Professor Godred Fairhurst

Biography

Gorry Fairhurst is an Internet Engineer and a Professor in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the School of Engineering. He contributes to the School’s General Engineering programme of research-led teaching, and is the Academic Line Manager (ALM) where he coordinates the research across EEE staff.

He received his first degree in Applied Physics and Electronics from the University of Durham, UK, and a PhD in Communications Engineering from the University of Aberdeen, UK. He joined the University of Aberdeen academic staff after working with Prof. Tim Spracklen as a post-doctoral fellow with research in  networking via satellite, funded by the UK Satellite Communications Centre, Defford, UK. 

He has published more than 200 papers on topics in broadband and broadcast satellite, TV/video transmission, IPv6, IP multicast, X.25, together with work on Internet measurement, protocol architecture and Internet transport.

He is an active member of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) where he chairs the Transport Area working group (TSVWG) and contributes to the IETF Internet area. He previously chaired the IPDVB and DCCP working groups. He has authored more than 32 RFCs with over 150 citations within the RFC-series. He is currently active in the TSVWG, TAPS, and TCPM working groups, as well as contributing to groups including: QUIC, PANRG, and MAPRG. 

In previous years, he contributed to ETSI standardisation and the DVB Project, working on generic stream encapsulation and Higher Layer protocols for DVB-RCS2. He was a co-leader of the Future Internet working group in the EC ISI European Technology Platform, and a partner in European research projects funded by the EU, ESA, and industry.

Research Overview

My current research interests focus on :

• Internet Engineering, where research includes analysis of control mechanisms for transport. link, and Internet protocols. A mixture of industry and science funding includes: rate-adaptive transport for multimedia, TCP and QUIC transport, Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN), Internet capacity sharing, and low-latency services. 
• Internet Measurement and Protocol Design, which includes the specification of protocol architecture and large scale measurement campaign exploring Internet path characteristics.
• Satellite Internet, with a long track record of working on IP over satellite, and satellite broadband delivery and link standards for IP transmission over DVB. I participate in the Satellite Network of Excellence.
• Video transport, I engage in research on Internet TV, characterisation of DASH performance, and TV transport architecture. I retain a great anticipation for IP multicast deployment, and have been an enthusiastic advocate, user, and experimenter for multicast transport.
• Cross-disclipinary research including work with geographers, social scientists and other discplines on topics including broadband access, sensor network design, video streaming, and specific control communications.

Current Research

I perform my research within the Electronics Group (ERG) in the School of Engineering at theUniversity of Aberdeen (UoA) is a part of the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Research Group. My research has favoured a blend of simulation/measurement and protocol design.

I have worked for many years with IPv4 and IPv6, especially over challenging links with research in the development of new protocols, implementation of link-specific enhancements, testing and assessment of network performance.

Current work includes IP transport protocols for QUIC, TCP evolution, the use of ECN, use of DiffSev, and the support transport and services. Research includes implementation, large-scale measurement and satellite services. This work is linked to standardisation in the IETF.

I have a long-running enthusiasm in multicast deployment (IPv4 and IPv6), working with projects on routing and multicast transport, and in Ipv6. 

Work in satellite communications has a focus on the IP interface, with work on the GSE specification, IPv6 over satellite, transport protocol optimisation and DVB-RCS systems. and contributing to specifications published by the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) Project. I currently work with QUIC over satellite.

Past Research

My current publications are listed on the publications tab. Here are examples of my current work:

