Prof. Liam Barry
Contact Information :
School of Electronic Engineering
Dublin City University
Dublin 9
Ireland.
email : liam.barry@dcu.ie
Tel. : +353 1 700-5431
Fax : +353 1 700-5508
Biography
Liam Barry received his BE (Electronic Engineering) and MEngSc (Optical Communications) degrees from University College Dublin in 1991 and 1993 respectively. From February 1993 until January 1996 he was employed as a Research Engineer in the Optical Systems Department of France Telecom’s Research Laboratories (now known as Orange Labs) in Lannion, France. During this period his research involved the use of ultra short optical pulses in high capacity optical networks, and as a result of this work he obtained his PhD Degree from the University of Rennes in France. In February 1996 he joined the Applied Optics Centre in Auckland University, New Zealand, as a Research Fellow. His work in New Zealand was mainly concerned with optical pulse generation and measurement, and the use of optical nonlinearities for high speed all-optical switching in fibre networks.
In March 1998 he took up a lecturing position in the School of Electronic Engineering at Dublin City University, and established the Radio and Optical Communications Laboratory. From April 2006 until February 2010 he served as Director of The Rince Institute, an interdisciplinary research centre with over 100 researchers, and from 2012 until 2016 he was Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing. He is currently a Full Professor in the School of Electronic Engineering, a Principal Investigator for Science Foundation Ireland and Director of the Radio and Optical Communications Laboratory. His teaching responsibilities currently include a 3rd year course on Digital and Analogue Electronics and a combined 4th year and Masters course on Optical Communication Systems Design. His main research interests are; all-optical signal processing, optical pulse generation and characterization, hybrid radio/fibre communication systems, wavelength tuneable lasers for reconfigurable optical networks, and optical frequency combs for high capacity systems, and he has published over 250 articles in internationally peer reviewed journals, 300 papers in international peer reviewed conferences, and holds 9 patents in the area of optoelectronics. He has supervised 37 research graduate students to completion, with 29 at PhD level and 8 at Masters level.
He was a TPC member for the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) from 2004 to 2016 and served as conference chair for ECOC in Dublin in 2019. He also served as a TPC member for the Optical Fibre Communication Conference (OFC) from 2007 to 2010, serving as Chair of the Optoelectronic Device Strand in 2010, and has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Photonics Journal and IEEE/OSA Journal of Optical Communications and Networks. He became a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2019 and was appointed to the Board of the Irish Research Council by the Minister of Education in 2019.
FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS (Title, Funding Amount, Length of Grant, Funding Programme)
Ultra-fast optical-switching for communications networks and optical computing
NZ$19,000 1 year (1997) University of Auckland Research Committee
Development of a source of picosecond optical pulses for communications
€12,000 3 years (1998 – 2001) DCU Research Committee
Broadband Access Networks using hybrid radio/fibre systems
€40,000 2 years (1999 – 2001) Enterprise Ireland and ESAT Telecom Applied Research
Research Institute for Networks and Communications Engineering (RINCE)
€7.7 million 1999 – 2002 HEA Programme for Research in Third Level Institutes (PRTLI)
Original member of the 18 strong team involved in developing RINCE proposal. €600,000 of funding for the Radio and Optical Communications Group.
