The University of Aberdeen is among the UK's top research universities, as noted in the Research Assessment Exercise - an independent evaluation of the quality of research undertaken across Britain's universities. The University provides a set of web pages that describe the University or Aberdeen and why students should consider studying in Aberdeen's world-leading research environment.
The Electronics Research Group (ERG) of the EEE Research Group in the School of Engineering at the University of Aberdeen. ERG has a range of experience relating to the design, simulation, optimisation, and benchmarking of systems. The labs are in the Fraser Noble Building on the Kings College campus.
This page contains the following sections:
The group has an excellent record in developing new techniques, piloting applications of leading-edge solutions, publishing technical articles and a firm commitment to advancing open standards.
The group's laboratories are on the 2nd floor of the West Wing of the Fraser Noble building. It comprises a suite of 4 research laboratories, a test of reaching/research laboratories and a small purpose-built project workshop with access to test facilities. These facilities were complete refurbished as a part of a £4M investment to create a state of the art teaching an research environment.
Our style of research fosters dynamic close engagement between researchers, industry and users bringing together teams to develop new applications and explore advanced techniques. Close working with Computer Scientists and other disciplines has enabled an ambitious portfolio of applied research.
The research group comprises academic staff, research fellows, research assistants and PhD students who perform cutting edge research in Internet Engineering and related technologies to support new applications. We believe this mix of activities provides a stimulating and friendly environment in which students and researchers can both collaborate together and flourish as individuals. Activities focussing on networking over challenging links (e.g. mobile and satellite links for Internet access) include:
ERG was established by a group of computer hardware engineers and communications researchers. The experience has been built-up over more than a decade through research programmes funded by organisations including: Thales-Alenia Space, EADS Astrium, Defence Research Agency (Malvern), Satellite Communications Centre (DRA Defford), Intelsat, European Space Agency (ESA), British National Space Centre (BNSC), The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Delta Communications (UK), the EC via its IST and H2020 Programmes, the Technology Strategy Board (TSB)/BIS and consultancy to private industry. The group has welcomed a range of PhD projects sponsored by Industry and other funding bodies.
Some examples of ERG research has included:
ERG was founded by Prof. Tim Spracklen and is currently coordinated by Prof. Gorry Fairhurst.
ERG operates its own dedicated research network. This section describes this Internet network engineering testbed. The testbed feeds all research laboratories, an applications lab via UTP and fibre, remote test sites on campus linked via fibre, and connection to the main campus network. The links use Ethernet operating supported by a range of switches and routers, forming a number of "sandboxed" test networks. The network fully supports IPv4 and IPv6 and is multicast enabled.
This section describes the ERG Satellite Applications Laboratory Testbed (SALT). SALT is located in the roof-area of the Fraser Noble building. The testbed offers easy access to the satellite and wireless antennas used for remote connectivity. Examples of terminals include:
Projects that have utilising this testbed include:
This testbed is used to support application-driven research, with a range of benchmarking and acceptance testing of satellite network equipment.
To find more about opportunities for involvement or collaboration, please contact us.