2. Comnet
• Personnel: ~140
• 7 tenured professors + 2 others
+ 2 being filled
• Head of Department:
Prof. Riku Jäntti
19.8.2013
Comnet
2
Comnet is a multi-disciplinary unit of research and higher education covering
communications and networking technology, networking business and human aspects of
communications. In its area, Comnet is the largest unit in Finland.
http://comnet.aalto.fi/en/
3. Income 2012: 9 909 887 € (External funding64%)
36 %
23 %
5 %
1 % 2 %
2012 Income distribution
Aalto funding
Academy of Finland
8/19/2013
Comnet
3
9 %24 %
23 %
Tekes
Finnish companies
EC funding
Other funding
Internal funding (MIDE etc.)
7. Professors
Raimo Kantola Jukka MannerJörg Ott Patric Östergȧrd
Internet Technology
Communications engineering Communications ecosystems
Information theory
8/19/2013
Comnet
7
Riku Jäntti Olav Tirkkonen Jyri Hämäläinen Heikki Hämmäinen
Communications engineering Communications ecosystems
Antti Oulasvirta
9. Comnet: Fundamental & Applied
Research
Increasing TechnologyIncreasing Technology
Capabilities
Growing Role of
Comnet
Research:
Strong industry
background
Grand Challenges
8/19/2013
Comnet
9
Growing Role of
Software
Deep Embedding in
Society
Focus
Areas
Fundamental
Research Themes
Strategic Future
Network Research
10. Research Themes & Focus Areas
Communications ecosystems
8/19/2013
Comnet
10
11. Research and Societal/Industrial
Impact
COMNET
Usage traces
PrototypesPrototypes
Experience Publications
Scientific
testbeds
8/19/2013
Comnet
11
Research
Usage traces
SoftwareSoftware
Field data Knowledge
Controlled lab
environment
SocietySociety
12. Grand Challenges
Carbon-neutral networking
• Sustainable communications
• Connecting the remaining 2 billion to mobile and 5 billion to
Internet
Instant wireless Internet
• Wireless access delays below the limit of human
Source: EU FP7 project EARTH
Source: NSN
• Wireless access delays below the limit of human
perception
Scaling the Internet to a thousand devices per user
• Internet of things, cyber-physical systems
Secure cyber space
• Network security, trust, critical infrastructure protection
8/19/2013
Comnet
12
Source: Ericsson
“Aalto University found a total of 2 915
automation devices in Finland that were
accessible to just about anybody
through the Internet – and vulnerable to
cyber attacks.”
13. Communications and Information
Theory
Computational methods in discrete
matematics and information theory
Prof. Östergård
• Mathematical objects (existence and classification
problems)
• Combinatorial algorithms
libexact package
Advanced Transmission Methods
Professors Hämäläinen and Tirkkonen
• Space-time block codes,
• Codeboodk design for MIMO systems
• Optimized CQI feedback
• Nonlinearity (DirtyRF)
8/19/2013
Comnet
13
Beamforming codebooks based on
Grassmannian Packings
14. Advanced Radio Communication
Systems (1/2)
Professors Hämäläinen, Jäntti and Tirkkonen
Cognitive radio and spectrum aware
communications
• Co-primary and secondary sharing
• Overlay (black space) and underlay (D2D)
transmissions
• Interference modeling and control
Cognitive radio network
testbed
• Interference modeling and control
Wireless broadband systems and system
optimization
• HETNETS and deployable networks
• Small cells, relays
• Self-organization & self-optimization
• RRM
• Energy efficiency
8/19/2013
Comnet
14
TVWS Assesment tool
http://quasar.netlab.hut.fi/
3GPP compliant simulation tools
15. Advanced Radio Communication
Systems (2/2)
Wireless Sensor Systems
Professors Jäntti and Ott
• Real-time sensing
• HW & SW Architectures
• Development and testing tools
• Protocols
• IoT, automation, and military applications
pRoot node and middeware
• IoT, automation, and military applications
• RF tomographic imaging and Device Free Localization
(DFL)
8/19/2013
Comnet
15
DFL System
http://wsn.aalto.fi/en/
16. Performance analysis and teletraffic
theory
Queuing theory and teletraffic theory
Docent Aalto
• Age and size based scheduling
• Dispatching problems
• Flow level performance analysis
• Internet traffic engineering
• P2P, wireless networks, M2M communications,…
Size- and state aware dispatching
Performance measurements
Prof. Manner
• Energy-consumption measurements
• Experimental data center
• Internet traffic measurements
• Mobile access speed measurement service: Netradar
(http://www.netradar.org/en)
8/19/2013
Comnet
16
Comnet data center
Netradar
17. Internet technologies (1/2)
Professors Kantola, Manner, and Ott
Networking technology
• Carrier grade Ethernet
• Access and core networks
• Software defined networking (OpenFlow)
• Energy efficient communications and networking
Network security and trust
• Internet wide trust / Evolution of cooperation
• Customer edge switching
• Cyber security: Security of critical infrastructure
8/19/2013
Comnet
17
I
Plausible
deniability
ControllerOperations
center
Actual
target
Entry
host
Internet
C&C
Dropper
Weapons assembly
-platform components
-payloads
Module
library
Control place for Carrier-Grade
Ethernet Network
Analysis of Cyber weapons and
attacks
18. Internet technologies (2/2)
Internet protocols
• End-to-end transport, multipath transport, flow and
congestion control
• Customer Edge Traversal
• Transport layer cognitivity
• Opportunistic Networking
• DTN routing, transport, and application protocols
• P2P
• Content-based networking
The ONE simulator for Opportunisti Networking
http://www.netlab.tkk.fi/tutkimus/dtn/theone/• Content-based networking
• Multimedia protocols
• Energy efficient operation
• IETF standardization
Military communications
• Tacoms - Tactical Communications for Federated
Network Environment
• Generic messaging protocol (MICS)
8/19/2013
Comnet
18
http://www.netlab.tkk.fi/tutkimus/dtn/theone/
Proxies for Energy-Efficient Web Access
19. Network Economics
Prof. Hämmäinen
Quantitative analysis of mobile user behavior
• Challenging the boundaries of complex data mining,
privacy
• Understand the behavior in context, social activity and
service adaption/diffusion
Contextual patterns in mobile service usage
Optimal industry and technical architecture for
flexible radio access
• Enable flexible spectrum use: Technical, regulatory and
economic rules
Techno-economic bottlenecks of Internet
scalability
• Identify and eliminate techno-economical bottlenecks
preventing the scaling of Internet
8/19/2013
Comnet
19
Spectrum regulation phase diagram
Contextual patterns in mobile service usage
21. Master’s programs
Two international Master’s
programs (120 ECTS):
• Communications Engineering (Oldest
International Master’s program in Aalto)
• Communications Ecosystems
• New ’ICT’ program 2015? 150
200
250
300
350
Communications
Engineering (Tot)
CE/Networking
Technology
CE/Radio
Communications
CE/Digital Signal
195
102
Several dual-degree programs
• Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH),
Sweden
• Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya
(UPC), Spain
• Universidade Técnica de Lisboa,
Portugal
• Telecom SudParis, France
8/19/2013
Comnet
21
http://www.aalto.fi/en/studies//education/programme/comm
unications_engineering_master/
http://www.aalto.fi/en/studies//education/programme/comm
unications_ecosystem_master/
0
50
100
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
CE/Digital Signal
Processing
Communications
Ecosystem
47
46
19