Developing Terabit networks using picosecond optical pulse sources
€3,800 1 year (2000) Enterprise Ireland International Collaboration
Characterisation of fibre parameters of ALLWAVE fibre
€12,000 1 year (2000) Lucent Technologies
Investigate of two photon absorption micro-cavity semiconductor devices
€89,000 2 years (2000 – 2002) Enterprise Ireland Basic Research
Generation and propagation of optical solitons around 1.4 microns
€10,000 1 year (2000) DCU Research Committee
Characterization of optical data transmitters for 40 Gbit/s photonic systems
€40,000 1 year (2002) Corvis Corporation
Innovative photonic devices for optical signal processing in high speed communication systems (collaboration with TCD)
€330,000 (DCU Share €177,000) 3 years (2002-2005) Enterprise Ireland Advanced Technology Research
All-optical processing in Terabit/s photonic networks using semiconductor optical amplifiers (collaboration with University of Limerick)
€994,000 (DCU Share €456,000) 4 years (2003-2006) SFI Investigator Programme
High Speed (50GHz) characterisation and packaging capability (Collaborative submission from 10 SFI Principal Investigators)
€596,550 (DCU Share €59,655) SFI Equipment Supplement Grant
Applications of fast wavelength tuneable lasers in future high speed optical networks (collaboration with UCC and INTUNE Technologies)
€999,800 (DCU Share €812,700) 4 years (2004 – 2008) SFI Investigator Programme
Optical Source for use in broadband photonic communication systems
€80,000 1 year (2004-2005) EI Proof of Concept
Emerging Network Architectures strand within SFI Centre for Telecommunications Value-chain driven Research
€26 million (CSET funding) (DCU Share €173,800) 5 years (2004 – 2008) SFI CSET
Development of 160 Gbit/s Optical Network Test-Bed
€15,000 1 year (2004) School of Electronic Engineering
High Speed Optical Signal Characterisation
€2,500 1 year (2005-2006) Enterprise Ireland ULYSSES Scheme
Training of Secondary School Science Teachers in SFI funded research groups
€19,500 3 months (2005) SFI STARS Programme
Micro-cavity Devices for processing in Optical Networks (Collaboration with Trinity College)
€360,000 (DCU Share €221,000) 2 years (2006-2008) EI Commercialisation Fund Technology Development
Investigation of optical feedback into photonic bandgap devices (Collaboration with Eblana Photonics)
€128,000 2 years (2006-2008) SFI Industrial Partnership Programme
Study of the origin and control of single photon absorption in microcavity structures for optical thresholding applications (Collaboration with Trinity College)
€190,000 (DCU Share €85,000) 3 years (2006-2009) SFI Research Frontiers Programme
Training of Secondary School Science Teachers in SFI funded research groups
€18,700 3 months (2006) SFI STARS Programme
High-Speed Optimized Pulse Source
€262,400 2 years (2006-2008) EI Commercialisation Fund Technology Development
Saturable Absorbers for All-Optical Sampling
€106,000 1.5 years (2007-2008) EI Commercialisation Fund Proof of Concept
Hybrid Radio over Fiber Systems for Ultra WideBand Transmission Networks
€140,000 3 years (2007-2010) SFI Research Frontiers Programme
Training of Secondary School Science Teachers in SFI funded research groups
€19,000 3 months (2007) SFI STARS Programme
Nanoscience and Nano-scale technologies for Ireland (INSPIRE)
€2,472,000 3 years (2007-2010) HEA Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI Cycle IV)
PIFAS (Photonic Integration; From Atoms to Systems)
€283,000 5 years (2007-2012) SFI Cluster Programme (in collaboration with Tyndall Institute and TCD)
Modelling and Optimisation Optical Burst Switched Network Architectures
€160,000 3 years (2008-2011) SFI Research Frontiers Programme
Picosecond Integrated Optical Pulse Source
€242,400 2.5 years (2008-2011) EI Commercialisation Fund Technology Development
Tuneable Lasers in Metro and Access Networks (Collaboration with Tyndall, UCD, Intune, and Eblana)
€784,800 (DCU Share €512,700) 4 years (2010 – 2014) SFI Investigator Programme
Reconfigurable Optical Access Networks using Coherent Transmission
€213,000 2.5 years (2010-2013) EU Marie Curie and IRCSET INSPIRE Fellowship for Dr. Robert Maher
Use of Advanced Modulation formats in optical packet switched networks
€72,000 3 years (2008-2011) IRCSET Postgraduate Scholarship for Mr. Tam N. Huynh
Wavelength Division Multiplexed Optical Access Networks using Tunable Laser Transmitters
€74,000 4 years (2008-2012) China Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship for Mr. Rui Zhou
Optical Comb Sources for Photonics Systems (OPTICOMB)
€86,800 1 years (2010 – 2011) Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund
Photonic Generation of microwave and millimeter wave signals
