Getting up to speed with satellite broadband

These projects are open to students worldwide, but have no funding attached. Therefore, the successful applicant will be expected to fund tuition fees at the relevant level (home or international) and any applicable additional research costs. Please consider this before applying. 

The TCP performance over satellite communications has become a well-known problem, following significant experimentation with Internet services over satellite the concept of a Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP) is now widely used in current satellite systems, where a native end-to-end TCP connection is now commonly split into a series of multiple connection. This allows a tailored TCP stack to be deployed on the satellite link (i.e., between the satellite terminals and gateways to be optimised). 

Since 2000, there has been an industry effort to evolve the protocol stack for Internet web services, with several updates to the protocols for HTTP-based service, culminating in the latest QUIC protocol. QUIC uses a UDP substrate with encrypted datagram connections. Congestion control is directly implemented within the QUIC protocol. This intrinsically prevents using a classical PEP to optimise performance over satellite. Given the growing use of satellite Internet (GEO and LEO) there is therefore a need to propose new solutions for QUIC congestion control to accelerate QUIC performance when using satellite systems.

This PhD project will work with congestion control experts to propose new approaches for QUIC CC mechanisms and understand the implications of deploying the new approaches as a part of a secure end-to-end architecture. The project will proceed in parallel with research in the School of Engineering into transport protocol performance funded by the European Space Agency and is expected to result in a novel algorithm that can be validated using real satellite trials to evaluate the effectiveness of the new solution.

Essential Background:

Decisions will be based on academic merit. The successful applicant should have, or expect to obtain, a UK Honours Degree at 2.1 (or equivalent) in Engineering with experience of network programming and good experience using github / C / C++.

Desirable knowledge:.

Masters degree in Internet Engineering/Software Engineering is desired

Application Procedure:

Formal applications can be completed online: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/pgap/login.php.

You should apply for Engineering (PhD) to ensure your application is passed to the correct team for processing.

Please clearly note the name of the lead supervisor and project title on the application form. If you do not include these details, it may not be considered for the studentship.

Your application must include: A personal statement, an up-to-date copy of your academic CV, and clear copies of your educational certificates and transcripts.

Please note: you DO NOT need to provide a research proposal with this application.

If you require any additional assistance in submitting your application or have any queries about the application process, please don't hesitate to contact us at pgrs-admissions@abdn.ac.uk