IoT Thrust Seminar | Counting Stars: Earth-based Strategies to Understand Space-based ISPs
Satellite communications is seeing a resurgence with new space-based ISPs such as Starlink. Using thousands of satellites in Low Earth Orbits, such megaconstellations of satellites aim to provide connectivity rivalling terrestrial broadband providers, and are largely succeeding. Yet, complexities created by the fast moving satellites may require reexamining or redesigning higher layers of the network stack. This talk will look at various ways to measure and understand the promise and pitfalls of space-based connectivity from right here on earth, using techniques ranging from browser extension-based measurements to developing a distributed testbed that aims to be a “planet lab for starlink” to developing a “digital twin” that can scale to the size of today’s megaconstellations and beyond.
Prof. Nishanth Sastry is the Director of Research for Computer Science at The University of Surrey, UK. His research spans a number of topics relating to social media, content delivery and networking, and online safety and privacy. He leads the Networked Systems Theme within the Surrey Centre for Cyber Security, co-leads the Pan-University Surrey Security Network, and is a Surrey AI Fellow. Externally, he sits on the Strategic Advisory Team for Digital Security and Resilience at the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) , and co-leads the Social Data Science Special Interest Group at the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and AI. Prof. Sastry previously worked at King’s College London. He holds a Bachelor’s degree (with distinction) from R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore University, a Master’s degree from University of Texas, Austin, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, all in Computer Science. In a previous life, he spent over six years in the Industry (Cisco Systems, India and IBM Software Group, USA) and Industrial Research Labs (IBM TJ Watson Research Center). He has also spent time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and AI Laboratory.