The increase in bandwidth requirements triggered by new services and much more terminals force network providers to upgrade their networks constantly. Obviously, the upgrade takes cost into account, but it should also consider bandwidth, delay, reliability, and security.

This master thesis will aim at modeling, implementing, and evaluating different access network architectures with a network planning tool. For that purpose, different tasks will be considered:

    • Define different network architectures based on the state of the art: combining PON and aggregation networks, considering dependabilities, etc.

    • Learn and select the best data and planning tool: ArcGIS, Gabriel Graphs, etc.

    • Implement planning solution: component placement, fiber/cable layout, etc. using ILP

    • Implement planning solution: component placement, fiber/cable layout, etc. using ML

    • Evaluate and compare the availability and cost of different architectures.

Example of previous work

Shahid, Arslan; Mas Machuca, Carmen: Dimensioning and Assessment of Protected Converged Optical Access Networks. IEEE Communications Magazine Vol. 55, No. 8, 2017

Python, ML, and ILP formulation.

Future IoT will need wireless links with high data rates, low latency and reliable connectivity despite the limited radio spectrum. Connected lighting is an interesting infrastructure for IoT services because it enables visible light communication (VLC), i.e. a wireless communication using unlicensed light spectrum. This work will aim at developing a tool to perform an economic evaluation of the proposed solution in the particular case of a smart office.

For that purpose, the following tasks will have to be performed:

• Definition of a high-level framework specifying the different modules that will be implemented as well as the required inputs and the expected outputs of the tool.
• Development of a cost evaluation Excel-VBA tool. This tool will allow to evaluate different variations of the selected case study and if possible, to compare different alternative models (e.g., dimensioning) or scenarios (e.g., building types).

- Excel and VBA