Full-time study

4 years

prof. Ing. Jaroslav Koton, Ph.D.

Chairman :
prof. Ing. Jaroslav Koton, Ph.D.
Councillor internal :
doc. Ing. Ondřej Ryšavý, Ph.D.
doc. Dr. Ing. Petr Hanáček
doc. Ing. Karel Burda, CSc.
doc. Ing. Václav Zeman, Ph.D.
prof. Ing. Jan Hajný, Ph.D.
prof. Ing. Jiří Mišurec, CSc.
Councillor external :
doc. Ing. Otto Dostál, CSc.

The student is fostered to use the theoretical knowledge and experience gained through own research activities in an innovative manner. He is able to efficiently use the gathered knowledge for the design of own and prospective solutions within their further experimental development and applied research. The emphasis is put on gaining both theoretical and practical skill, ability of self-decisions, definition of research and development hypotheses to propose projects spanning from basic to applied research, ability to evaluation of the results and their dissemination as research papers and presentation in front of the research community.

The study program aims at scientific preparation of doctoral students with deep theoretical knowledge of cryptography and system security. Most study courses are focused on applied mathematics, informatics and telecommunication technologies. The graduate has detailed knowledge about communication and information systems, data transfer and its security, including the use and design of software applications. She is able to analyze modern ciphers and cryptographic protocols, evaluate their security and propose their concrete usage in communication systems. She has a deep knowledge of operating systems, programming languages, database systems, distributed applications, etc. She is also experienced in task algoritmization. She is able to design novel technological solutions for telecommunications with high security standards. The graduate is able to understand and design modern cryptographic systems.

Graduates of the program "Information Security" will be positioned in research, development and design teams, in expert groups of production or business organizations, in the academic sphere and in other institutions involved in science, research, development and innovation, in all companies where communication systems and secure information transfer through data networks are being applied and used.
Our graduates are particularly experienced in the analysis, design, creation or management of complex systems aimed for secure data transfer and processing, as well as in the programming, integration, support, maintenance or sale of these systems.

Doctoral studies are carried out according to the individual study plan, which will prepare the doctoral student in cooperation with the doctoral student at the beginning of the study. The individual study plan specifies all the duties stipulated in accordance with the BUT Study and Examination Rules, which the doctoral student must fulfill to successfully finish his studies. These responsibilities are time-bound throughout the study period, they are scored and fixed at fixed deadlines. The student enrolls and performs tests of compulsory courses, obligatory elective subjects with regard to the focus of his dissertation, and elective courses (English for PhD students, Solutions for Innovative Entries, Scientific Publishing from A to Z).
The student may enroll for the state doctoral exam only after all the tests prescribed by his / her individual study plan have been completed. Before the state doctoral exam, the student prepares a dissertation thesis describing in detail the goals of the thesis, a thorough evaluation of the state of knowledge in the area of ​​the dissertation solved, or the characteristics of the methods it intends to apply in the solution. The defense of the controversy that is opposed is part of the state doctoral exam. In the next part of the exam the student must demonstrate deep theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of cryptology, system security, network security and electrical engineering, electronics. The State Doctoral Examination is in oral form and, in addition to the discussion on the dissertation thesis, it also consists of thematic areas related to compulsory and compulsory elective subjects.
To defend the dissertation, the student reports after the state doctoral examination and after fulfilling conditions for termination, such as participation in teaching, scientific and professional activity (creative activity) and at least a monthly study or work placement at a foreign institution or participation in an international creative project .

The doctoral studies of a student follow the Individual Study Plan (ISP), which is defined by the supervisor and the student at the beginning of the study period. The ISP is obligatory for the student, and specifies all duties being consistent with the Study and Examination Rules of BUT, which the student must successfully fulfill by the end of the study period. The duties are distributed throughout the whole study period, scored by credits/points and checked in defined dates. The current point evaluation of all activities of the student is summarized in the “Total point rating of doctoral student” document and is part of the ISP. At the beginning of the next study year the supervisor highlights eventual changes in ISP. By October, 15 of each study year the student submits the printed and signed ISP to Science Department of the faculty to check and archive.
Within the first four semesters the student passes the exams of compulsory, optional-specialized and/or optional-general courses to fulfill the score limit in Study area, and concurrently the student significantly deals with the study and analysis of the knowledge specific for the field defined by the dissertation thesis theme and also continuously deals with publishing these observations and own results. In the follow-up semesters the student focuses already more to the research and development that is linked to the dissertation thesis topic and to publishing the reached results and compilation of the dissertation thesis.
By the end of the second year of studies the student passes the Doctor State Exam, where the student proves the wide overview and deep knowledge in the field linked to the dissertation thesis topic. The student must apply for this exam by April, 30 in the second year of studies. Before the Doctor State Exam the student must successfully pass the exam from English language course.
In the third and fourth year of studies the student deals with the required research activities, publishes the reached results and compiles the dissertation thesis. As part of the study duties is also completing a study period at an abroad institution or participation on an international research project with results being published or presented in abroad or another form of direct participation of the student on an international cooperation activity, which must be proved by the date of submitting the dissertation thesis.
By the end of the winter term in the fourth year of study students submit the elaborated dissertation thesis to the supervisor, who scores this elaborate. The final dissertation thesis is expected to be submitted by the student by the end of the fourth year of studies.
In full-time study form, during the study period the student is obliged to pass a pedagogical practice, i.e. participate in the education process. The participation of the student in the pedagogical activities is part of his/her research preparations. By the pedagogical practice the student gains experience in passing the knowledge and improves the presentation skills. The pedagogical practice load (exercises, laboratories, project supervision etc.) of the student is specified by the head of the department based on the agreement with the student’s supervisor. The duty of pedagogical practice does not apply to students-payers and combined study program students. The involvement of the student in the education process within the pedagogical practice is confirmed by the supervisor in the Information System of the university.

