GEYSERS

The INTEC Broadband Communication Networks research group is a leading telecommunications and software research group based in Ghent, Belgium, as part of the Dept. of Information Technology (INTEC) of Ghent University (UGent). IBCN is also a research group of IBBT, the Interdisciplinary institute for BroadBand Technology, an internationally recognized multidisciplinary ICT research centre (on technological, legal, business and sociological aspects). IBBT enables accelerated development and exploitation of new ICT products and services in strategic sectors in Flanders. IBCN, established in 1992, today counts about 115 members (incl.10 professors, 15 post-docs). IBCN is frequently partnering with local ICT industry, also as part of national and Flemish programs. IBCN is largely responsible for education in networking and software engineering in the Faculty of Engineering of UGent.

Relevant expertise / know-how
IBBT/IBCN has a long standing expertise exposed in many EU Research Projects in the ACTS- and IST-framework, and as such participates in several IST FP6 and FP7 projects (e.g. PHOSPHORUS, BONE). Its experience in networking – including optical networking, (distributed) software-architectures, network and service management – is reflected in its research output comprising so far about 40 PhDs and over 550 publications in international journals and conferences. Hence, IBBT/IBCN also is quite experienced in dissemination actions (cf. publications), including conference and workshop organisations (most recently: organising ECOC 2009 and workshops at CCGrid 2008, OFC 2009, GridNets 2009).

Role in the project
IBBT will make a major contribution to GEYSERS by developing a simulation framework (building on existing tools, e.g. NSGrid) and performing performance studies of the GEYSERS architecture in WP2. Part of these studies will involve emulation on the Virtual Wall emulation environment that is part of its iLab.t test lab infrastructure. The latter will also be used in WP5 for validation. Building on its experience e.g. service-oriented architectures, infrastructure abstraction and resource partitioning, IBBT will also contribute to the logical infrastructure and interfaces definition in WP3. Its expertise on multi-layer (optical) networking and associated control planes, as well as energy-efficiency will be exploited in WP4.

CVs of key persons

Chris Develder received the M.Sc. degree in computer science engineering and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium), in July 1999 and December 2003 respectively. From October 1999 on, he has been working in the Department of Information Technology (INTEC), at the same university, as a Researcher for the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO), in the field of network design and planning, mainly focusing on optical packet switched networks. In January 2004, he left University to join OPNET Technologies, working on transport network design and planning. In September 2005, he re-joined INTEC at Ghent University as a post-doctoral researcher, and as a post-doctoral fellow of the FWO since October 2006. In October 2007 he obtained a part-time professor position at Ghent University, and since February 2010 a fulltime associate professorship. He was and is involved in multiple national and European research projects (IST Lion, IST David, IST Stolas, IST Phosphorus, IST E-Photon One, BONE, IST Alpha, IST Geysers). His research interests include dimensioning, modeling and optimizing optical (Grid) networks and their control and management, as well as multimedia and home network software and technologies.

Marc De Leenheer received the M.Sc. degree and PhD in Computer Science Engineering from Ghent University, Belgium, in June 2003, and Dec 2008 respectively. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO - Vlaanderen) at the same institution. His main interests include modeling and optimization of Grid management architectures, multi-granular optical networking, and virtualization techniques for photonic networks. He was involved in multiple national and European research projects (IST Phosphorus, IST E-Photon/ONe+, IST BONE). He is author or co-author of over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals or international conference proceedings.

Jens Buysse received the M. Sc. degree in computer science engineering from Ghent University (Ghent Belgium) in July 2007. From September 2008 he has been working in the Department of Information Technology (INTEC/IBCN), at the same university, as a researcher funded by the `Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology` (IWT). He has been involved the European IST Phosphorus project and the Belgian GEISHA project.His main research interest include distributed computing (GRID) and Photonic networks.