Mike Watts

Auckland Institute of Studies

Mike Watts is the head of the IT programme at Auckland Institute of Studies.

Previously, Mike was a research fellow in ecological modeling at the University of Adelaide, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Sydney and Lincoln University, and a senior teaching fellow at the University of Otago.

Mikes primary research interests are artificial intelligence, ecological modelling and how to improve the teaching of IT.

An Overview of Multimedia QoS in SDN-Enabled IP Networks

Wednesday 2:30pm - 3:00pm, CITRENZ Conference (CITRENZ 2 Room)

Although traditional IP networks have been widely adopted by societies and telecommunication services, there are still numerous concerns about them.

It is hard to implement predefined network policies and to reconfigure the network to adaptively and effectively respond to network failures, unforeseen network loads, and unexpected changes.

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a new networking paradigm designed to resolve traditional IP network shortcomings by breaking the vertical integration of control and data planes.

SDN separates the network control logic from underlying routers and switches and introduces the ability to program the network. This offers better Quality of Service (QoS) for different types of media, especially for multimedia traffic.

In this paper, we provide an overview of what has been proposed to improve the multimedia QoS in SDN-enabled networks. Additionally, we nominate two approaches that can be deployed by SDN controllers to offer better QoS for various types of media services.

Evaluating Student Support Systems for International Information Technology Students

Thursday 3:20pm - 3:50pm, CITRENZ Conference (CITRENZ 2 Room)

The academic success of every student is important for any educational institute. This is especially the case for international students, who are often paying high course fees and are adapting to what is often a completely alien education system. When students do fail their courses, it is important that their studies be placed back on track as quickly as possible.

This paper evaluates two mechanisms to do this, performance contracts, and student mentoring. The student mentoring system was found to work, but no better than the previous systems.