Research Topics

Network Convergence

The concept of network convergence is revolutionizing the way IT and communication infrastructures will be deployed today and in the next decade. In a converged network, voice and video services that have traditionally been carried on independent private infrastructures will be deployed on the same IP network that carries data traffic. Furthermore, mobility services based on wireless technologies will be an integral part of this new infrastructure. The benefits of such a convergence of media and services is the reduced deployment and management costs and the potential of offering many value-added services beyond those that exist today. We are beginning to see this convergence in both home and enterprise networks with the deployment of triple-play or quad-play services such as voice over IP (VoIP^?) and IPTV. The research issues that we are exploring in this area are the development of applications that leverage the new capabilities of a converged infrastructure and the design, deployment and management of converged infrastructures to deliver high-quality high-availability services.

Network Operation and Management

An intelligent network operation & management system is a crucial component in any reliable networks. There exist many network management system (NMS) tools that can help the system administrators manage the operation and management tasks, but the main issues are as follows. First, good tools are generally complicated and require technical expertise to interpret the outputs. Second, there is a need for an intelligent system that integrates basic important routines, such as system configuration, network monitoring, bandwidth and service control, and Root-cause analysis. Our goal is to develop the NMS tools that are user-friendly and affordable yet powerful enough to make intelligent decisions on complex tasks.

IPv6

IPv6 has been adopted by the IETF to replace IPv4, the current version of the Internet Protocol, due to the foreseeable problem of IPv4 address space shortage. IPv6 also possesses other features, which lack in the current IPv4 implementation, such as security, quality of service (QoS^?), mobility, multicasting, and autoconfiguration. However, the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will not be quick or easy. Therefore, we have to prepare Thailand for such change ahead of time. To promote IPv6 in Thailand, NTL has established the Thailand IPv6 Testbed in October 2001. The goal of is to establish IPv6-world gateway and provide experimental quality IPv6-based services to support research and operational activities in development of IPv6-related technology and IPv6-ready network for Thai people. Since its operation, the Thailand IPv6 Testbed has established IPv6 connections to many universities and ISPs in the country. The connections are mostly in forms of automatic tunneling and dual-stack technologies. In December 2004, the Thailand IPv6's Testbed project joined force with Prince Songkhla University and other ISPs to form the Thailand IPv6 Forum as an official collaboration of active IPv6 players in the country.

Traveler Information System

Traveler information system provides personalized, on-demand, and real-time information to travelers, commuter, and/or commercial vehicles about the condition the transportation system. The information includes degree of congestion, travel time, incidents, and special events that effect the flow of traffic. Travel information system allows individual traveler can make better decision on route decision, departure time, or mode of transportation. Traveler information system could provide benefits to four areas: i) direct impacts on travelers and good carriers, ii) effect on non-travelers and freight customers, iii) effects on transportation agencies and iv) environmental effects. The availability of traveler information system can translate into time saving, cost reduction, enhanced satisfaction, and safety. We currently focus the research on this topic on three areas: a) traffic data collection using mobile probes, b) translation of raw traffic data into traveler information, and c) dissemination of traveler information.

Network Design

Research on network design includes topics such as topological network design (for wire and wireless networks), network control, and management. We consider various design approaches on routing, physical or logical network design, capacity assignment, and network survivability. The network control and management research focus on development of protocols or algorithms to improve network performance, concerning Quality of Service (QoS^?) or Service Level Agreement (SLA) policies. The ultimate goal is to ensure that the designs can meet both the current and future needs in terms of satisfying traffic demand, cost, and performance requirements.