Internship / Master Thesis Student Multi-Path Transport Protocols (m/f/d)

The DLR Institute of Communications and Navigation is dedicated to mission-oriented research in selected areas of communications and navigation. Its work ranges from the theoretical foundations to the demonstration of new procedures and systems in a real environment and is embedded in DLR's Space, Aeronautics, Transport, Security and Digitalization programmes.

What to expect

One area of work within the Satellite Networks Division is the Integrated Satellite Systems Research Group, which focuses on the design and development of new concepts for secure, satellite-based communication systems and their integration with other systems, adopting an application-oriented approach. In particular, the systems under consideration cover the entire spectrum of satellite communication applications within the context of integrating Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) into 5G and 6G networks. These include mobile and broadband satellite systems, systems for commercial or government applications, as well as IoT and edge computing applications.

The internship/thesis focuses on the performance evaluation of multi-path transport protocols such as MPTCP and MPQUIC for 6G integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), as well as the design of AI/ML algorithms (e.g. Deep Reinforcement Learning, Q-Learning) for traffic scheduling across these networks. The work will be based on reference implementations of the two protocols, which may be extended and tested using Linux systems.

Your tasks

• Conducting a fundamental literature review on the state of the art
• Setting up the reference transport protocols (MPTCP/MPQUIC)
• Designing and implementation of an AI/ML solution for path selection
• Conducting performance tests in a Linux environment with emulated NTN and terrestrial networks
• Analyzing the results obtained

Your profile

• A completed bachelor’s degree in engineering (e.g., electrical engineering, information technology, or telecommunications) or a related degree programme
• Knowledge in the field of telecommunications engineering, particularly in the area of communications networks
• Strong software engineering skills, as well as knowledge of communication protocols and network/system simulation
• Practical experience with the Linux operating system
• Excellent English skills
• Desirable: A good understanding of satellite communications and experience in the Go programming language

 We look forward to getting to know you!

If you have any questions about this position (Vacancy-ID 6495) please contact:

Benjamin Barth

Tel.: +49 (0) 8153 28 4259