Bio

I am a first-year PhD student advised by Prof. Vamsi Addanki. My research revolves around photonic interconnects for data center networks. My interests lie broadly in systems design, hardware design, and computer networking. I am particularly interested in the intersection of networking systems and hardware architectures, and in building high-performance interconnects that enable efficient communication between compute, memory, and accelerator resources in large-scale data centers.

Previous publications

Networking ’25
LoRa++: Mixed Up-Down CSS Modulation for Enhanced Scalability and Data Rate in LPWANs
Shrutkirthi S. Godkhindi, Deeksha P. Rao, R. Venkatesha Prasad, and T. V. Prabhakar.
IFIP Networking Conference (IFIP Networking) and Workshops, Limassol, Cyprus, 2025.
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LoRa has been widely used for various Internet of Things (IoT) applications because of its simplicity & ease of deployment. However, LoRa suffers from low data rates and higher collisions. We propose & implement a mixed index modulation scheme LoRa++ that carries two additional bits per symbol in each of the supported spreading factors. We do this by introducing UpDown and DownUp chirps to augment the existing Up and Down chirps. Modulation and demodulation are non-trivial, but we can easily incorporate them within the existing LoRa nodes and gateways. Our results show that SNR requirements for LoRa++ demodulation are within the 1-2 dB range from conventional LoRa. Moreover, LoRa++ performs equally well for inter-SF interference. Our simulation results show that LoRa++ can accommodate more nodes due to the reduced time on air. Finally, we show that our hardware implementation on USRP is simple, and the results validate the performance of LoRa++. The performance of the new scheme in terms of BER is on par with that of conventional LoRa.
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```
@inproceedings{Godkhindi2025LoRaMU,
  title = {LoRa++: Mixed Up-Down CSS Modulation for Enhanced Scalability and Data Rate in LPWANs},
  author = {Godkhindi, Shrutkirthi S. and Rao, Deeksha P. and Prasad, R. Venkatesha and Prabhakar, T. V.},
  booktitle = {IFIP Networking Conference (IFIP Networking) and Workshops},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://networking.ifip.org/2025/images/Net25_papers/1571127065.pdf}
}
```
Ad Hoc ’24
Dy-MAC: Implementation of dynamic MAC stack for IEEE 802.15.4e-TSCH
Deeksha P. Rao, Shrutkirthi S. Godkhindi, Abhigna V. Kumar, and T.V. Prabhakar.
Ad Hoc Networks, 2024.
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This paper presents the lessons learnt in the implementation of IEEE 802.15.4e-Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol on commercially available hardware. Our MAC Application programming Interface (API) called the Dy-MAC is agnostic to the PHY layer and is coded on a ARM cortex M4. MAC functions such as TDMA, FDMA, frame counter, channel access, synchronization and PAN formation are abstracted as part of this API. Dy-MAC is demonstrated for 2.4GHz with O-QPSK modulation and 868MHz with SUN FSK modulation. Furthermore, the API supports star, mesh and tree network to provide flexible topologies in factory environment. Our experiments show that for a 76 byte payload, the TSCH Dy-MAC provides ∼ 99% packet delivery ratio (PDR) for 26ms timeslot with SUN FSK PHY and ∼ 97% PDR for 10ms timeslot with O-QPSK PHY. To maintain synchronization over the entire network, we implemented algorithms to successfully communicate between fast and slow nodes. Resilience to interference and range with packet delivery ratio is evaluated. We consolidate our implementation in terms of 10 lessons that were learnt in building the Dy-MAC protocol.
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```
@article{RAO2024103268,
  title = {Dy-MAC: Implementation of dynamic MAC stack for IEEE 802.15.4e-TSCH},
  journal = {Ad Hoc Networks},
  volume = {152},
  pages = {103268},
  year = {2024},
  issn = {1570-8705},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2023.103268},
  url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570870523001889},
  author = {Rao, Deeksha P. and Godkhindi, Shrutkirthi S. and Kumar, Abhigna V. and Prabhakar, T.V.},
