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Research themes

Networked & Distributed systems

Introduction

Lancaster is recognised as a leading player internationally in communications and distributed systems. We currently have 65 researchers working in these areas including academics, visiting professors, and researchers, making us one of the largest centres in the area world-wide. Another great strength is the broad coverage of the research from underlying networking technologies through middleware to work with advanced distributed applications. As evidence of our recognition, the International Review of UK Research in Computer Science cites Lancaster University as one of only a handful of sites undertaking "leading edge systems research", and also notes their "leadership in the area of middleware".

Working with industry

This work has attracted strong support from industry, with direct funding from BT Labs, Microsoft, Orange, Cisco, HP Labs, France Télécom, Lucent, Intel, Agilent Labs, Telekom Austria and ETRI (S. Korea). We are central participants in EU/IST funded research projects, including the FP6 E-NEXT Network of Excellence in Emerging Network Technologies and Experiments, and we have several currently-running R&D projects funded by the UK Engineering and Science Research Council (EPSRC).

Next generation networking

We have a long track record of cutting edge research in the general area of networking and protocol architecture, e.g. groundbreaking work on quality of service (QoS) architecture.

One of our most prominent activities in this area is the Mobile IPv6 Systems Research Lab (MSRL), a research collaboration between Cisco Systems, Microsoft Research, Orange and ourselves involving the deployment of an operational Mobile IPv6 network environment supporting real user communities throughout the campus, the city and the surrounding area, and also featuring a range of novel applications. Based on this work, the Department has received a prestigious Microsoft Windows Embedded Academic Excellence Award for invaluable development contributions to the Windows CE .NET platform.

We are also strongly active in overlay networks, e.g. as a support service for multimedia distribution. In this context, we are interested in self-organising and resilient content distribution infrastructures (CDIs). This work builds on our ongoing research on application-level multicasting and efficient neighbour discovery in large-scale groups.

Other key themes in the networking research area include programmable networks, autonomic network systems management, group communications and resource reservation.

Next generation middleware

We have considerable strengths in middleware research and have many years of experience in this field having contributed significantly to key developments such as the emergence of distributed object technology (e.g. CORBA) and, more recently, component-based services (.NET, EJB, etc). We are particularly recognised for our work on advanced solutions that go well beyond commercial technologies-viz. our work on augmenting middleware platforms with support for multimedia, real-time, asynchronous mobile communication, and peer-to-peer communication for ad-hoc environments.

Most recently, we have pioneered reflective middleware as a principled means of supporting both customisation and dynamic re-configuration of middleware platforms and associated services. To complement the use of reflection, we also investigate the use of systems-level component technologies, and the associated concept of component frameworks, in the construction of our open middleware solutions. (Whereas the use of such techniques is commonplace at the application or service level, we also advocate the use of these technologies in the construction of middleware itself, with reflective mechanisms providing introspection and adaptation facilities building on this underlying structure.) We also have a strong interest in self-managing (autonomic) applications and services that can usefully exploit the underlying openness of our middleware solutions. Finally, we are investigating the use of reflective component-based middleware in mobile computing, in the construction of programmable networks, and also for advanced Web Services and Grid-based platforms.

Combining our strengths

In our ongoing research agenda, we are also very interested in cross-over areas where next generation middleware and next generation networking meet. We have recently been awarded an EPSRC Platform Grant to explore this strategic direction, under which we intend to investigate the following themes: i) applying our reflective middleware philosophy more generally to networking layers, including the construction of overlay networks, and ii) investigating self-healing at all levels of a modern distributed architecture, including applications and services, middleware, and underlying network support. These are areas that can contribute in the longer-term to the success of initiatives such as the next generation Internet and also the Grid and e-Science.

Our platform grant application was extremely well received by the three peer reviewers, attracting comments such as: "on the short list of internationally outstanding research groups in communications and distributed systems", "the only other UK team that is in the same league is Cambridge", "in the top 3 in Europe and top 10 in the world in their area" and "the entire area of reflective middleware was essentially invented by members of the group and has now achieved considerable following worldwide". As well as the platform grant, we have recently been awarded a grant under the strongly competitive Call for Fundamental Computer Science for e-Science. This work, which is in collaboration with Oxford Brookes University, is investigating the concept of open and programmable overlay networks for the Grid.