Projects per year
Personal profile
Profile
Nicholas Race is Professor of Networked Systems at Lancaster University. His research focuses on developing future networking services built upon Software Defined Networks and Network Functions Virtualisation. This includes new techniques to enhance the Quality of Experience of media streaming and support for the detection and remediation of network anomalies. He leads NG-CDI - a EPSRC/BT funded project that aims to develop a future network that is “autonomic”, with the capability to react and reconfigure infrastructure accordingly with minimal human intervention.
SUMMARY of research interests (100 words)
My research area is focused on the use of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) for a range of new networking services, with a particular emphasis on the benefits to security, monitoring and media distribution.
The application of SDN for security builds upon my previous work in developing lightweight intrusion detection mechanisms and security monitoring for Wireless Mesh Networks. In particular, recent research considers new approaches to security detection and remediation that have been made possible through the introduction of Software Defined Networking. My current work investigates how the combination of multi-stage monitoring techniques alongside SDN allows for the dynamic provisioning of resources in response to evolving monitoring conditions. Notably, our work in this area has led to the TENNISON framework which has recently been published and released as open-source software for the benefit of the security community.
I am the principal investigator of NG-CDI, an EPSRC/BT funded Prosperity Partnership. I am also the principal investigator at Lancaster of AI4ME, an EPSRC/BBC funded Prosperity Partnership and MANY. Previously I was the principal investigator at Lancaster of the 5GRIT, INITIATE, MPAT, FI-CONTENT2, STEER, GN3plus, Fed4FIRE, OFELIA and P2P-Next EU projects.
Current Teaching
SCC365: Advanced Networking
Career Details
Academic Qualifications:
Doctor of Philosophy, Lancaster (2000)
1st Class B.Sc. Hons in Computer Science, Lancaster (1996)
Employment:
Associate Dean for Research, Faculty of Science & Technology, Lancaster University, 2020 - present
Professor, School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, 2017 - present
Reader in Networking, School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, 2015 - 2017
Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, 2008 - 2015
Lecturer, Computing Department & ISS, Lancaster University, 2003 - 2008
Research Lecturer, Computing Department, Lancaster University, 2001 - 2003
Research Assistant, Computing Department, Lancaster University, 2000 - 2001
Professional Role
Editorial board member of Computer Communications
Programme Co-Chair of DE2013: Open Digital
PC Member of key conferences in my field: ACM Multimedia, Multimedia Systems (MMSys), EWSDN
Keywords
- Computing, Communications and ICT
- Communications and networking
- Computer systems
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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FARSEER: IAA: Farseer - Forecasting Asser Reliability and Repairability for Solar Energy Resilience
Austin, E. (Principal Investigator), Race, N. (Co-Investigator), Cheneler, D. (Principal Investigator) & Smith, P. (Principal Investigator)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/05/26 → 30/11/26
Project: Research
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CAIRO: CyberFocus: CAIRO: Cybersecurity Risks of Agentic-AI for Organisations
Austin, E. (Co-Investigator), Race, N. (Principal Investigator) & Wilkie, T. (Researcher)
1/01/26 → 31/08/26
Project: Research
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SL: NW Partnership: North West Partnership for Security & Trust Extension
Conchie, S. (Principal Investigator) & Race, N. (Co-Investigator)
1/10/25 → 30/09/26
Project: Research
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ICASE: Cloud XR QoE for Programable Networks at Lancaster University
Race, N. (Principal Investigator)
1/10/24 → 30/09/28
Project: Research
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HTTP version 3 for unicast delivery of video services over the Internet
Race, N. (Principal Investigator) & Garraghan, P. (Co-Investigator)
1/01/23 → 31/03/27
Project: Research
Research output
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TENNISON: A Distributed SDN Framework for Scalable Network Security
Fawcett, L., Scott-Hayward, S., Broadbent, M. H., Wright, A. & Race, N. J. P., 12/2018, In: IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. 36, 12, p. 2805 - 2818 14 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Open AccessFile22 Citations (Scopus)921 Downloads (Pure) -
Closing the gap: human factors in cross-device media synchronization
Mu, M., Fawcett, L., Bird, J., Trench-Jellicoe, J. M. E., Simpson, S., Stokking, H. & Race, N. J. P., 02/2017, In: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing. 11, 1, p. 180-195 16 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Open AccessFile6 Citations (Scopus)1345 Downloads (Pure) -
REF: Enabling Rapid Experimentation of Contextual Network Traffic Management using Software Defined Networking
Fawcett, L., Mu, M., Hareng, B. & Race, N. J. P., 07/2017, In: IEEE Communications Magazine. 55, 7, p. 144-150 7 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Citations (Scopus)1289 Downloads (Pure) -
Network service orchestration standardization: a technology survey
Rotsos, C., King, D., Farshad, A., Bird, J., Fawcett, L., Georgalas, N., Gunkel, M., Shiomoto, K., Wang, A., Mauthe, A. U., Race, N. J. P. & Hutchison, D., 11/2017, In: Computer Standards and Interfaces. 54, 4, p. 203-215 13 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Open AccessFile54 Citations (Scopus)1113 Downloads (Pure) -
A scalable user fairness model for adaptive video streaming over SDN-assisted future networks
Mu, M., Broadbent, M., Farshad, A., Hart, N., Hutchison, D., Ni, Q. & Race, N., 1/08/2016, In: IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. 34, 8, p. 2168-2184 17 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Open AccessFile39 Citations (Scopus)1334 Downloads (Pure)
Activities
- 1 Participation in conference - Academic
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FST Celebration of Science
Greyling, E. (Organiser), Haywood, K. (Organiser), Rennie, A. (Organiser), Harrison, R. (Organiser) & Race, N. (Organiser)
25/03/2026Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference - Academic
Press/Media
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Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) publishes free book detailing its origins
18/07/25
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Newspaper Article
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Fancy a game of Twicket? Marking 13 years since the #trending game and the beginnings of a community-led internet service provider
25/04/24
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Newspaper Article
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These aren’t the systems you’re looking for: SCC academics developing new way to protect industrial control systems
Greyling, E., Maesschalck, S., Race, N., Giotsas, V. & Fantom, W.
6/03/24
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Newspaper Article
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Lancaster University supports SDN development with HP Networking
25/09/14
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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Lancaster University to reduce Video-on-Demand (VoD) Service Costs for Network Operators
18/02/14
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
Impacts
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Mobile Access North Yorkshire - MANY
Race, N. J. P. (Participant) & Mason, K. J. (Participant)
Impact: Political Impacts
Datasets
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Email fraud: The search for psychological predictors of susceptibility
Jones, H. (Creator), Towse, J. (Creator), Race, N. J. P. (Creator) & Harrison, T. (Creator), Lancaster University, 12/2018
DOI: 10.17635/lancaster/researchdata/252
Dataset
File -
Dataset on Usage of a Live & VoD P2P IPTV Service
Elkhatib, Y. (Creator), Mu, M. (Creator) & Race, N. (Creator), Lancaster University, 09/2014
DOI: 10.17635/lancaster/researchdata/37, http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~elkhatib/p2p14/
Dataset