1. Department of
Communications
Comnet
Communications
and Networking
(Comnet)

2. Comnet
• Personnel: ~140
• 7 tenured professors + 2 others
+ 2 being filled
• Head of Department:
Prof. Riku Jäntti
19.8.2013
Comnet
2
Comnet is a multi-disciplinary unit of research and higher education covering
communications and networking technology, networking business and human aspects of
communications. In its area, Comnet is the largest unit in Finland.
http://comnet.aalto.fi/en/

3. Income 2012: 9 909 887 € (External funding64%)
36 %
23 %
5 %
1 % 2 %
2012 Income distribution
Aalto funding
Academy of Finland
8/19/2013
Comnet
3
9 %24 %
23 %
Tekes
Finnish companies
EC funding
Other funding
Internal funding (MIDE etc.)

4. From rapid growth towards steady
state
0
500 000
1 000 000
1 500 000
2 000 000
2 500 000
3 000 000
3 500 000
4 000 000
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2011 2012
8/19/2013
Comnet
4
2008
2009
2010
2011 2012
80
85
90
95
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
Person years

5. Publications
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
90
141 143
170
186
All publications
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
60
53
60
Journal articles
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
8/19/2013
Comnet
5
0
20
40
60
0
20
40
27
32 33
53

6. Degrees
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Comnet
6
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
D.Sc. (Tech.) 2 4 7 8 7
Lic.Sc. (Tech.) 3 1 1 2
M.Sc. (Tech.) 81 91 144 68 58

7. Professors
Raimo Kantola Jukka MannerJörg Ott Patric Östergȧrd
Internet Technology
Communications engineering Communications ecosystems
Information theory
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Comnet
7
Riku Jäntti Olav Tirkkonen Jyri Hämäläinen Heikki Hämmäinen
Communications engineering Communications ecosystems
Antti Oulasvirta

8. Comnet
Comnet Research

9. Comnet: Fundamental & Applied
Research
Increasing TechnologyIncreasing Technology
Capabilities
Growing Role of
Comnet
Research:
Strong industry
background
Grand Challenges
8/19/2013
Comnet
9
Growing Role of
Software
Deep Embedding in
Society
Focus
Areas
Fundamental
Research Themes
Strategic Future
Network Research

10. Research Themes & Focus Areas
Communications ecosystems
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Comnet
10

11. Research and Societal/Industrial
Impact
COMNET
Usage traces
PrototypesPrototypes
Experience Publications
Scientific
testbeds
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11
Research
Usage traces
SoftwareSoftware
Field data Knowledge
Controlled lab
environment
SocietySociety

12. Grand Challenges
Carbon-neutral networking
• Sustainable communications
• Connecting the remaining 2 billion to mobile and 5 billion to
Internet
Instant wireless Internet
• Wireless access delays below the limit of human
Source: EU FP7 project EARTH
Source: NSN
• Wireless access delays below the limit of human
perception
Scaling the Internet to a thousand devices per user
• Internet of things, cyber-physical systems
Secure cyber space
• Network security, trust, critical infrastructure protection
8/19/2013
Comnet
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Source: Ericsson
“Aalto University found a total of 2 915
automation devices in Finland that were
accessible to just about anybody
through the Internet – and vulnerable to
cyber attacks.”

13. Communications and Information
Theory
Computational methods in discrete
matematics and information theory
Prof. Östergård
• Mathematical objects (existence and classification
problems)
• Combinatorial algorithms
libexact package
Advanced Transmission Methods
Professors Hämäläinen and Tirkkonen
• Space-time block codes,
• Codeboodk design for MIMO systems
• Optimized CQI feedback
• Nonlinearity (DirtyRF)
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Comnet
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Beamforming codebooks based on
Grassmannian Packings

14. Advanced Radio Communication
Systems (1/2)
Professors Hämäläinen, Jäntti and Tirkkonen
Cognitive radio and spectrum aware
communications
• Co-primary and secondary sharing
• Overlay (black space) and underlay (D2D)
transmissions
• Interference modeling and control
Cognitive radio network
testbed
• Interference modeling and control
Wireless broadband systems and system
optimization
• HETNETS and deployable networks
• Small cells, relays
• Self-organization & self-optimization
• RRM
• Energy efficiency
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Comnet
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TVWS Assesment tool
http://quasar.netlab.hut.fi/
3GPP compliant simulation tools

