PHD student position in Communication Networks

The Computer Networks group at the department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Luleå University of Technology opens a position for one PhD student in the domain:

Resource allocation and management in autonomous heterogeneous wireless networks
The problem of providing good quality of communications for real-time multimedia applications has appeared in the context of the Internet in the early nineties. Many architectural solutions and optimization methods on protocols level exist and several of them are currently widely accepted standards. Nowadays, with the appearance and rapid progress of wireless access technologies the task of providing real time applications with necessary quality of service enters again the active research arena with new challenges that need to be addressed. One of the major challenges comes from the fact that the current Internet architecture does not take care of quality of resource allocation and management in a sufficiently automated manner. In particular, tuning such parameters as session signaling delay, delay jitter, etc. is currently technology specific and is done mainly manually. Taking into account the rapid growth of heterogeneous wireless communication technologies such manual tuning would result in extremely complex resource management procedures. Moreover the specifics of wireless networks such as dynamic changes in the quality of communication channel makes it virtually impossible to adjust the QoS parameters manually once and forever for all possible cases.

The work in this research topic aims at introducing a QoS architecture with a self-aware and self-configuring resource management mechanism for multimedia applications. A self-aware QoS system has detailed knowledge of its components, current status, available capacity, and connections to other systems. Self-configuration is an ability of a system to automatically (re-) configure its parameters and settings based on the condition changes in the operating communication environment. Providing QoS architecture enriched with semantics and self-* features will reduce the overall system complexity, lower session signaling delays, allow proactive behavior, and improve the utilization of network resources.

A successful candidate should have a MSc in Telecommunications or equivalent, be proficient in at least two mainstream programming languages (i.e. C/C++, TCL, Matlab), demonstrate fast adaptation to new programming paradigms and environments. A successful candidate should demonstrate high analytical skills and ability for independent research work. Master level knowledge of networking is a must. Previous experience of research work on a PhD level, publications on international conferences, experience of scientific project management is considered as a definite plus.


Closing Date: March 15, 2008