—Engineers think that equations are an approximation of reality. Physicists think reality is an approximation of the equations. Mathematicians never make the connection.—

Pan Li received the B.E. degree in electrical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in June 2005, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, in August 2009, respectively. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University.

—For every difficult and complicated question there is an answer that is simple, easily understood, and wrong.—

My primary research interests are capacity and connectivity analysis, medium access control, routing algorithms, and cross-layer protocol design in wireless networks with emphasis on wireless mobile ad hoc networks, wireless sensor networks, vehicular ad hoc networks, wireless mesh networks, and heterogeneous wired/wireless networks.

I am always looking for highly self-motivated Ph.D. students who are strongly committed to research. Click here for details.

—We need to spend less time reading research, and a bit more time thinking about what we are reading. —

1. Pan Li and Yuguang Fang, “Impacts of Topology and Traffic Pattern on Capacity of Hybrid Wireless Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, Vol. 8, No. 12, pp. 1585-1595, December 2009.
2. Pan Li, Nicola Scalabrino, Yuguang Fang, Enrico Gregori, and Imrich Chlamtac, “How to Effectively Use Multiple Channels in Wireless Mesh Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Vol. 20, No. 11, pp. 1641-1652, November 2009. (Feature Article of the November Issue)
3. Xiaoyan Zhu, Pan Li, Yuguang Fang, and Yumin Wang, “Throughput and Delay in Cooperative Wireless Networks With Partial Infrastructure,” IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 58, No. 8, pp. 4620-4627, October 2009.
4. Pan Li, Chi Zhang and Yuguang Fang, “Asymptotic Connectivity in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Using Directional Antenna,” IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 1106-1117, August 2009.
5. Pan Li, Hongqiang Zhai, and Yuguang Fang, “SDMAC: Selectively Directional MAC Protocol for Wireless Mobile Ad Hoc Networks,” ACM Wireless Networks, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 805-820, August 2009.
6. Qiang Shen, Xuming Fang, Rongsheng Huang, Pan Li, and Yuguang Fang, “Improving throughput by tuning carrier sensing in 802.11 wireless networks,” Computer Communications, Vol. 32, No. 11, pp. 1263-1270, July 2009.
7. Qiang Shen, Xuming Fang, Pan Li and Yuguang Fang, “Admission Control Based on Available Bandwidth Estimation for Wireless Mesh Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 58, No. 5, pp. 2519-2528, June 2009.
8. Pan Li, Qiang Shen, Yuguang Fang and Hailin Zhang, “Power Controlled Network Protocols for Multi-rate Ad Hoc Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, Vol.8, No.4, pp. 2142-2149, April 2009.
9. Pan Li, Chi Zhang and Yuguang Fang, “Capacity and Delay of Hybrid Wireless Broadband Access Networks,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC) — Special issue on Broadband Access Networks: Architectures and Protocols, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 117-125, February 2009.
10. Pan Li, Xiaojun Geng and Yuguang Fang, “An Adaptive Power Controlled MAC Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 226-233, January 2009.
11. Jianfeng Wang, Hongqiang Zhai, Pan Li, Yuguang Fang and Dapeng Wu, “Directional Medium Access Control for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks,” ACM Wireless Networks, February 12, 2008.
12. Pan Li, Xiaoxia Huang, Yuguang Fang, and Phone Lin, “Optimal Placement of Gateways in Vehicular Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 56, No. 6, pp. 3421-3430, November 2007.

1. Pan Li and Yuguang Fang, “The Capacity of Heterogeneous Wireless Networks,” IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM’10), San Diego, CA, March 15-19, 2010.
2. Pan Li, Yuguang Fang, and Jie Li, “Throughput, Delay, and Mobility in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks,” IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM’10), San Diego, CA, March 15-19, 2010.
3. Hao Wen, Jia Liu, Chuang Lin, Fengyuan Ren, Pan Li, Yuguang Fang, “RENA: Region-based Routing in Intermittently Connected Mobile Network,” ACM International Conference on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems (MSWiM’09), Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, October 26-30, 2009. (A Best Paper Award Candidate)
4. Pan Li and Yuguang Fang, “Saturation Throughput of IEEE 802.11 DCF in Multi-hop Ad Hoc Networks,” IEEE Military Communications Conference (Milcom’08), San Diego, CA, November 17-19, 2008.
5. Chi Zhang, Pan Li, and Yuguang Fang, “Decentralized Routing in Nonhomogeneous Poisson Networks,” IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS’08), Beijing, China, June 17-20, 2008.
6. Qiang Shen, Xuming Fang, Rongsheng Huang, Pan Li and Yuguang Fang, “Leveraging Spatial Reuse with Adaptive Carrier Sensing in 802.11 Wireless Networks,” the Fifth International ICST Conference on Heterogeneous Networking for Quality, Reliability, Security and Robustness (QShine’08), HongKong, China, July 28-31, 2008.
7. Qiang Shen, Xuming Fang, Pan Li and Yuguang Fang, “Admission Control for Providing QoS in Wireless Mesh Networks,” IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC’08), Beijing, China, May 19-23, 2008.
8. Pan Li, Nicola Scalabrino, Yuguang Fang, E. Gregori, and Imrich Chlamtac, “Channel Interference in IEEE 802.11b Systems,” IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM’07), Washington, D.C., November 26-30, 2007.
9. Roberto Riggio, Francesco De Pellegrini, Nicola Scalabrino, Pan Li, Yuguang Fang, and Imrich Chlamtac, “Performance of a Novel Adaptive Traffic Aggregation Scheme for Wireless Mesh Networks,” IEEE Military Communications Conference (Milcom’07), Orlando, FL, October 29-31, 2007.
10. Pan Li, Chi Zhang, and Yuguang Fang, “Asymptotic Connectivity in Wireless Networks Using Directional Antennas,” IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS’07), Toronto, Canada, June 25-29, 2007.
11. Pan Li, Hongqiang Zhai, and Yuguang Fang, “A Directional MAC Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks,” IEEE Military Communications Conference (Milcom’06), Washington, D.C., October 23-25, 2006.

—Imagination is more important than knowledge.—

• ECE 4813/6813: Communication Theory, Spring'10
• ECE 3443: Signals and Systems, Fall’09
• Senior Design Project: Aerospace Data Communication Instrument, 2009-2010 (Team members: Brandon Hoda, Reggie Roby, Alan Pritchard; Advisor: Dr. Pan Li)

• Technical Program Committee member for: INFOCOM'10, ICC'10, NAS'10
• Member of IEEE, ACM, ASEE

• Systems and Methods for An Adaptive Power Controlled MAC Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks (Provisional Patent Application No.: 61/019,353)