Abstract

Complexity Issues in Traffic Management

Professor Vic Grout
Director of the Centre for Applied Internet Research (CAIR)
Glyndŵr University, Wales

Traffic management is usually seen in terms of objectives.  The necessity for traffic shaping, filtering, routing, etc. is obvious, as are the requirements of such policies.  However, there is a price to be paid for this optimisation.  Traffic algorithms have both time and space complexity, both of which have to be considered if their worth is to be assessed fully.  This is particularly true of real-time processes.

This talk discusses the practicalities of considering complexity in traffic management.  It provides an overview of how complexity can be measured and how the trade-off between cost and benefit can be defined.  It uses a case study of traffic filtering to put the theory into practice.

Biography

Professor Vic Grout, BSc, PhD, CMath FIMA, CEng FIET, CSci CITP FBCS

Vic Grout was awarded the BSc(Hons) degree in Mathematics and Computing from the University of Exeter (UK) in 1984 and the PhD degree in Communication Engineering ("Optimisation Techniques for Telecommunication Networks") from Plymouth Polytechnic, now the University of Plymouth, (UK) in 1988.

He has worked in senior positions in both academia and industry for over twenty years and has published and presented over 150 research papers and four books. He is currently Professor of Network Algorithms at Glyndŵr University, Wales, where he leads the Centre for Applied Internet Research (CAIR). His research interests and those of his research students span several areas of computational mathematics, particularly the application of heuristic principles to large-scale problems in network design and management.  Recently, he has turned his attention to ‘technologies (Internet-based and otherwise) for assistive living’ (technologies to help the elderly and disabled to live longer independent lives).

Professor Grout is a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Electrical Engineer, Chartered Scientist, Chartered Mathematician and Chartered IT Professional, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (FIMA), British Computer Society (FBCS) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET) and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (SMIEEE). He chairs the biennial international conference series on Internet Technologies and Applications (ITA 05, ITA 07 and ITA 09).