PhD Project
Wireless Sensor Cloud Computing for Critical Infrastructure Management
University of Ulster
Vice Chancellor Research Scholarship in Collaboration with BT 2009/2010
Academic Supervisors: Dr Philip Morrow & Professor Gerard Parr
BT Advisor:- Dr Basim Majeed, BT, EBTIC-UAE
Post Location- Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK
Background
The following PhD project has been created under the auspices of the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC) of Excellence in Next Generation Networks Systems and Services (). During the lifetime of the project there may be opportunities to spend a period of time as part of a related internship at BT Adastral Park in Martlesham, UK. Further opportunities may exist to visit research partners in India (as part of IUATC initiative) and UAE (as part of BT’s EBTIC initiative, see ). The successful candidate should therefore be willing to travel and spend some time overseas as part of the research project. Arrangements for the internship/visits will be made by the supervisory team of the PhD project.
Project Specification and Aims
Wireless Sensors Networks can be deployed to assist in the monitoring function to detect and report faults and SLA-flapping as part of the Network Management Control Plane functions. Such WSNs can be integrated across major critical communications infrastructure to form a Wireless-Sensor Cloud that exchanges performance and component health status data in a virtualised environment. Such data can be fused with other utility asset management system data to allow a range of real-time data holistics to be performed in support of autonomic policies to ensure cost efficient and fault tolerant delivery of end-user services. Within this project there will be a key focus on the design of WS-Cloud architectures and light-weight middleware to provide for the on-demand and autonomic message passing protocols in support of data fusion techniques. Key design targets will provide for efficient real-time data transfer between ad-hoc-WSNs that form in the wireless access cloud and for fixed deployments that form part of the metro/core infrastructure. A key outcome of the research will be a unique architecture that can be scalable to large number of SNs with differing data capture and exchange/fusion protocols. Whilst the techniques designed will have direct application for critical communications infrastructure, it is hoped that aspects of the new design will have application and relevance to other utilities such as the distribution networks for gas, oil, water and power.
Applications Process & Candidate Eligibility
All applicants should hold a first or upper second class honours degree in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering or a cognate area. It is desirable that candidates will have a Masters degree in a subject related to Telecommunications Networking and have a good understanding of statistical/mathematical modelling and telecommunications protocols. Suitable candidates will preferably have an MSc in Telecommunications or a related area. Experience of Wireless Sensor Networking (WSN), distributed and parallel computing and real-time networks communications protocols would be desirable as will be skills on modeling, simulation and multi-modal data fusion and development languages such as Java and/or C++. Whilst this PhD Award is open to local and international candidates, in the context of the IU-ATC we would especially welcome applications from suitably qualified candidates from India. Successful candidates will enrol on a full-time programme of research studies leading to the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The studentship will comprise fees and an annual stipend of £12,940. It will be awarded for a period of up to three years subject to satisfactory progress and is tenable in the School of Computing and Information Engineering at the Coleraine Campus, Northern Ireland, UK. The closing date for receipt of completed applications is 28th February 2010
Further, it will be necessary for candidate to be eligible to an appropriate visa to the UK as defined by the UK Borders Agency:
For further information on the application process please visit our website: .
Please follow the guidance notes regarding the completion of the application form. Application materials are available from: Research Office,University of Ulster, Cromore Road, Coleraine, BT52 1SA,
t: +44 (0)28 7032 4729, e: hj.campbell@ulster.ac.uk, or at
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