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Advanced Networks

The The Advanced Networks research Group, led by Professor Marshall, is concerned with all related research into telecommunications and computer networks. The Group has a strong history of collaborative research with Industry, and has very close links with a number of major international companies including Nortel networks, BT, Philips, and Xilinx, through directly funded collaborative research and numerous student sponsorship programmes. It also actively participates in European collaborative projects (TEN-IBC, ACTS, Framework V, Framework VI). Current projects include novel network architectures for Quality of Service (QoS), programmable networks, Network Management and Network Processing, Adaptive Packet Scheduling, Denial-of-Service attack behaviour recognition in wireless networks, and programmable routing protocols for ad-hoc and sensor networks.

Within the Group, the Advanced Telecommunications Networks Laboratory serves as the main focus for research into all aspects of computer and telecommunications networks related research. The laboratory contains state-of-the-art facilities to allow research into fixed and wireless networks, network management systems; and distributed video/audio and video conferencing systems. This allows research into heterogeneous networks, and future fast packet switching technologies. The total cost of setting up this facility was over $2.8M, secured from Industrial, National and International research funding. Recently this capability has been extended though the addition of a Smart Spaces Facility.

The Group is also an active partner in the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), where it is involved in pioneering research into the transmission of reflected force over the Internet (distributed Haptics). It is currently leading a major European project (ENABLED) in the area of assistive technologies aimed at improving the accessibility of the Internet for blind and visually impaired. The project involves 14 partners throughout Europe including Siemens and BT Exact.

SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS

Established first Broadband test network in Ireland (ATM), 1993.
The first modelling tool to accurately characterize alarms and management of traffic in high-speed optical transmission networks, subsequent input to ITU-T Standards, 1996.
First public demonstration of agents as “Bandwidth Brokers” in communications networks; this attracted worldwide attention following demonstration by Fujitsu (sponsors) at the World Telecoms Congress in May 2000.
Novel handoff strategies to support Quality of Service (QoS) in 4th Generation wireless networks 2001.
Programmable Architectures for QoS in Wireless LANs, 2002.
World’s first long distance demonstration of transmission of haptic force over Internet (Belfast – Ipswich), 2003.
A configurable architecture for deploying QoS functions in Next Generation Routers and Switches, 2006.

Contact
Professor Alan Marshall
+44 (0) 28 9097 1789/4248
+44 (0) 28 9097 1702
email: A.Marshall@ee.qub.ac.uk

The Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT)
Queen’s University Belfast
NI Science Park
Queen’s Road
Queen’s Island
Belfast
BT3 9DT