PhD Studentship in Programmable Network Systems: understanding how programmability can impact the design of networks as well as their services.

Applications are invited for a full PhD Studentship starting in January 2019 to undertake research in the area of Programmable Network Systems. The studentship will include both theoretical and applied research in the Networks Research Group at Queen Mary University of London, a leading European research group that counts top publications in the networking field, e.g., ACM SIGCOMM, IEEE JSAC.
Programmable network systems are increasingly adopted in operational networks. The advent of Software Defined Networking (SDN), the rise of programmable data planes (P4 capable devices) and the presence of smartNICs in datacentres have opened new possibilities for the design of networks. Specifically, SDN has provided the ability to innovate in the network control plane, data plane programmability to push more intelligence in the network forwarding devices and smartNICs to improve end-host scalability by delegating some of its function in the network interface card. The objective of the PhD project is to understand how programmability can impact the design of networks as well as their services. Specifically, the PhD project will apply these techniques to problems in the area of datacentre networking, including but not restricted to, monitoring and traffic engineering.
The student will be based in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk) at Queen Mary University of London, and will be a member of the Networks research group (http://networks.eecs.qmul.ac.uk).

Candidates should have a first-class honours degree or equivalent, or a good MSc Degree, in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics or Mathematics. Candidates must have a good knowledge of network protocols and networking.

Informal enquiries can be made by email to Dr Gianni Antichi ([Email Address Removed]).

This studentship is available to candidates of all nationalities. It is funded by Queen Mary University of London for 3 years will cover student fees and a tax-free stipend starting at £16,777 per annum.

To apply, please follow the online process https://www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/howtoapply/
by selecting ‘Electronic Engineering’ in the ‘A-Z list of research opportunities’ and following the instructions on the right-hand side of the web page.

Please note we request a ‘Statement of Research Interests’. Your statement should answer three questions: (i) Why are you interested in the topic? (ii) What relevant experience do you have? and (iii) a research proposal. Your statement should be brief: no more than 750 words or one side of A4 paper. In addition we would also like you to send a sample of your written work. This might be a chapter of your final year dissertation, or a published conference or journal paper. More details can be found at: www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/phd/apply.php

The closing date for the applications is 30 November 2018.
Interviews are expected to take place during the week of 01 December 2018.