The study program directly follows the Bachelor´s and Master´s study programs Information Security at FEKT, BUT.

1. round (applications submitted from 01.04.2021 to 15.05.2021)

1. Capacity Planning of the Heterogeneous Mobile Networks for mMTC Communication Scenarios

   Research activities and development in the area of heterogeneous communication networks aim to meet the demanding requirements of the communication networks, i.e., increased communication speeds, optimized communication latency, enhanced quality of service, and exponentially growing number of connected devices to the network. The ubiquitous connectivity is supposed to achieve while utilizing new communication principles, progressive technologies, innovative mechanisms for the management of the network resources, and essential modifications of the frequency spectrum as well as an advanced selection of the serving cells. The communication technologies operating in both licensed and license-exempt frequency bands will be then integrated into the one heterogeneous communication system. The aim of the dissertation thesis is to study up-to-date communication technologies for the communication scenarios known as massive Machine-Type Communication (mMTC). During the initial phase, the attention will be given to: (i) the communication technologies operating in the licensed frequency bands, i.e., those defined by 3GPP in the Release 13 and newer (Narrowband IoT, LTE Cat-M a 5G (NSA, SA)) and (ii) to the communication technologies utilizing the license-exempt frequency bands, i.e., (Sigfox, LoRaWAN). The initial findings will be used to fully understand the key principles of the Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) technologies. Also, to extend the knowledge, real measurement campaigns will take place using the communication prototypes built at Brno University of Technology. Finally, the obtained data will be used as the input data sets for complex simulation scenarios / analytical modeling. Next, the results will be analyzed and proposals of the new communication mechanisms targeting the optimization of the utilization of the network resources will be discussed. The attention will be focused on: (i) predictive switching between serving cells / communication technologies, (ii) optimization of the control plane traffic with the option to transmit the user data within the signaling traffic, (iii) switching between device operation states (connected, idle, power saving), (iv) forming of the MESH communication infrastructure while using the heterogeneous communication systems. Introduced principles will be then implemented within the infrastructure of the communication operator as well as on the side of the end devices. To be able to reach the above-mentioned goals, the unique laboratory at the Department of Telecommunication at BUT (UniLab) will be used. Also, while working on the dissertation thesis, cooperation with both industry and academia partners will be held.

   Supervisor: Mašek Pavel, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

2. Cyber security for Smart Metering - trade offs between security and performance

   The aim of the work is to design an optimal strategy for cyber security solutions for smart meters and related infrastructure in synergy with the impact on performance and the operation or installation itself. The main goal will be to create several strategies for the implementation of cyber security for Smart Metering and to find the optimal variant for given scenarios. The research will focus on finding trade offs between cyber security and data volumes, communication scenarios, efficiency via simulation and experimental measurements.

   Supervisor: Mlýnek Petr, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

3. Novel distributed and quasi-distributed fiber optic sensing systems

   The work focuses on the design, simulation and development of distributed and quasi-distributed fiber optic sensing systems. These systems use conventional single-mode telecommunication optical fibers, multimode fibers, polymer optical fibers (POF), microstructural fibers, multicore fibers, or other special fibers as a sensor. Using scattering phenomena (Raman, Brillouin, or Rayleigh scattering), or possibly changing the parameters of the transmitted optical signal (change in intensity, phase, polarization, etc.), it is possible to obtain information about temperature, vibration and other physical quantities along the optical fiber.

   Supervisor: Münster Petr, prof. Ing., Ph.D.

4. Research on Methods for Dynamic Management of Autonomous Cellular Networks in 5G+ Infrastructure

   Small base stations installed on autonomous devices, such as drones, are considered an important part of new generations of wireless cellular networks in order to provide additional coverage and capacity of the mobile network based on current demand. Due to the dynamic nature, traffic density and diverse requirements of modern wireless networks, flexible solutions are important for practical deployments that can respond in real time to the current requirements of modern network applications and adapt their parameters such as scalability, topology or coverage. The aim of this work is to research the mechanisms of flying base stations as an important component of emerging 5G + wireless networks. The student's task will be to make a detailed overview of existing commercial and non-commercial solutions and technologies of autonomous mobile networks and then with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to design mechanisms for dynamic topology, "on-demand" configuration and optimization of communication parameters of networks consisting of autonomous base stations with respect to basic network KPIs such as the number of users served, continuity of service or energy efficiency.

   Supervisor: Hošek Jiří, doc. Ing., Ph.D.