability allows devices to seamlessly move between any access network, while anchored in the LTE packet core referred to as the Evolved Packet Core. These mechanisms are being used in some mobile networks for offloading data traffic to Wi-Fi. However, the capability extends to much more use cases.
 
Through protocol derivatives of Mobile IP, devices are able to acquire and utilize the access network of best fit, and furthermore, use multiple access networks simultaneously, moving traffic flows among these connections as required. This presentation will cover the latest developments in mobility protocols for multi connection and flow mobility that enable cellular offloading.
 
Biography:
Prasan de Silva graduated with a BE(Hons) and ME, both in Electrical Engineering, from the University of Canterbury in 1994 and 2001 respectively. He has been involved in post-graduate research supervision at Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington and has been guest lecturing at Canterbury, Victoria and the University of Otago in New Zealand over the last 10 years. His research interests are in IP based mobility management protocols and the application of software-define networking in base station cooperation. Prasan has worked for Telecom NZ since 1996 and has worked on mobile systems covering D-AMPS, CDMA2000, UMTS, LTE and voice networks covering the PSTN to IMS. Prasan has represented Telecom on several international forums and standards bodies, including Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance, IEEE and ITU-T organisations. Prasan has been a keynote speaker at IEEE ATNAC 2010 and 2013 and has run tutorial sessions for industry professionals at Massey University. He is currently a Consulting Network Architect in the Network Architecture Group at Telecom in Wellington, New Zealand.

Abstract:
Energy underwrites all human endeavors. Where energy is abundant, we find prosperous societies; where energy is scarce, we find lowered standards of living.  Electricity is one of the most convenient carriers of energy, yet approximately 1.6 billion people do not have access to the electric grid. This form of energy poverty disproportionately afflicts the world’s most impoverished. As engineers, we must ask what our role is—if any—in increasing access to electricity. This presentation discusses the broad challenge of energy poverty, the potential for engineers to increase energy accessibility, and experiences in installing renewable systems in Zambia and Haiti.
 
Biographical Notes:
Dr. Henry Louie received the B.S.E.E. degree from Kettering University in 2002, the M.S. degree from the University of Illinois in 2004, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2008. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seattle University in the United States, where he received the Outstanding Teacher award in 2012. His past industry experience includes working with Emerson Process Management, Power Engineers and 3TIER Environmental Forecast Group.  Dr. Louie has been the Vice President for Membership & Image of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) since 2011, and is the youngest person ever to serve on the PES Executive Committee. His current and past positions include: Governing Board Member-At-Large, member of the IEEE Smart Grid Steering Committee, Long-Range Planning Committee, liaison to the IEEE Industry Applications Society and the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Committee. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE. Dr. Louie has served as Technical Program Co-Chair of the 2012 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference and as Secretary of the IEEE PES Working Group on Sustainable Energy Systems for Developing Communities. His research includes renewable energy modeling, electric vehicle infrastructure impact analysis and humanitarian engineering.