Network and Multimedia Systems Lab (NMSL)

Welcome to the Network Systems Lab (NSL) at SFU!

We are interested in the broad areas of computer networking and multimedia systems. We develop algorithms and protocols to enhance the performance of networks, especially the Internet, and to efficiently distribute multimedia content (e.g., video and audio objects) to large-scale user communities. The Network Systems Lab is led by Dr. Mohamed Hefeeda, and is affiliated with the Network Modeling Group at SFU. The NSL lab is located in room SUR 4120 (Surrey campus).

We hold bi-weekly group meeting for discussion and brainstorming.

Our current research interests include multimedia networking, peer-to-peer systems, wireless sensor networks, and network security. Brief description and links to currently active projects are given below.

Peer-to-Peer Systems

We are exploring the applicability of the P2P paradigm to build cost-effective content distribution systems. Problems such as sender selection, adaptive object replication, and content caching are being studied. We are also developing models to analyze the new characteristics of the P2P traffic and the impact of these characteristics on the cache replacement policies and object replication strategies. Furthermore, we are devising analytic models to study the dynamics of the P2P system capacity and the impact of various parameters on it.

• pCDN: Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network

• Modeling and Caching of P2P Traffic

Multimedia Networking

We are focusing on distributed streaming in dynamic environments and for heterogeneous clients. Our goal is to analyze and understand scalable coding techniques, and to design several optimization and streaming algorithms to make the best possible use of them in real multimedia systems. This will yield better quality for users, and more efficient utilization of network and server resources. We are also designing algorithms to optimize streaming quality for wireless and mobile clients.

• Scalable Multimedia Streaming

• Mobile TV Networks

• Multimedia Streaming in WiMAX Networks

• CanVid: Content- and Network-aware Video Processing

Wireless Sensor Networks

We are developing coverage and connectivity maintenance protocols that consider probabilistic (i.e., more realistic) sensing and communication models. We are also designing protocols that provide controllable degrees of coverage (k-coverage).

• Probabilistic Coverage and Connectivity

• K-Coverage and its Application to Forest Fire Detection

Network Security

We are exploring network monitoring techniques to detect and thwart intrusion and denial-of-service attacks in their early stages by observing unusual traffic patterns injected by such attacks. We are studying the security of multimedia streaming systems that employ multi-layer and fine-grain scalable video streams.

• Security of the SIP protocol

• Detecting DoS Attacks and Service Violations in QoS-enabled Networks

• Security of Scalable Multimedia Streams

Online Networked Games

We are designing various algorithms to improve the performance of online games.

• Minimizing Round-Trip Time in Online Games

• Minimizing Energy Consumption for Online Games on Mobile Phones

High Performance Computing

We are exploring the opportunities of utilizing new architectures such as GPUs, multi-core processors, and distributed clusters (cloud computing) to efficiently solve research problems related to multimedia content analysis, large-scale data analysis, and machine learning techniques.

• Approximation algorithms for Kernel Methods on Multi-core CPUs and GPUs