€116,000 4 years (2010-2015) IRCSET ICGEE Postgraduate Scholarship for Mr. Eamonn Martin
Integrated Nanoscience Platform for Ireland -2 (INSPIRE 2)
€522,000 3 years (2011-2015) HEA Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI Cycle V)
Photonics strand within SFI Centre for Telecommunications Research (CTVR 2)
€20 million (CSET funding) (DCU Share ~€800,000) 5 years (2010 – 2015) SFI CSET
Coherent Hetrodyne Optical Phase Interregator (CHOPIN)
€232,400 2.5 years (2011-2014) EI Commercialisation Fund Technology Development
Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC)
€20 million (DCU Share ~€600,000) 6 years (2013-2019) SFI Centres Programme
Terabit Optical Transponders (TOPCAT)
€342,000 2.5 years (2013-2016) EI Commercialisation Fund Technology Development
BIGPIPES (Photonics technologies for future data centre interconnects)
€4 million (DCU Share ~€500,000) 3.5 years (2013-2017) European Union FP7 Programme
Far Infra Red Local Oscillator FIRLO)
€700,000 5 years (2013-2018) European Space Agency contract
CONNECT — Irish Telecommunications Centre
€20 million (DCU Share ~€280,000) 6 years (2014-2020) SFI Centres Programme
Agile Photonic Networking for Optical Data Centres
€900,000 3 years (2015-2018) SFI Centre to Centre Programme
Optical Signal Characterisation Facility
€727,000 1 year (2017) SFI Infrastructure Programme
Tuneable Lasers for Sensing Applications
€212,000 2 years (2017-2019) Industrial Contract with FAZ Technologies
Compact Optical Technologies for Atomic Clocks
€127,000 3 years (2018-2021) European Space Agency contract
EPSRC-SFI:Energy Efficient M Communication using Combs
€525,000 5 years (2019-2024) EPSRC-SFI Collaborative Research Programme
Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC)
€26 million (DCU Share ~€390,000) 6 years (2019-2025) SFI Centres Programme
FreeSpace Optical Communications for 5/6G Networks
€767,000 3 years (2020-2023) Enterprise Ireland Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund
The Radio and Optical Communications Group was established in 1999 as part of the HEA Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI). The focus of the laboratory is to develop innovative devices, systems and technologies for future broadband communication and sensing systems. The Laboratory has the ability to accurately characterize novel high speed devices, and sub-systems including:
- Initial simulation/modeling of the optical and optoelectronic devices
- Complete systems simulations to demonstrate device performance
- Detailed characterization of optical and optoelectronic devices
- Performance testing of novel devices & sub-systems in coherent & direct detection testbed (56Gbaud PAM4, 33Gbaud 64QAM, 100G OFDM, etc.)
Some of the key research programmes in the laboratory are as follows:
- Applications of tuneable laser diode in optical networks
- Generation, characterisation & optimisation of optical frequency combs for spectrally efficient systems
- Development of all-optical processing technologies for Tb/s systems
- Design of hybrid radio/fibre systems for broadband access and 5G networks
- Design, realization & characterization of new lasers for THz emission and sensing applications
- Characterizations of novel single mode lasers for access networks
- Implementation of novel modulation formats for optical systems
Completed Masters Students
Benn Thomsen, Generation and Characterisation of Ultra-short Optical Pulses at 1550 nm. MSc, November 1999.
Frank Smyth, Performance issues in radio over fibre systems due to non-linear distortion effects in laser transmitters. MEng, June 2004.
Antonia Dantcha, Characterisation of wavelength tuneable lasers for use in packet-switched optical networks. MEng, August 2005.
Ling Hu, Investigation of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering Effects in Radio-over-Fiber distribution systems. MEng, May 2006.
Marc Rensing, Ultra-short pulse generation for development of OTDM communication systems. MEng, August 2006.
Brian Sheehy, Development of high power laser sources. MEng, September 2016.
Sohini Basu, Optical switching technologies for future data centres. MEng, September 2017.
Paul Sheridan, Development of high capacity transmission systems for future optical access networks. MEng, September 2021.
Completed Doctoral Students:
Benn Thomsen, All-optical switching and sampling using TPA based devices for ultra-fast photonic systems. PhD, November 2002.
Prince Anadarajah, Generation and Optimisation of picosecond pulses for use in hybrid WDM/OTDM Networks. PhD, November 2003.
Alexsandra Kaszubowska, Broadband access networks using hybrid radio/fibre systems. PhD, November 2004.
Paul Maguire, Optical pulse generation and signal processing for the development of high-speed OTDM Networks. PhD, May 2006.
