Research Activities

The Performance Analysis of Telecommunication Systems (PATS) research group is part of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Antwerp. The group was founded in 1995. PATS performs basic, applied and contract research related to the performance analysis of telecommunication systems and the impact of performance on the architecture and the design of these systems.

The basic research activities of the PATS research group are structured into five major areas:

• Stochastic models for the performance analysis of telecommunication systems, in particular:
  • Modeling of traffic streams
  • Study of application relevant queueing models
  • Matrix-analytic methods for the solution of large and complex Markov chains
  • Algorithmic aspects of stochastic modeling

• Mobile and wireless communication systems, in particular:
  • MAC protocols for wireless access networks
  • Efficient handover schemes in mobile IP networks
  • Routing in ad-hoc networks
  • QoS support for mobile networks

• Medium Access Control (MAC protocols), with special attention to:
  • MAC for Passive Optical Networks (EPON)
  • MAC for HFC networks (EURO-DOCSIS)
  • MAC for ad hoc networks
  • Contention resolution protocols

• Traffic management in multi-service networks, more specific:
  • Mechanisms for QoS support
  • Packet scheduling schemes
  • Admission Control and congestion control (TCP/DCCP)
  • Buffer management mechanisms

• Provisions and architectures to make software adaptable and dependable:
  • System structures for adaptive mobile applications
  • Architectures for adaptive and fault-tolerant mobile systems
  • Design methodologies for adaptive-and-dependable systems

The work on stochastic modeling is a support activity for the other areas. The expertise developed in these research activities is then applied into various European, national and regional research projects with an important industrial involvement. The PATS research group has been involved in several European research projects in the COST program, FP5 and FP6. Also within national and regional programs, the PATS group has been successful in raising funds for its activities through projects from the Fund for Scientific Research - Flanders (FWO) and projects from the Institute for the promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT). The research group has been successful in publishing papers, both in high level scientific journals and international conferences, in organizing conferences and other scientific activities such as being editor of journals, evaluator of European projects, etc.

Quantitatively, this results in:

• The PATS research group has a yearly turnover of about 1 million euros;
• The group consists of 2 professors, 3 post-docs and 20 Ph.D. students.

The PATS research group is one of the groups that are involved in the Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology (IBBT) which was founded by the Flemish government on March 19th of 2004.