15. Advanced Radio Communication
Systems (2/2)
Wireless Sensor Systems
Professors Jäntti and Ott
• Real-time sensing
• HW & SW Architectures
• Development and testing tools
• Protocols
• IoT, automation, and military applications
pRoot node and middeware
• IoT, automation, and military applications
• RF tomographic imaging and Device Free Localization
(DFL)
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Comnet
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DFL System
http://wsn.aalto.fi/en/

16. Performance analysis and teletraffic
theory
Queuing theory and teletraffic theory
Docent Aalto
• Age and size based scheduling
• Dispatching problems
• Flow level performance analysis
• Internet traffic engineering
• P2P, wireless networks, M2M communications,…
Size- and state aware dispatching
Performance measurements
Prof. Manner
• Energy-consumption measurements
• Experimental data center
• Internet traffic measurements
• Mobile access speed measurement service: Netradar
(http://www.netradar.org/en)
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Comnet
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Comnet data center
Netradar

17. Internet technologies (1/2)
Professors Kantola, Manner, and Ott
Networking technology
• Carrier grade Ethernet
• Access and core networks
• Software defined networking (OpenFlow)
• Energy efficient communications and networking
Network security and trust
• Internet wide trust / Evolution of cooperation
• Customer edge switching
• Cyber security: Security of critical infrastructure
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Comnet
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I
Plausible
deniability
ControllerOperations
center
Actual
target
Entry
host
Internet
C&C
Dropper
Weapons assembly
-platform components
-payloads
Module
library
Control place for Carrier-Grade
Ethernet Network
Analysis of Cyber weapons and
attacks

18. Internet technologies (2/2)
Internet protocols
• End-to-end transport, multipath transport, flow and
congestion control
• Customer Edge Traversal
• Transport layer cognitivity
• Opportunistic Networking
• DTN routing, transport, and application protocols
• P2P
• Content-based networking
The ONE simulator for Opportunisti Networking
http://www.netlab.tkk.fi/tutkimus/dtn/theone/• Content-based networking
• Multimedia protocols
• Energy efficient operation
• IETF standardization
Military communications
• Tacoms - Tactical Communications for Federated
Network Environment
• Generic messaging protocol (MICS)
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Comnet
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http://www.netlab.tkk.fi/tutkimus/dtn/theone/
Proxies for Energy-Efficient Web Access

19. Network Economics
Prof. Hämmäinen
Quantitative analysis of mobile user behavior
• Challenging the boundaries of complex data mining,
privacy
• Understand the behavior in context, social activity and
service adaption/diffusion
Contextual patterns in mobile service usage
Optimal industry and technical architecture for
flexible radio access
• Enable flexible spectrum use: Technical, regulatory and
economic rules
Techno-economic bottlenecks of Internet
scalability
• Identify and eliminate techno-economical bottlenecks
preventing the scaling of Internet
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Comnet
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Spectrum regulation phase diagram
Contextual patterns in mobile service usage

20. Comnet
Comnet Education
19.8.2013
Laitoksen nimi
20

21. Master’s programs
Two international Master’s
programs (120 ECTS):
• Communications Engineering (Oldest
International Master’s program in Aalto)
• Communications Ecosystems
• New ’ICT’ program 2015? 150
200
250
300
350
Communications
Engineering (Tot)
CE/Networking
Technology
CE/Radio
Communications
CE/Digital Signal
195
102
Several dual-degree programs
• Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH),
Sweden
• Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya
(UPC), Spain
• Universidade Técnica de Lisboa,
Portugal
• Telecom SudParis, France
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Comnet
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http://www.aalto.fi/en/studies//education/programme/comm
unications_engineering_master/
http://www.aalto.fi/en/studies//education/programme/comm
unications_ecosystem_master/
0
50
100
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
CE/Digital Signal
Processing
Communications
Ecosystem
47
46
19