The Networks Skunkworks
A skunkworks is "A small, loosely structured corporate research and development unit or subsidiary formed to foster innovation." [The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language], often developing breakthrough "high technology". The original skunkworks was the research lab of Lockheed Martin, which developed such legendary aircraft as the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes and the F-117 stealth "fighter", and was named after an illicit brewery ("Skonk Works") in the Lil Abner cartoon series.

The Networks Skunkworks is a team of people researching how to improve communication networks, with emphasis on wireless LANs, transport protocols, and improving network dependability.

Current members:
Academic staff:

Tim Moors
Email: t.moors AT unsw.edu.au

Dependable communication networks
Transport protocol design
Wireless LANs: QOS and error characterisation

PhD students:

John Risson
Email: jr AT tuffit.com

Building Robust Internet Applications on Self-Organizing Overlays
Mar. 2003-


Jack Tsai
Email: j.tsai AT student.unsw.edu.au

Multipath routing in mesh networks
Aug. 2005-


Sameer Qazi
Email: samqazi1 AT yahoo.com

Network dependability
Aug. 2005-

Masters students:
Undergraduate thesis students:

Colin Tan
Email:

Diversifying transport protocols


Wai Yeung (Robin) Chow
Email: clueponic AT gmail.com

Network error explainer


Felix Lehane
Email: felix.lehane AT gmail.com

Preventing switch loops (despite the Spanning Tree Protocol)


Adem Ozbakan
Email:

Wireless mesh network measurements


Dominic Tan
Email:

Wireless mesh network measurements


Sonja Milanovic
Email: sonja AT student.unsw.edu.au

Multipath routing on wireless mesh networks

Could this be you? Descriptions of thesis topics being offered
The Networks Skunkworks works together with the MOBQOS group, Network Research Laboratory Vijay Sivaraman and Rob Malaney at UNSW.

Alumni

Postgraduates

Dennis Pong: 802.11 QOS (in particular EDCF), Nov. 2002-Dec. 2005

MPhil: Bo Fan: Peer-to-peer sharing of network measurements

MEngSc project:

Undergraduates

2007: 2006: 2005/6: 2005: Cindy Lo (2004-5)

David Ching (2004)

Chee Leong Tiew (2004)

Anthony Lang (2004)

Viseth Sal (2004)

Wei Zhang (2004)

Simon Leung (2004)

Peter Lo (2004)

Sam Ngai (2004)

Vincent Chen (2003)

Marvyn Mei (2003)

Agus Salim (2003)

Kelvin Siew (2003)

Jacky So (2003)

Ming Siang Lim (2002-3)

Robin Widoyo

Ruihui (Rene) Ma

Past projects

Year Area Project
2005 Network dependability Detecting transparent network devices
Instant Messaging for disseminating notices of (network) service outages
Measuring server availability
Improving email reliability
Simulation of peer-to-peer system reliability
Wireless networking Measuring wireless LAN characteristics in home environments
2004-2005 General protocols Characterising Packetised Voice Traffic
2004 Network dependability Email dependability
Notifying users of outages and remedial actions
Informative fault report wizard
Detecting transparent network devices
Wireless networking Efficient voice over wireless packet-switched networks
Improving TCP performance by adding awareness of wireless link errors
Wireless LAN Measurements
2003 General protocols Protocol Visualisation
Wireless ZoneIT: Using short-range radios to control mobile device functionality
Simulation of 802.11 PCF
Wireless LAN Measurements
2002 Wireless Wireless LAN Measurements
Measurement of streaming media applications running over wireless LANs
Wireless LAN security
Bluetooth tracking system
Wireless LAN security
 

Send questions about the Networks Skunkworks to t.moors AT unsw.edu.au

Skunk photos from North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and drawing from http://www.linsdomain.com/totems/pages/skunk.htm