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Monitoring Division Inc. Research Service Agreement

Project Name:                 Monitoring Division Inc – Research Service Agreement (MDI-RSA)

 

Headline

  • MDI-RSA is filling critical gaps in network diagnostic tools for telecommunications carriers by utilising unique pattern recognition and optical monitoring techniques.

 

What will this research achieve?

 

The challenges:

  • Number of Internet users is ever expending, putting a lot of pressure on networks and as new high-speed reconfigurable optical networks are rolled out, the challenge is to keep up optimum performance and traffic flow.
  • Imperfection in the fibre can degrade performance resulting in disrupted traffic.
  • Currently, maintenance and monitoring of the networks is done with a great deal of human intervention and it is difficult to detect cause and location of problems on the networks.
  • The future optical fibre networks will be 10 times faster and more dynamic than the current network. The networks will need to be able to respond to changes in a dynamic fashion, and should be monitored and corrected automatically.

The solution:

NICTA is developing monitoring technologies that keep a close eye on the all-optical transmission in the networks.

  • The original Measurement and Management of the Internet (MAMI) project and the follow-up MDI-RSA project are established to develop new ways to measure and detect impairments in the networks that could affect performance.
  • These technologies will help to continuously monitor the high-speed optical fibre networks, determining the cause and location of network faults and automatically deciding how to best manage the problem without human intervention.
  • The bandwidth will be optimised via various methods including moving internet traffic to less congested routes during peak times, for example.
  • The team took the novel approach of bringing together researchers with two very different sets of skills: optical networking and machine learning.

The competitive advantage:

  • Unique approach of bringing together researchers with very different skill sets in optical networking and machine learning to come up with innovative solutions to longstanding problems.
  • This cross-disciplinary approach is typical of NICTA’s work.

 

Technology:

  • New technique based on asynchronous delay tap sampling creates signature (called 'eyeD' pictures) that provides more information than traditional eye-diagrams without needing clock.

 MDI-pic1

  • The unique pattern recognition software learns from these images and provide real-time, in-band and in-service measurements.

 MDI-pic2


Who will benefit?

  • Provide continuous high-quality Internet and communication services and lower operating cost for network providers
  • Provide less expensive, more reliable communications network, resulting in richer on-line experiences for Internet users.


Key Features

The developed techniques provide:

  • Simultaneously monitor different impairments in dynamic reconfigurable networks
  • Locate the source of impairments
  • Optimise the network bandwidth via various methods including, for example, moving internet traffic to less congested routes during peak times.


Progress Update?

  • The original MAMI Project has successfully resulted in a spin-out company called Monitoring Division Inc. (MDI).
  • NICTA continues to provide substantial research and development support to MDI.
  • MDI has strong IP covered by 7 patents
  • MDI has produced OSNR and MIM modules, and has established a strong customer base; and have trials completed with Tier-1 OEMs and Carriers.


Research team:

  • NICTA Project Manager: Dr. An Vu Tran
  • MDI Project Manager: Mr. Trevor Anderson
  • Dr. Thomas Chae
  • Mr. Don Hewitt
  • Dr. Bipin Pillai
  • Dr. Nishaanthan Nadarajah
  • Dr. Masuduzzaman Bakaul
  • Dr. Vijay Arya
  • Dr. Mandy Li
  • Dr. Alistair Shilton
  • Dr. Adam Kowalczyk

Best paper: