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Networks and Systems Research Laboratory

Laboratory Coordinator: Professor Albert Zomaya

Website: http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~netsys

This group covers a range of areas relevant to the realisation of future information networks:

  • network layer aspects such as message delivery systems, multicast message delivery protocols, active networks;
  • architectural aspects for managing media of the future;
  • resource management, especially fairsharing approaches;
  • personalisation to provide user-adapted and user-aware systems involving aspects such as user modelling, scrutable user-adapted systems, customisation of multimedia based on user models and user model based agents for filtering;
  • intelligent, personalised teaching system, with particular concern for support of learner reflection and focused in two domains, the teaching aspects of computer science that are core to building internet technology and in teaching medicine, especially those aspects which will be well supported by a smart internet.
  • Wireless networks, access technologies, link layer technologies, traffic theory, planning and systems
  • Distributed computing, high performance computing, clusters and GRID computing
  • Bio-Informatics, advanced algorithms and methods for the solution of complex biological problems and the simulation of biological systems
  • Applied algorithms in the areas of networked and distributed computing
  • High-performance compiling
  • Complexity theory

These elements all play a role in a major project of the group which is based upon an architecture for managing media of the future. They also operate as a unified approach to teaching innovation, informed by research both in computer science education and innovative application of IT to education. The group has strong a track record of innovative deployed research.

Participating research groups

Computer Human Adapted Interaction Research Group (CHAI)

Advanced Networks Research Group

Middleware Research Group

Staff

Professor Albert Zomaya
Associate Professor Alan Fekete
Associate Professor Judy Kay
Associate Professor Bob Kummerfeld
Dr Michael Charleston, Senior Lecturer
Dr Irena Koprinska, Senior Lecturer
Dr Bjorn Landfeldt, CISCO Senior Lecturer
Dr Selvakennedy Selvadurai, Senior Lecturer
Dr Bing Bing Zhou, Senior Lecturer
Dr Josiah Poon, Lecturer
Dr. Bernhard Scholz, Lecturer
Dr. Tasos Viglas, Lecturer
Dr Kalina Yacef, Lecturer
Dr Jahan Hassan, Research Fellow
Dr Riky Subrata, Research Fellow
Dr Chen Wang, Research Fellow
Dr Bernd Burgstaller, Research Associate
Dr Javid Taheri, Research Associate
Dr Jeremy Sumner, Postdoctoral Fellow
Mr Bruce Janson, Programmer

Honorary Associates

Professor David Everitt
Dr Ian Gorton, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Dr Paul Greenfield
Dr Michael Hitchens, Macquarie University
Dr Ray Lister, UTS
Professor Gordon McCalla, University of Saskatchewan
Dr Eric McCreath, Australian National University
Dr Aaron Quigley University College, Dublin
Dr James Uther

Doctoral students

Mohammed Aal Salem
Nedal Ababneh
Ali Al Mazari
Khaled Almi'ani
Mohammad Al-omari
Bassam Alqaralleh
Trent Apted
Mark Assad
Michael Avery
Michael Cahill
David Carmichael
Derek Corbett
Daniel Cutting
Anthony Dang
Yan Annie Ding
Ali Elghirani
Chathura Gunathilake
Lang Hames
Joshua Ho
Adam Hudson
Mohsin Iftikhar
Sungsuk Jang
Young Choon Lee
Shan Wen Daren Ler
Tuo Liu
Joseph Lizier
Kai Lu
Andrew Lum
Omer Mahmood
Suparerk Manitpornsut
William Niu
Mahendrarajah Piraveenan
Kaushalya Premadasa
Weisheng Si
Abdur Sikder
Tejeshwar Singh
David Storey
David Symonds
Monther Tarawneh
Nihar Trivedi
Penghao Wang
Lei Wu
Dong Hoon Yoo
Tanveer Zia

Masters (research0 students

Gowri Bagavananthem Andavan
Anthony Collins
Lichao Li
Jun Pu
Stefan Schafer
Adam Ullman
Zhen Zhao

Honours students

Alexander Bolodurin
David Helstroom
Enoch Lau
Lucy Lee
Robert Little
Kim Nguyen
Kimberley Upton

Collaborators

Peter Chubb (Aurema)
Associate Professor Nicholas King, Pathology, Medicine, University of Sydney
Chris Maltby (Aurema)
Professor Gordon McCalla, University of Saskatchewan
Dr Eric McCreath (ANU)
Dr Agathe Merceron (University of Paris 7 (Jussieu), France)
Dr Cecile Paris, Research Leader, CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences
Professor Richard Thomas, University of Western Australia, Australia

Institutions
George Washington University (USA) Carnegie Mellon University
(USA) University of Missouri-Rolla (USA), Old Dominion University (USA),
University of Texas at Arlington (USA), Ottawa University (Canada), Polish
Academy of Sciences, University of Malaga (Spain), University of Lille
(France), Royal Institute of Stockholm (Sweden), Uppsala University (Sweden)
Oxford University (UK), University of Glasgow (UK), Hiroshima University (Japan),
JAIST (Japan), and several others.

