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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/C004442/1
Title: PRISON: Performance and Resilience of IP-based Signalling for Optical Networks
Principal Investigator: Sventek, Professor J
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Dr O Komolafe
Project Partners:
Nokia Telefonica S.A
Department: School of Computing Science
Organisation: University of Glasgow
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 May 2005 Ends: 31 August 2007 Value (£): 209,099
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Networks & Distributed Systems Optical Communications
Optoelect. Devices & Circuits
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Communications
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Optical fibres possess physical characteristics that make them the preferred medium for carrying voice and data communications. In order to effectively use them for this purpose, network operators must operate another network, termed the signalling network, to control the optical fibre network.In the past, custom protocols were developed for the signalling networks - for example, the SS7 signalling network is used to control telephone calls, both for mobile and fixed telephony. With the rapid growth of the Internet, there is considerable interest to use the Internet, or private networks built using the same technology, as the signalling network for next generation optical networks. The specialized use of the Internet protocols for such signalling goes by the name of Generalized Multi-Protcol Label Switching (GMPLS).While there is a lot of interest in using GMPLS, the basic protocols from which it is constituted are not well characterized in terms of performance or resilience. For a network operator to deploy an optical network utilizing this signalling mechanism, the operator must be sure that it works well (it has good performance), and that it can survive failures in the hardware or the protocols (it is resilient). This project proposes a series of studies to characterize the performance and resilience of the protocols making up GMPLS, and will suggest, implement, and test changes to the protocols necessary to meet the performance and resilience requirements of network operators wishing to deploy GMPLS-based signalling networks.In the absence of a real network supporting these protocols, the project will use simulation and analytical modelling to characterize the protocols at a high level; this requires designing, testing, and analyzing accurate and tractable models of the GMPLS signalling protocols. Based upon the requirements that we obtain from network operators, we will then modify the protocols (if necessary), and simulate them to show that they meet these requirements. We will then implement the protocols in an optical network test-bed to validate the simulation and analytical studies on a live system.Finally, we will contribute our results to the appropriate organizations that define the GMPLS standard.
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Organisation Website: http://www.gla.ac.uk