Our People
- Overview
- Research
- Publications
- Professional
Overview
Marco Ruffini
Principal Investigator
Research
My research interests are next generation networks, including passive optical networks, metro transmission networks, Software-Defined-Networks, convergence of mobile, fixed and cloud networking, network slicing and virtualisation. Part of my work involves the use of experimental testbeds validation, in the area of passive optical networks, multi-wavelength systems, cloud Radio Access Network and Network Function Virtualisation.
| Title | DISCUS |
| Summary | DISCUS will analyse, design, and demonstrate a complete end-to-end architecture and technologies for an economically viable, energy efficient and environmentally sustainable future-proof optical network. It will provide a revolution in communications networks applicable across Europe and the wider world exploiting to the full the opportunity offered by LR-PONS and flat optical core networks to produce a simplified and evolvable architecture which will be the foundation for communications for the long term future. The architecture will be ultra energy efficient, simple to operate, robust to new technology introduction and providing universal availability of bandwidth and features regardless of geographic location. This ideal is obtained by a clean-slate approach to the architectural design by universal application of optical technologies throughout the fixed network eliminating traditional demarcations of metro, regional, core and access. Thus our essential concept is to use advanced optical technologies throughout giving rise to economies of scale and allowing bandwidths and flexibility hitherto unimaginable. Specifically the DISCUS architecture will: scale gracefully and economically, over a common physical infrastructure, as FTTP drives bandwidth growth by three orders of magnitude or more. It will evolve from today’s architectures, adopting future technologies while co-existing with earlier generations. A unique feature will be a “Principle of Equivalence” whereby all network access points have equal bandwidth and service capability including core bandwidths (10Gb/s to 100+Gb/s) delivered to the access edge. It will seamlessly integrate wireless and fixed optical networks, fully exploiting both technologies. It will enable a competitive and simple regulatory environment controlled by customers and users rather than network operators and service providers. |
| Funding Agency | European Commission |
| Date From | November 2012 |
| Date To | October 2015 |
| Title | O’SHARE |
| Summary | O’SHARE aims at designing and demonstrating an SDN-based dynamic control and management platform for broadband access networks to enable efficient sharing of physical resources among multiple Network Operators and Service Providers. The main issue behind the sluggish deployment of high-speed and ubiquitous fibre access infrastructure is the long payback period. Besides the high upfront cost, the issue is exacerbated by the fact that many operators are considering Fibre-to-the-Home as a residential-only solution, which can only generate a small amount of revenue. In O’SHARE we aim at developing an SDN- based access network control framework that will enable convergence of multiple operators and services over the same physical infrastructure, thus increasing the revenue generated by the access network. This is achieved through two main innovations: open-access oriented interfaces, which will simplify network access by multiple network operators and service providers; and algorithms and techniques to virtualise Passive Optical Networks, leading to a more efficient exploitation of system resources. The theoretical work carried out in O’SHARE will be first tested through simulations and then implemented into a hardware testbed, which will lead up to an international demonstrator showcasing industry-led networking scenarios. O’SHARE will create the basis for an information-led society without digital divide. |
| Funding Agency | SFI |
| Date From | November 2015 |
| Date To | October 2019 |
| Title | Agile cloud service delivery using integrated photonics networking. |
| Summary | Next generation transparent optical datacentres |
| Funding Agency | SFI/NSF |
| Date From | December 2015 |
| Date To | November 2018 |
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
A. A. Dıaz-Montiel, S. Aladin, C. Tremblay and M. Ruffini, Active Wavelength Load as a Feature for QoTEstimation Based on Support Vector Machine, IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2019, pp1 – 6
Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualisation for converged access-metro networks in, Optical and Wireless Convergence for 5G Networks, Wiley, 2019, pp30 , [Marco Ruffini and Frank Slyne]
M. Ruffini, F. Slyne, Moving the Network to the Cloud: the Cloud Central Office Revolution and its Implications for the Optical Layer, Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2019, p1 – 11
All 154 peer-reviewed publications
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
M. Ruffini, D. O’Mahony, L. Doyle, CTVR-2: The vision, the technology: the network, HEAnet workshop, Dublin, June 2010, 2010, HEAnet
D. O’Mahony, M. Ruffini, Optical IP Switching – A Responsive Solution for Grid Interconnect, International Workshop on Autonomic Grid Networking and Management, Dublin, 2006, 2006
M. Ruffini, Optical IP Switching & UCLP, UCLP Workshop, Edinburgh, UK, August 2006, 2006
Professional
Recognition
Awards and Honours
Fellow of The University of Dublin, Trinity College.
Senior IEEE member
Ireland’s Champions of EU Research 2012, presented by Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins
My research activity appeared in the TCD Provost Annual Review 2012-2013
Best paper award at Asia Communications and Photonics Conference (ACP)
Awarded best paper award at IEEE Optical Network Design and Modeling Conference (ONDM) 2016.
Distinguished Paper Award at IEEE NTERNATIONAL EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING (Europar) 2012
Memberships
Elected steering committee member for the European Technology Platform for communications networks and services (NetWorld2020) forum.
TCD representative for the European Technology Platform for communications networks and services (NetWorld2020)
TCD representative for the Broadband Forum standardisation group
IEEE member (senior from 2015) and communications society member
Member of Italian Engineers Associations
Representations
Associated Editor for the IEEE/OSA Journal of Optical Communications and Networking (JOCN)
Associate Editor of the Springer Photonic Network Communications
Managing editor of the Elsevier Optical Fibre Technology special issue on Access networks.
Member of the EPSRC (UK) Associate College, for providing peer reviews of EPSRC funding applicarions
External examiner for the PhD committee of candidate Cristophe Van Praet, from IMEC, University of Ghent, in Belgium, December 2013.
External Ph.D examiner for Alvaro Fernandez Fernandez, from Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
External examiner for the research master student Sidhant Hasija from Waterford Institute of Technology
