The Y-Comm Group at Middlesex is led by Dr Glenford Mapp at the Faculty of Science and Technology, who also acts as the Chief Architect of Y-Comm. Glenford works on various aspects of the Y-Comm project including transport protocols, targeted security models, hybrid Quality-of-Service (QoS) systems and service platforms. Frank Sardis (full-time PhD student) works on mobile service platforms. Ann Samuels (part-time PhD student) works on new economic models for mobile operators. Yonal Kirsal is working on analytic models for vertical handover. Eser Gemikonakli is looking analytic models for different traffic models.
Previous work on Y-Comm was also done by our former PhD students including model-based proactive handover (Fatema Shaikh – graduated 2010) and a QoS and security framework for mobile systems using the Y-Comm framework (Mahdi Aiash – graduated 2012).
The University of Cambridge has been involved with the Y-Comm project since its inception. Professor Jon Crowcroft looks at issues of new networking paradigms including new addressing schemes and adapting present networking protocols to heterogeneous environments.
Previous work on Y-Comm was also done by former PhD student, David Cottingham (graduated 2010) who investigated Knowledge-based Proactive Handover in the context of Vehicular Communications.
Professor Qiang Ni and his PhD student Haris Pervaiz at the School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University are working on energy-efficient QoS-aware joint network and user adaptive selection algorithms in heterogeneous wireless networks in the context of Y-Comm. One main focus of the Lancaster team is to develop novel game theoretic models to determine effectively whether or not to perform a vertical handover when a user enters an overlapping coverage area of heterogeneous wireless networks.
The Institute of Sciences, Mathematics and Computing (ICMC) at the University of São Paulo (USP), in San Carlos, Brazil has been examining how communication architectures such as Y-Comm could be specified using ontologies. This work is led by Professor Edson Moreira.
Previous work was also done by his PhD students including Renata Porto Vanni (graduated 2010) who developed an ontology for the Y-Comm architecture. Mario Augusto (graduated 2012) looked at a new ontology for handovers using Y-Comm and IEEE 802.11.
The Department of Computer Science at the Federal University of San Carlos, Brazil is working on implementing the network abstraction layer in Y-Comm using the IEEE 802.21 specification. This work is being led by Professor Hélio Guardia and is being done along with ICMC and Middlesex University.
The Department of Information Systems, State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC), is involved in looking at policy management, vertical handover, and network abstraction layers. Professor Mario Augusto modelled developed a system for handover management based on Y-Comm and IEEE 802.21 using an extended ontology. This work started at University of São Paulo together with Professor Edson Moreira, Renata Vanni and Helio Guardia. He has also been working with simulation in NGN scenarios.
Professor Raphael Phan, previously of Loughborough University, who worked with Mahdi Aiash during his doctoral studies, is continuing to look at security in heterogeneous networks using the Y-Comm Framework
Dr Ferdinand Katsriku, previously of Middlesex University, is continuing his research looking at propagation models to gain a better insight into the conditions for proactive handover management.
The Centre for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the University of Trinidad and Tobago is involved in looking at mobile systems. Wayne Butcher is looking at mobile server platforms.
Developing Y-Comm is a huge effort and we welcome input from other groups. If you are interested, please email Glenford Mapp: g.mapp@mdx.ac.uk
