Liam Pattinson

Research

I am working in collaboration with BT Research to develop methods for crosstalk analysis. Though optical fibre technology plays a crucial role in providing internet services, most homes and businesses are connected using copper wires originally intended to support the telephone network. Coupling between these wires limits the maximum achievable data-rates, and due to economic constraints they are unlikely to be replaced with fibre in the near-future. By improving our understanding of crosstalk, it is hoped that more effective countermeasures may be developed in order to meet ever-increasing consumer demands for more data.

My research is focused primarily on the development of finite-difference and finite-volume methods for electromagnetic modelling in the time domain. These techniques offer wide-band results in a single run, and scale extremely well in parallel. By modelling electrical systems using full-wave methods, it is possible to capture transient solutions and geometric effects which can't be obtained using circuit models.