WIRELESS/MOBILE NETWORKS

Wireless technology, which uses electromagnetic waves to communicate information from one point to another, can be applied to computers and other electronic devices. Although wireless technologies have been used in specific applications for decades, wireless networks have recently become much more widespread due to better technology and lower prices. Once the IEEE first defined wireless standards in the late 1990’s, wireless networking became feasible for a wide range of business and personal applications. Wireless networking offers various advantages over wired connections, including mobility, connectivity, adaptability, and ease of use in locations that prohibit wiring. Universities, airports, and major public places are currently taking advantage of wireless technology, and many businesses, health care facilities, and major cities are developing their own wireless networks. Since the cost of wireless networks has dropped dramatically in recent years, they are also becoming more popular in home computing.

The Special Topics list of highly cited wireless/mobile network papers from the past decade covers various aspects of wireless technology, but focuses on improving network performance. Some articles deal with improving wireless network speed through modifying transmission protocols. Attempts to increase performance when transmitting multimedia and video data are also present. Routing protocols, call admission schemes, and mobility management are examined for the purpose of alleviating network congestion and increasing overall performance. Other articles focus on energy concerns in wireless networks, including battery life and power-sensitive networks, while another article concentrates on security issues. The use of beamforming to exploit multiuser diversity for increased capacity emerges in two of the later articles.

The highly cited wireless/mobile network articles from the past two years cover diverse topics emerging in the wireless technology field. Improving performance remains a major issue, as shown in articles on relay channel signaling protocols and spectral efficiency, along with articles on improved models and metrics for assessing performance. Cooperation, in particular multiuser and spatial diversity, is explored for the purpose of increasing performance and capacity. Other topics include energy usage, security in location-based services, mobility management, and Bluetooth-based networks. Some specific wireless applications are studied, including wireless sensor networks and wireless devices used in elementary school classrooms. Since the FCC allocated bandwidth for commercial ultra-wideband (UWB) devices in 2002, UWB system design has also emerged as a wireless network topic.

Methodology

To construct this database, papers were extracted based on article-supplied keywords for Wireless/Mobile Networks. The keywords used were as follows:

wireless network*
OR
mobile network*

The baseline time span for this database is 1995-Dec. 31, 2005. The resulting database contained 3,249 (10 years) and 1,449 (2 years) papers; 6,142 authors; 63 countries; 313 journals; and 1,511 institutions.

Rankings

Once the database was in place, it was used to generate the lists of top 20 papers (two- and ten-year periods), authors, journals, institutions, and nations, covering a time span of 1995-December 31, 2005 (sixth bimonthly, an 11-year period).

The top 20 papers are ranked according to total cites. Rankings for author, journal, institution, and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total papers, and total cites/paper. The paper thresholds and corresponding percentages used to determine scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to total cites/paper, and total papers respectively are as follows:

Entity: Scientists Institutions Countries Journals
Thresholds: 9 23 9 6
Percentage: 1% 2% 50% 20%