UB - University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Computer Networks and Distributed Systems

Research in networks involves both hardware and software, and spans both user space and operating systems. Topics include wide-area networks and local-area networks, wired technology and wireless/mobile technology, data and telephony communications as well as integrated services, and applications (e.g., Web browsing) and modem access. Networking includes enabling technologies for other systems in distance learning, multimedia systems, distributed super-computing, telemedicine, collaborative research, electronic commerce, and online entertainment. Distributed systems is the study of the communication and coordination patterns of components found in networked computers.

Faculty

• Chunming Qiao (Professor)
  
• Hung Q. Ngo (Associate Professor)
  
• Murat Demirbas(Assistant Professor)
  
• Sheng Zhong (Assistant Professor)
  
• Bina Ramamurthy (Teaching Associate Professor)

Laboratories and Research Groups

• Laboratory for Advanced Network Design, Evaluation and Research (LANDER)
  Director: Chunming Qiao
  We conduct research on networking architectures, protocols, network control and management issues, and performance evaluation. The lab focuses on the convergence of computer communications and telecommunications in WDM optical networks, mobile/wireless networks, the internet, and other technologies like ATM, parallel, and distributed processing. Active projects include optical burst switching for IP over WDM, protection/ restoration at the WDM layer, multicasting in WDM, next generation wireless systems, cellular and mobile ad hoc networks.
• SUNY at Buffalo NETworking Group (SUBNET)
  Director: Hung Q. Ngo
  We focus on three main areas: switching networks (including multichannel networks), wireless networks, and interconnection networks. Related graph-theoretic and algorithmic issues are to be addressed, which have deep connections to many different areas of computer science and mathematics, such as boolean circuit complexity, probabilistic methods, wavelength division multiplexed networks, computational geometry, designs and analyses of algorithms and approximation algorithms, and combinatorics. Practical simulations and implementations of various network protocols are also of tremendous interests.
• University at Buffalo Ubiquitious Computing Lab (UBiComp)
  Director: Murat Demirbas
  Our research is on wireless sensor networks and distributed and dependable computing. Our work on wireless sensor networks focus on designing and implementing large-scale, locally-healing, and provably dependable services (e.g., tracking, routing, querying). Our work on distributed and dependable computing focuses on facilitating the design and verification of fault-tolerance for distributed systems. Active projects include monitoring of large public buildings with wireless sensor networks, building an active campus infrastructure, implementing collision-aware MAC protocols, and developing a toolkit for specification-based design of self-healing.
• Security, Privacy, EConomic Incentives & Applications Lab (SPECIAL)
  Director: Sheng Zhong
  We work on security, privacy, and economic problems in wireless networks and mobile computing. Current projects include economic analysis of ad hoc networks and hibrid networks, localization in wireless sensor networks, and benchmarking of cryptographic operations in mobile devices.
• Distributed Systems Research Group
  Director: Bina Ramamurthy
  Current research involves peer-to-peer alternatives to traditional client-server models, ubiquitous computing with location-based services at the application program level, mining for patterns in wireless and web, performance analysis of component models in application servers, and adaptive interfaces for collaborative systems.