96-822: The Mobile Ecosystem - Spring 2010b
Instructors: Wendy Fong and Patrick Tague
Catalog Description: Overview of technology, policy, and use issues related to the development and use of mobile devices and applications. Students perform quantitative and qualitative evaluation of mobile platforms and applications, with the objective of supporting business and technical decisions.
Learning Objectives:
- Understanding of metrics, evaluation, and decision analysis frameworks for quantitatively-based decision making,
- Increased awareness of significant stakeholders in the development and deployment of mobile devices and applications, including regulatory bodies, device manufacturers, network operators, and independent software vendors,
- Ability to follow and analyze ongoing technical and economic developments on topics related to mobile and wireless communications.
Schedule and topics:
- Week 1: Introduction - Who are the players? Overview of handset and chipset manufacturers, network operators, policy makers, and applicaiton developers.
- Week 2: Mobile devices - Handsets, tablets, netbooks, notebooks, and embedded systems with mobile capabilities. Identification of key properties of these devices, including operating platform, application availability, development tooks, location-based services, communication capabilities, and dimensions.
- Week 3: Network issues & Available spectrum, transmission protocols, carriers, and gateways. Mechanisms for transmitting voice and data between devices, as well as to/from servers. Second, third, and fourth generation technologies, e.g., GSM, CDMA, GPRS, UMTS, HSPDA, LTE.
- Week 4: Mobile middleware - The "mobile" Internet. Mobile devices and Internet access. Browsers, bandwidth, data transformation for mobile devices.
- Week 5: Mobile applications - Methods and tools for developing mobile applications. Context-aware applications. Design issues, including user interface design. Application delivery.
- Week 6: Regulation - Government and regulatory issues. Future directions.
- Week 7: Project presentations