My general research interests are cross-layer design and resource allocation in wireless communication networks.

  During my M.S. studies, I worked on "opportunistic scheduling" schemes which exploit multiuser diversity for the newly developed Wireless LAN standard IEEE 802.11n. Scheduling decisions were made according to both channel conditions and queue states.

  In my Ph.D. studies, I have been generally working for resource allocation for various cooperative relaying network scenarios. I have studied network information theoretic concepts with the effect of stochastic arrival of input data. In particular, I have focused on stability regions for two-way relay networks with network coding or multiple cooperating relays & analyzed the effects of deploying queues at relay(s) for scenatios with static or time-varying channel states. Also, I have focused on developing centralized & decentralized(with limited system state information) rate allocation with algorithms trading of costs(i.e. energy) with delay for bidirectional relay networks, along with lossy compression for distortion-sensitive stochastic traffic. Recently, I have been focusing on Quality-of-Information(QoI)-aware networking, with the aim of characterizing maximum utility of information provided by networks and associated transmission schemes, based on new information assessment metrics (i.e. QoI) for various multiuser settings.

Publications

• Scott T. Rager, Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, Aylin Yener, Thomas F. La Porta, and Michael J. Neely, "Distributed Backpressure Protocols with Limited State Feedback", to appear in IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM) 2011, Baltimore, MD, November 2011.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu and Aylin Yener, "Quality-of-Information Aware Transmission Policies with Time-Varying Links", to appear in IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM) 2011, Baltimore, MD, November 2011.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, Aylin Yener, Ramesh Govindan, and Konstantinos Psounis, "Operational Information Content Sum Capacity: Formulation and Examples", in Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Fusion, Fusion'11, Chicago, IL, July 2011.

• Rahul Urgaonkar, Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, Aylin Yener, and Michael J. Neely, “Quality of Information Aware Scheduling in Task Processing Networks”, in Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Resource Allocation and Cooperation in Wireless Networks (RAWNET), in conjunction with IEEE WiOpt 2011, Princeton, NJ, May 2011.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, Aylin Yener, and Randall A. Berry, "Stability Regions of Cooperative Bidirectional Relaying", submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, Yalin E. Sagduyu, Randall A. Berry, and Aylin Yener, "Cost-Delay Tradeoffs for Two-Way Relay Networks", accepted for publication at IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, Yalin E. Sagduyu, Aylin Yener, and Randall A. Berry, "Queue Based Compression in a Two-Way Relay Network", in Proceedings of the Conference on Information Sciences and Systems, CISS'10, Princeton, NJ, March 2010.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, Yalin E. Sagduyu, Randall A. Berry, and Aylin Yener, "Cost Sharing with Network Coding in Two-Way Relay Networks", in Proceedings of the Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, Monticello, IL, September 2009.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu and Ozgur Gurbuz, "Scheduling for Next Generation WLANs: Filling the Gap between Offered and Observed Data Rates", Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (WCMC) Special Issue: Wireless Mesh and Other Emerging Wireless Technologies, June 2009, DOI: 10.1002/wcm.808.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, Aylin Yener, and Randall A. Berry "Stability Regions for Two-Way Relaying with Network Coding", invited paper, in Proceedings of the Wireless Internet Conference, WICON'08, Maui, HI, Nov. 2008.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu and Ozgur Gurbuz, "Opportunistic scheduling for next generation wireless local area networks", Advances in greedy algorithms, Bednorz, Witold (ed.), Vienna, Austria: In-Tech , November 2008, 387-410.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, Aylin Yener, and Randall Berry "Stability of Bi-Directional Cooperative Relay Networks", in Proceedings of the Information Theory Workshop, ITW'08, Porto, May 2008.

• Ozgur Ercetin, Ozgur Gurbuz, Kerem Bulbul, Aylin Aksu, and Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu, "A Practical Routing and MAC Framework for Maximum Lifetime Sensor Telemetry" IEICE Transactions on Communications, E90-B(11) 3146-3157, November 2007.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu and Ozgur Gurbuz "Access Scheduling Based on Time Waterfilling for Next Generation Wireless LANs" in Proceedings of the Vehicular Technology Conference VTC Spring'07, Dublin, April 2007.

• Ertugrul N. Ciftcioglu and Ozgur Gurbuz "Opportunistic Scheduling with Frame Aggregation for Next Generation Wireless LANs", in Proceedings of the International Conference on Communications, ICC'06, Istanbul, June 2006.