Research Information
Prof. Godred Fairhurst

About Me

I hold a Chair in the School of Engineering within the College of Physical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, UK. I participate in the teaching activities of the School, in taught courses, laboratory activities and undergraduate and postgraduate project supervision. Over the years, I have presented various undergraduate teaching courses (these include a popular web-based Communications Engineering course). I also provide a series of lectures on the Internet and Digital Video Broadcast as a part of an annual one-week professional course at the University of York.

I conduct my research in in Communications Engineering within the Electronics Research Group (a part of the School's Communication and Imaging Research Group), where I specialise in Internet Engineering (especially Internet Transport Protocols) and protocol design for satellite systems.

X.25 and ATM and all that...

My research has favoured a blend of simulation and practical investigation. My first research project concerned use of X.25 over satellite links. This was in the early days of X.25, when there was still much to be defined. I worked for years (!) on my own implementation of X.25 and added many features to the link protocols to improve performance over a satellite link. These included developing and refining the HDLC Multi-SREJ protocol. For a while, I worked on a number of projects relating to IP/ATM (particularly its use with satellites), before moving to focus on TCP/IP.

TCP/IP Networking over Satellite

With the maturing of the Internet, my focus moved to TCP/IP networking over satellite. I worked on the first IP-based satellite system (where I analysed and developed benchmarking IP router software for the European Space Agency's CODE VSAT), pioneered early work on IP over Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) and was part of a team that organised the first IPv6 over DVB demonstration to the European Commission. I implemented IP in the XNet simulation environment, developed protocols for IP multicast, and investigated QoS-based IP networks using what has more come to be known as Diffserv. I maintain a focus on the Satellite Ground Segment, and particularly the Internet Protocol (IPv4 and IPv6) over Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) networks and link ARQ design.

Since 2004, my research group has been a member of the prestigious European Satellite Network of Excellence (SatNEx), which brings together 23 leading European research establishments in satellite communications, within this I lead work on Standardisation. From the roof of our building we have operated a wide range of small satellite terminals- primarily for IP network benchmarking and pilot demonstrations. Although we have operated a number of two-way satellite terminals including a number of very early prototype Ka-Band terminals, we currently maintain a selection of DVB-based receive-only satellite terminals. I contribute to the definition of internet services and architecture for DVB-RCS and other satellite systems for the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). I am a coauthor of the ULE and GSE link-layer specifications. I also Chair the IETF Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Working Group Chair for IPDVB (IPv4 & IPv6 over broadcast networks).

Internet Engineering and Internet Transport

I am an active participant in the specification and engineering of internet standards. I am a member of the Internet Society (ISOC) and active in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), transport area. My research has contributed to work defining new mechanisms to extend the TCP transport protocol. I participate in the IETF Transport Area, working with a range of transport-related protocol issues. The research group was one of the early adopters of http-based web servers. I am actively engaged in developing new techniques, and in leveraging techniques such as Explicit Congestion Notification and QuickStart.

I am a Working Group Chair for the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol, DCCP (defining standards-based transport protocols for interactive and streaming multimedia). I was a coauthor of the UDP-Lite specification for multimedia over radio links. The research group has been a significant contributor to the DCCP and UDP-Lite Linux stacks, and continues to work on practical implementation of protocols. The group has also a long-standing interest in the deployment of IP multicast at the network layer, and IP multicast transport, where it has developed new protocols.

Research on multicast has focussed on the development of standards-based mechanisms for reliable multicast transport. The group has also conducted projects working with multicast routing and group membership protocols, and relating these to various operational network requirements. I promote the use of standards-based multicast within the networking community.

I have been an invited speaker at commercial and research meetings on TCP/IP performance and broadband networking, participates in the UK JANET networking community. I am a member of the UK EPSRC College.

Current Research Priorities

My current research interests include:

Standards Activities

I participate in several standards processes, and strongly advocate open discussion in the development of communications standards. My current activities are focussed on the European Telecoms Standards Institute (ETSI) Broadband Satellite Multimedia working group (of TC-SES) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

I have (and do) actively contributed to and follow various IETF Working Groups, including:

I am a member of the Broadband Satellite Multimedia (BSM) WG (TC-SES, ETSI).

Published Standards

Standards Work in Progress

Brief CV

Dr G FAIRHURST BSc (Dunelm) PhD (Aberdeen) is currently a Professor in Communications Engineering and the Leader of the Research Committtee in the School of Engineering, UoA. His current research focusses on protocol design for wireless and broadband systems, for which he has received international recognition as an expert concerning TCP/IP over satellite, IP over DVB and link ARQ design. He is the named author of more than 100 published papers, he is a named contributor to several RFCs. He continues to be an active member of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in the Transport Area, and also participates in ETSI standardisation activity and has been an invited speaker at many commercial and research meetings on TCP/IP and Broadband standards. Around Easter each year, he teaches the IP over satellite part of a professional course on Small Terminal Satellite Systems at the University of York.

Useless Information

For a while I used a 128K Mac, and later developed a long-lasting and very personal relationship with the Apple Macintosh. I also have a soft spot for the PDP-8, particularly the 8F, which was an early RISC processor (!!!) and had a real front panel where you see into it's little world. I like steam railways (but couldn't tell you a single locomotive number - There's a difference between railways and train spotting!). I like eating cheese fondu, and quite a few other things.

Useful Information

Details of Lecture Slides and Information

IP over DVB Mailing List (IETF)

IP Multicast

Contact Information.

Where I am.

York VSATs Short Course

A Sample List of my Publications (This may be somewhat out of date.)
Gorry Fairhurst - Modified:02/2009 ERG home page