Bartek Klusek, Optical Burst Switching in next generation photonic networks. PhD. August 2006.
Aisling Clarke, Optical Pulse Processing towards Tbit/s Photonic Systems. PhD, March 2007.
Eoin Connolly, Investigation of Wavelength Tunable Laser Modules for use in Future Optical Switched Dense WDM Networks. PhD, December 2007.
Frank Smyth, Investigation of Performance Issues Effecting Circuit and Packet Switched Optical WDM Network. PhD, September 2008.
Robert Maher, Wavelength tunable pulse transmitters for future reconfigurable agile optical networks. PhD, February 2009.
Kyzysztof Bondarczuk, All-optical processing for Terabit/s WDM systems using two-photon-absorption in a semiconductor microcavity. PhD, March 2009.
Karl Dexter, Noise Suppression in OCDMA Networks using Nonlinear Optical Devices. PhD, September 2010.
Haymen Shams-Eldin, Use of Optical Technologies for Distribution of Ultra-Wideband RF signals through fibre. PhD, April 2011.
Daniele Tafani, Analytic Modeling and Resource Dimensioning of Optical Burst Switched Network Architectures. PhD, March 2012.
Kai Shi, Investigation of Wavelength Tunable Lasers for use in Coherent Optical Communication Systems. PhD, April 2012.
John O Carroll, Use of slotted Fabry-Perot Laser for Developing Optical Access Networks. PhD, July 2013.
Colm Browning, Investigation of advanced modulation formats in fast reconfigurable optical networks. PhD, September 2013.
Tam N.Huynh, Use of optically coherent transmission in high capacity packet switched networks. PhD, June 2014.
Rui Zhou, Optical Frequency Comb Source for next generation access networks. PhD, September 2014.
Eamonn Martin, Photonic generation of microwave and millimetre waves for radio over fibre distribution. PhD, May 2015.
Anthony Walsh, Optimising the efficiency of coherent optical packet switched networks. PhD, July 2015.
Arsalan Saljoghei, Integrated distribution of wired and wireless services using a passive optical access networks. PhD, May 2016.
Sepideh Naimi, All-optical wavelength conversion of higher-order modulation format data signals. PhD, June 2016.
Vidak Vujicic, Optical multicarrier sources for spectrally efficient transport networks. PhD, June 2016.
Jingyan Wang, Perfromance Analysis of optical packet switching in high performance computing and datacentre networks. PhD, August 2016.
Fernando Gutierrez, Multi-carrier electro-optical transceivers based on analogue signal processing. PhD, October 2016.
Marcel Zeiler, Radiation Hard Silicon Photonics for future high energy physics experiments. PhD, June 2017.
Desi Gutierrez, Development and Investigation of Optical Frequency Combs for Photonic Communication Systems. PhD, September 2017.
Mohamed Omar Sahni, Contribution to the study of techniques for phase noise reduction in mode-locked diodes for optical telecommunications. PhD, September 2018.
Yi Lin, Developing coherent optical wavelength conversion systems for reconfigurable photonic networks. PhD, September 2020.
1995-1997 Optoelectronics and Communication Systems (Auckland University, New Zealand)
Taught Masters level course comprising of an basic optoelectronics and its application to optical communication systems.
1998 – to date Optical Transmission and Switching Systems (Dublin City University, Ireland)
Final level of the undergraduate engineering degree programme. The material deals with the fundamentals required to understand the operation of an optical communication system
1999 – to date Advanced Optical Networking (Dublin City University, Ireland)
Taught Masters level course dealing with the technologies required to develop advanced optical networking systems.
1999 – 2008 Electromagnetics (Dublin City University, Ireland)
Third level of the undergraduate engineering degree programme. Responsible for teaching 40% of this course dealing with the basic of optical fibre waveguides.
1999 – 2002 Electronic Fundamentals (Dublin City University, Ireland)
First level of the undergraduate engineering degree programme. The material deals with the basics of electronic engineering
2018 – to date Digital and Analog Electronics (Dublin City University, Ireland)
First level of the undergraduate engineering degree programme. The material deals with the basics of electronic engineering
1998 – to date Supervised Projects (Taught Programmes)
Undergraduate (Final Year Projects) 132
M.Eng / Grad. Dipl 72