“Imagine O’Connell Street without traffic lights, bus lanes or priorities for the Luas line. That’s kind of how the Internet works now,” says Brian Carrig. “I’m working on systems that will allow the Internet to operate more efficiently.”

Brian did his primary degree in Carlow IT in computer networking and he’s now studying this for part of his PhD. The project he is working on is a collaboration between the Institute of Technology, Carlow and Dublin City University. It is sponsored by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology under the Embark Initiative.

Brian was always fascinated with computers when he was younger and was really interested in the Internet and what it had to offer. “When I was about 13 my uncle gave me a Commodore-64. That sparked my interest in computers,” he says, “especially when I discovered how to connect computers together and make them talk to one another.”

Future systems

Brian is working on designing systems for the future when internet usage will have increased even more from the current high levels of usage. He says the Internet works a bit like queuing for a revolving door – everything works on a first come, first serve basis.

“Wouldn’t it be great if there were two lanes? That’s kind of what I’m working on now,” he says.

He enjoys being creative, working with a problem and looking at it from loads of different angles. “We work quite closely as a group so there’s plenty of meetings, talks and discussions,” he says.

Travel

Brian says that getting the idea and proving the idea is only 50% of the work. The other half is actually selling that idea to the wider scientific community. “We do a lot of travel around the world, for instance, I’ve gone to Las Vegas to present a paper,” he says. Travel is one of the highlights of the job for Brian.

So what’s next? “At the moment I’m working almost exclusively in a simulated environment and then once we’ve proved those concepts, we’ll develop real world routers and test them out on real world networks,” says Brian.

However, he doesn’t spend all his time behind a computer. Brian’s other interests include being a DJ on the decks.

Learn more:

Find out how internet infrastructure works

Visit Carlow Institute of Technology  and Dublin City University on the Web

Find out how the Embark Initiative invests in people and ideas