Industry
CISCO Systems
IBM
INTEL
ERICSSON
NICTA
SUN Microsystems
United Devices

The lab is also in receipt of extensive infrastructure support (e.g. gigabit network connectivity) and funding from CSIRO's CENTIE project, GrangeNet, Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications (AC3), the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC), and DSTO.

Current funding

  • "Mobile Device Auto-configuration" ARC Discovery grant (Landfeldt) $165,000 (2004-2006).
  • "High-Capacity Parallel Frequency Enabled MAC Layer for Energy Efficient High Speed Wireless Communication" SESQUI research grant (Landfeldt) $20,000 (2005)
  • "Dynamic Load Balancing for Systems under Heavy Traffic Demand and High Task Size Variation” ARC Discovery grant (Zomaya, Tari (RMIT), Schroder (RMIT))) for $161,000 (2003-2005).
  • "Designing a Scalable and Robust Infrastructure for Highly Dynamic Web Services" ARC Linkage grant (Zomaya, Tari (RMIT), Appelbe (RMIT)) $251,771 (2003-2005).
  • "C-4" ARC Linkage grant (Landfelt, Seneviratne (UNSW)) $295,000 (2003-2005).
  • "Data Grids" CISCO funded (Zomaya, Landfelt) $90,000 (2003-2005).
  • "Networking Infrastructure for Intelligent Environment" SITCRC grant (Landfeldt, Everitt, Jha (UNSW)) $153,000 (2004).
  • "Nightingale", NICTA/SITCRC grant, (Quigley, Zomaya, Everitt, Kay, Landfeldt) $303,100 (2004).
  • "Minimising cellular location management costs using a mathematical approach" Sesqui New Staff Support Scheme (Landfeldt) $15,000, 2004.
  • "Phylogenetic analysis using high-performance parallel computer systems" Sesqui New Staff Support Scheme (Zhou) $15,000, 2004.
  • "User controlled personalisation in a system for tutoring logic" Sesqui R&D Scheme (Kay) $20,000, 2004.
  • "Probabilitic scheduiling algorithms for parallel task execution" Sesqui R&D Scheme (Zomaya) $20,000, 2004
  • "Storage Area Network" Sesqui Major Equipment Scheme (Zomaya) $50,000, 2004
  • "A class-based access scheme to enable end-to-end QoS provision for multimedia traffic in wireless networks" Sesqui New Staff Support Scheme (Selvadurai) $13,000, 2004.
  • "Smart Internet Technology Collaborative Research Centre'', Core University Partners: Australian National University, University of Sydney, University of NSW, Wollongong University. Core Industry Partners: Adacel, Hewlett-Packhard, Motorola, Telstra. $120,000,000, 2001-2008

Past funding

  • "Modeling Network Behaviour By Using Partial Information" DSTO funded (Zomaya) $11,000 (2003).
  • "Session-based Integrated Flow Management for the Internet" School of IT small project grant (Landfeldt) $6,250 (2003).
  • "C-4", Ericsson funded (Landfelt, Seneviratne (UNSW)) $400,000 (2001-2003).
  • "Building the Internet Workforce" Science Lectureships Initiative, Greenhouse Software Systems Research Group, Monash University, University of Queensland, $3,000,000, 2000-2003.
  • "University of Sydney Sesqui Grant" (McCreath, Kay), $20,000, 2001.
  • "University of Sydney Sesqui Grant" (Yacef), $19,000, 2001.
  • "Establishment of a mentor programme" Teaching Improvement Grant, $10,000, 2001.
  • "Distributed Process Scheduling for a Single Image Multicomputer'', ARC SPIRT/APAI $60,000, 1999-2001.
  • "Scrutable User Model Based Filter Agents" ARC Institutional Grant', (Kay), $11,000, 1999.
  • "Enhancing students' Problem-Directed Learning Using Intranets" National Teaching and Development Grant (Kay, Ann Sefton (Medicine), Simon Carlile (Medicine), Tony Koppi (NeTTL)), $148,508, 1998-1999.