SCyPSCenter for Smart Cyber-Physical Systems, UMass Lowell
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Research thrusts

Next-generation optical and 6G transport

How do we get an order of magnitude more capacity out of deployed fiber without giving up service quality?

Traffic growth outpaces the capacity of the C band. The next increment comes from using more of the spectrum and more spatial paths in the same fiber, which makes provisioning far harder: impairments differ by band, by core, and by path. The center builds the algorithms and the open tools for that regime.

What the group builds

Multi-band and space-division multiplexing

Routing, modulation, core, band, and spectrum assignment treated as one allocation problem, with the trade-off between spectral and spatial scaling measured rather than assumed.

Quality-of-transmission-aware allocation

Provisioning that accounts for physical-layer impairments, including nonlinear interference that grows with load, so a lightpath is not accepted and then quietly fails.

Service prioritization for 6G transport

Fronthaul and backhaul for 6G impose latency and reliability classes on the optical layer; the group studies how to honor them under load.

Open-source, reproducible research

FUSION is a benchmarking and simulation framework built so results in this field can be reproduced and compared rather than taken on faith.

Recent papers

The newest work from the faculty on this thrust. 38 papers since 2019 carry one of their names.

  1. A. Rezaee, F. Arpanaei, R. McCann, H. Rabbani, J. A. Hernández, M. Brandt-Pearce, V. M. Vokkarane
    QoT-Aware Dynamic Resource Allocation and Grooming in Multi-Band Space-Division Multiplexing Networks
    IEEE/Optica Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, vol. 18, no. 10, Oct. 2026IF 4.0 (2023)
  2. A. Rezaee, R. McCann, V. M. Vokkarane
    FUSION: A Unified Benchmarking Framework for Reproducible Optical Network Research
    IEEE/Optica Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. D90-D105, Sept. 2026 (Special Issue on Benchmarking in Optical Networks)IF 4.0 (2023)
  3. A. Rezaee, F. Arpanaei, R. McCann, L. Nadal, J. A. Hernández, V. M. Vokkarane
    QoT-Aware Spectral and Spatial Scaling Trade-offs in Multi-Band Space Division Multiplexing over EONs [Invited]
    IEEE/Optica Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, vol. 18, no. 8, pp. C160-C172, Aug. 2026IF 4.0 (2023)
  4. H. Rabbani, A. Rezaee, H. Rabbani, V. M. Vokkarane, M. Brandt-Pearce
    Experimental Determination of Filter Bandwidth Requirements for Coherent Pluggable Transceivers in Optical Data Center Networks
    IEEE International Conference on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR), pp. 1-5, June 2026
  5. M. Z. Islam, Y. Lin, V. M. Vokkarane
    Disaster-Resilient Cyber-Physical Distribution System Reconfiguration and Dynamic Networked Microgrid Formation Under Intermittent Generation
    IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 3459-3471, Mar. 2026IF 4.2 (2023)
  6. F. Arpanaei, A. Rezaee, M. Ranjbar Zefreh, R. McCann, L. Nadal, J. M. Rivas-Moscoso, Ó. González de Dios, A. Sánchez-Macián, D. Larrabeiti, V. M. Vokkarane, J. A. Hernández
    Best Planning Practices for Ultra-High-Capacity Networks Based on Multi-Band over Space Division Multiplexing
    European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC), pp. 1-4, Sept. 2025
  7. M. Z. Islam, Y. Lin, V. M. Vokkarane
    Cyber Security Constrained Economic Dispatch for Resilient Power System Operation
    IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids (SmartGridComm), pp. 1-6, Sept. 2025
  8. M. Sasaninia, V. M. Vokkarane, Y. Lin, O. Arias
    Exploring a Smart FDI Attack and Enhancing Anomaly Detection in Smart Meters
    IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids (SmartGridComm), pp. 1-6, Sept. 2025

All publications

Other thrusts

Most projects cut across two or three of them.

Smart grid cybersecurity and resilienceAI and agentic systems for cyber-physical controlFault-tolerant distributed and edge computingHardware security and high performance computingConnected transportation, health, and infrastructureNuclear energy and security