• Custura, A., Secchi, R., Boswell, E., Fairhurst, G. (2024).  Is it possible to extend IPv6? Computer Communications, vol. 214, pp. 90-99, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comcom.2023.10.006.
• Custura, A., Jones, T., Secchi, R., Fairhurst, G. (2023) Reducing the acknowledgement frequency in IETF QUIC, International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 315-330 https://doi.org/10.1002/sat.1466.
• Lutu, A., Trevisan, M., Safari Khatouni, A., Mandalari, A. M., Custura, A., Mellia, M., Alay, O., Bagnulo, M., Bajpai, V., Brunstrom, A., Ott, J., Fairhurst, G. (2022) Measuring Roaming in Europe: Infrastructure and Implications on Users QoE, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol. 21, no. 10, pp. 3687 - 3699, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TMC.2021.3058787.
• Zullo, R., Jones, T., Fairhurst, G. (2020) Overcoming the Sorrows of the Young UDP Options, TMA, https://dl.ifip.org/db/conf/tma/tma2020/index.html
• Secchi, R., Mohideen, AC. & Fairhurst, G. (2018). 'Performance analysis of next generation web access via satellite'.  International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking, vol 36, no. 1, pp. 29 -43.  DOI: 10.1002/SAT.1201
• Khademi, N., Armitage, G., Welzl, M., Zander, S., Fairhurst, G. & Ross, D. (2017). Alternative Backoff: Achieving Low Latency and High Throughput with ECN and AQM. in G Karlsson, A Brunstrom, H Jiang, T Wolf & V Fodor (eds), Proceedings of IFIP Networking 2017.   NETWORKING2017/1570335770
• Khademi, N., Ros, D., Welzl, M., Bozakov, Z., Brunstrom, A., Fairhurst, G., Grinnemo, K-J, Hayes, D., Hurtig, P., Jones, T., Mangiante, S., Tüxen, M. & Weinrank, F. (2017). 'NEAT: A Platform- And Protocol-Independent Internet Transport API'.  IEEE Communications Magazine, vol 55, no. 6, pp. 46-54. DOI: 10.1109/MCOM.2017.1601052
• Papastergiou, G., Fairhurst, G., Ross, D., Brunstrom, A., Grinnemo, K-J, Hurtig, P., Khademi, N., Tüxen, M., Welzl, M., Damjanovic, D. & Mangiante, S. (2017). 'De-ossifying the Internet Transport Layer: A Survey and Future Perspectives'.  IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol 19, no. 1, pp. 619 - 639. DOI: 10.1109/COMST.2016.2626780
• Briscoe, B., Brunstrom, A., Petlund, A., Hayes, D., Ross, D., Tsan, I-J, Gjessing, S., Fairhurst, G., Griwodz, C. & Welzl, M. 'Reducing Internet Latency: A Survey of Techniques and their Merit'.  IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol 18, no. 3, pp. 2149 - 2196. DOI: 10.1109/COMST.2014.2375213
• Fairhurst, G., Secchi, R. & Yun, A. (2013). 'A flexible QoS architecture for DVB-RCS2'.  International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking, vol 31, no. 5, pp. 219-232.  DOI: 10.1002/SAT.1026
• Townsend, L., Sathiaseelan, A., Fairhurst, G. & Wallace, C. (2013). 'Enhanced Broadband Access as a Solution to the Social and Economic Problems of the Rural Digital Divide'.  Local Economy, vol 28, no. 6, pp. 580-595.  DOI: 10.1177/0269094213496974

Collaborations

I participate in research projects at the UK national level and in European research projects.

Since 2004, my research group has been a member of the prestigious European SatNEx Network of Excellence, which brings together 22 leading European research establishments in the satellite communications field, and within this, he leads the work on Standardisation.

ERG participates as an experimenter and contributor in the MONROE measurement platform.

Funding and Grants

Over the years my research has been funded from a range of sources including: EPSRC, European Space Agency (ESA), European Commission (EC), industry (e.g., Astrium, Inmarsat, QinetiQ, Thales, Delta Communications), and UK government agencies (including JISC, DSTL, BNSC, RSRE, DERA, BIS).

Teaching Responsibilities

I have supervised over 50 student honours projects, including co-supervision of projects with Computer Science and a number of placements from overseas universities (Socrates/Erasmus).  

I currently teach this undergraduate course:

• Level 3: Communications Engineering I (a lab-based course in digital control protocols, such as DMX, RDM, and CAN bus)

I have been an invited speaker at many professional and research meetings on TCP/IP, broadband standards, and the future evolution of the transport service for the Internet.

I also have on-line materials for this course:

• Level 4: Communications Engineering II (Networking technologies, Ethernet, the TCP/IP protocol stack and Internet Engineering)

I am part of the team who deliver the annual professional Satellite Communications Course by the IET, Savoy Place, London.