  keywords = {Frequency hopping, IEEE 802.15.4e, IIoT, TSCH, Time-synchronization, Channel hopping, Node re-joining, SPI, Information element (IE), Finite state machine (FSM), API}
}
```
Comsnets ’23
Lessons Learnt From the Implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4e-TSCH MAC
Ipsita Sanyal, Deeksha P Rao, Rakshana Gunasekaran, Sachin SM, and T V Prabhakar.
2023 15th International Conference on COMmunication Systems & NETworkS (COMSNETS), 2023.
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In this work, we implement the IEEE 802.15.4e-Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol software stack on standard hardware. An Application Programming Interfaces (API) support and ready to deploy star network is built and tested. The interfacing between micro-controller and radio uses the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus. Our implementation reveals that over 50% of the time overhead is SPI communication. To maintain synchronisation over the entire network, we implemented algorithms to successfully communicate between fast and slow nodes. Resilience to interference and packet error ratio is evaluated. We consolidate our implementation in terms of 6 lessons that were learnt in building the MAC protocol.
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```
@inproceedings{10041267,
  author = {Sanyal, Ipsita and Rao, Deeksha P and Gunasekaran, Rakshana and SM, Sachin and Prabhakar, T V},
  booktitle = {2023 15th International Conference on COMmunication Systems & NETworkS (COMSNETS)},
  title = {Lessons Learnt From the Implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4e-TSCH MAC},
  year = {2023},
  volume = {},
  number = {},
  pages = {658-666},
  keywords = {IEEE 802.15 Standard;Stars;Spread spectrum communication;Interference;Media Access Protocol;Hardware;Synchronization;Frequency hopping;IEEE 802.15.4e;IIoT;Time synchronization;TSCH;SPI;Information Element (IE)},
  doi = {10.1109/COMSNETS56262.2023.10041267},
  issn = {2155-2509}
}
```
NKCon ’22
Implementation of Physical Layer Encryption For Wireless Communication System
Bhargava V Desai, Yadunand G Kamath, Deeksha P Rao, Anusha S, and Sanjay M Belgaonkar.
2022 IEEE North Karnataka Subsection Flagship International Conference (NKCon), 2022.
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The Adoption of Wireless Communication Systems has massively impacted everyday lives of the people. Securing privacy is an important aspect to consider in wireless communication systems due to their broadcast nature. The data transferred between two parties need to be protected by a process of encryption, which helps maintain its privacy. Encryption is usually only applied to the upper layers of the OSI model, which may be sufficient to protect the actual contents of the message. However, the Physical Layer (PHY) signal remains unprotected and consequently exposes critical information such as data rates, channel type, channel bandwidth, modulation, number of physical channels and traffic statistics, which can be used to deduce the channel capacity, transmission equipment and importance of the message. This issue can be mended by performing Physical Layer Encryption (PLE) to provide an additional layer of security. In this paper, a comparative analysis of different PLE techniques is provided along with their simulations. Additionally, these PLE techniques are also implemented in the wireless communication systems on the GNU Radio platform, and suitable output waveforms are illustrated with details.
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```
@inproceedings{10126923,
  author = {Desai, Bhargava V and Kamath, Yadunand G and Rao, Deeksha P and S, Anusha and Belgaonkar, Sanjay M},
  booktitle = {2022 IEEE North Karnataka Subsection Flagship International Conference (NKCon)},
  title = {Implementation of Physical Layer Encryption For Wireless Communication System},
  year = {2022},
  volume = {},
  number = {},
  pages = {1-7},
  keywords = {Wireless communication;Privacy;Data privacy;Channel capacity;Modulation;Bandwidth;Physical layer;Wireless Communication;Communication System Security;Physical Layer Encryption (PLE)},
  doi = {10.1109/NKCon56289.2022.10126923},
  issn = {}
}
```