Faycal Bouhafs is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Systems and Computing at UNSW Canberra, University of New South Wales. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Liverpool John Moores University awarded in 2007, a postgraduate qualification in Computer Science from Université de Lyon completed in 2002, and an undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene obtained in 1999. His professional career includes serving as a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Liverpool John Moores University from August 2009 to January 2020. In February 2020, he held a brief appointment as Associate Professor in the School of Engineering and Information Technology at UNSW Sydney before assuming his current role at UNSW Canberra.

Bouhafs specializes in performance and reliability aspects of wireless communication networks, encompassing programmable and software-defined wireless networks, beyond 5G and 6G communication architectures, and security in the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems. His expertise centers on wireless network management and radio resource optimization, with ongoing work on physical layer security and cybersecurity improvements in wireless networks through frameworks that employ programmability and abstraction of radio resources. He is the author of the book Communication Challenges and Solutions in the Smart Grid published by Springer in 2014, along with multiple related book chapters. Select key publications include FedHome: A federated learning framework for smart home device classification and attack detection by broadband service providers in Computer Networks (2026), ARProof: A cross-protocol approach to detect and mitigate ARP-spoofing attacks in smart home networks in Journal of Network and Computer Applications (2026), Optimizing Radio Access for Massive IoT in 6G Through Highly Dynamic Cooperative Software-Defined Sharing of Network Resources in Future Internet (2024), and his highly cited article Links to the future: Communication requirements and challenges in the smart grid in IEEE Power and Energy Magazine (2011). Bouhafs supervises PhD students and offers $35,000 AUD scholarships for research in programmable and software-defined wireless networks.

Professional Email: F.Bouhafs@unsw.edu.au