Researcher issued U.S. patent to prevent cyber-communication breakdowns in large-scale disasters

Large-scale natural or human-caused disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and cyberattacks on technology infrastructure may cover a vast area and cause major damage to the communication network’s physical infrastructure. Such outages lead to massive and costly loss of information for individuals, companies and governments. Examples of such failures include the 2006 earthquake in Taiwan and 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, both of which caused major communication disruption and complicated rescue-and-recovery efforts.

A researcher at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology has developed a novel solution for this problem―a solution that has now earned a United States patent.

Dr. Shahram Heydari, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Information Technology (FBIT) and his former PhD student Alireza Izaddoost (PhD, Computer Science, 2015, now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Louisiana State University) have designed a proactive controller for failure resiliency in communication networks. The controller would monitor the impact of the failure event as it spreads across a region, dynamically evaluate the probability of failures for each node in real time and transfer the network traffic to safe zones.

• Link to details about Dr. Heydari’s U.S. patent.

A Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada Discovery Grant funded the research leading to this invention.

Quote

“The primary goal in this design is to minimize the disruption of communication services by identifying and transferring communication traffic flows that are most at-risk, while making optimal use of available spare capacity in the network. This milestone would not have been achieved without the support of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology’s Office of Research Services, which took the responsibility of drafting the patent application, submission and the followup with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Our young university has successfully created an environment in which market-oriented innovation is fostered and supported.”
-Shahram Heydari, PhD, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Information Technology

Media contact
Bryan Oliver
Communications and Marketing
Ontario Tech University
905.721.8668 ext. 6709
bryan.oliver@uoit.ca