The objective of the InfoWin project is to provide the ACTS Information Window. This window allows information to flow from ACTS projects to the outside world, and also helps the outside world to be visible to the ACTS projects.
The window is intended to ensure that the work carried out in ACTS is timely and relevant. It ensures that ACTS participants keep an up-to-date view of the development of the market and its needs, and simultaneously it ensures visibility of the work carried out within ACTS.
To maximise the synergy to be obtained by carrying out the research and development of ACTS within the overall framework of a collaborative programme, the InfoWin project provides support for the internal communication of the ACTS programme, both within the projects and between projects and the Commission.
LION aims at giving answers to Network Operators (N.O.) about interoperability of client transport networks (e.g. ATM, SDH, IP-based) over an optical server one recommended as Optical Transport Network (OTN). In particular, the major target is to design and test over a testbed a multi-layer resilient network in a multi-domain environment. First the N.O. requirements will be defined for envisaged multi-layer network scenarios. Cost-effective integrated resilience strategies will be investigated supported by planning evaluations. The ITU-T functional modelling will be adopted to define first the OA&M and management requirements and then specifications for interfaces between network clients and OTN and between OTN domains. An "umbrella" management architecture that enables integration of TMN, WBEM, and SNMP will be designed to allow N.O. to manage the network as a whole. The above requirements and specifications will be translated into systems and sub-systems implementation to test in a testbed.
The goal is to design and test a resilient and managed transport network realised by an OTN carrying different clients (e.g. SDH, ATM, IP-based) with interworking and interconnection between layer transport networks and domains. The identified requirements will be validated in a testbed where IP-routers and SDH equipment will be integrated over an OTN infrastructure. The following objectives will be met: define the interworking and interconnection requirements between client-server layer networks and domains; define the functional requirements of an IP-based transport network; enhance the functional architecture of an OTN to account for new emerging features (e.g. digital optical container); implement, integrate and test Network Node Interfaces (NNI) between transparent domains and Client Node Interfaces (CNI), both based on digital optical container; implement, integrate and test an "umbrella" management system over a testbed; to develop and test strategies for integrated resilience controlled by an overall OA&M and a management system adopting QoS demanding applications; make techno-economic evaluations of an IP-based network over an OTN.
The following milestones/results are foreseen: integrated multi-layer network requirements and scenarios; functional description of an integrated OTN carrying multi-clients; functional requirements and implementation of CNI and NNI based on digital optical container; design of an "umbrella" management architecture implemented with CORBA and WBEM; OA&M concepts in an integrated multi-layer network; resilience interworking strategies in multi-layer networks; multi-layer resilient network planning and evaluation; testbed validation experiments.
LONG aims to foresee and solve problems related to the design, configuration and deployment of Next Generation Telecommunication networks specially when new services and applications are carried out across them.
The new version of the IP protocol, IPv6, will become an integral part of these Next Generation networks. In addition to this, the proliferation of new high bandwidth and asymmetric access technologies, like ADSL and CATV, will also shape the network design of these Next Generation Networks. On the other side, applications must be aware of the advanced services provided by the networks and protocols, and must take into account the impact of the underlying network. LONG aims at gaining an in-depth knowledge in the design and deployment of IPv4/IPv6 transition scenarios, as well as in the operational inter-working when heterogeneous access (ADSL, CATV, ISDN) and transport (IP/ATM, IP/SDH, IP/WDM) technologies are in place. The integration of IPv6 with advanced network services will be validated in LONG.
On the other hand, LONG focuses on extending the framework of applications, so that they benefit from the services provided by these Next Generation networks. In order to achieve these goals, LONG faces the following objectives:
To deploy a Next Generation testbed.
To adapt and validate a representative set of applications to the Next Generation Network scenarios.
To perform trials and experiments.
To develop guidelines for migration of networks and applications and disseminate results.
The goal of the SAM project is the design, experimentation and evaluation of architectures of an Internet network with mobility support. The project will create a network testbed by interconnecting wireless access demonstrators in the participating institutions through Red Iris 2. The following access technologies will be considered as a minimum: Wireless LANs, GPRS or UMTS. The testbed will be used to study, experiment and validate solutions to the following unresolved problems:
- Mobile access over second and third generation wireless links.
- Macromobility protocols.
- Micromobility protocols.
- Provision of QoS in a mobile context.
- IPv6 usage in a mobile context.
- Multicast in a mobile context.
- User mobility: globalization of session management.
- Provision of Security.
The project will implement, compare and validate the proposed solutions over this network testbed and will propose new solutions for the unresolved problems. The validation in real working conditions will be performed with real time synchronous collaboration services, such as the tele-meeting and teletraining services of the Isabel application. Those services are considered the most adequate for this purpose; due to the demanding operating requirements and to the benefits that mobility can offer to them. The SAM project is a continuation of the SABADOS project of the Spanish National Research Program on Information and Communication Technologies and has the objective of exploring the evolution paths for including mobility in the Spanish academic research network. SAM will take as starting point the results of SABADOS, including the already developed service platform, as well as the solutions proposed and validated for adding next generation Internet features to the present Internet architecture. The platform will be enhanced with mobility, mew proposals will be developed and special emphasis will be put on submitting results to standards organisation, in particular the IETF
The E-NEXT Network of Excellence targets a key area of Information Society Technologies, namely computer networking. Framework Programme 6 aims to develop the technological basis and the people-skills necessary to deliver the promise of the information revolution - new audio-visual services and products, electronic delivery of business, health, education, entertainment, government, science and so on - and this will fundamentally impact every aspect of life and work. The delivery of all of these e-endeavours depends entirely on computer networks.E-NEXT aims to integrate a critical mass of expertise and to re-structure research practice such that Europe can take a lead in computer networking and act as a world force in this area. The main objectives of this NoE will be: the development of a virtual research centre to integrate the world-class research of the members and to stimulate the exchange of personnel, the education and training of personnel inside and outside the network, the dissemination of research results and in general the spreading of excellence, and the stimulation of innovation by appropriate technology transfer into existing and new companies, both large and small.E-NEXT will achieve these objectives through its management structure consisting of network and country coordination committees, and six workpackages: network coordination, joint research, integration and training, distributed work environment, spreading excellence, and dissemination.E-NEXT is targeted at line 3.1.8 in the First Call for proposals, Networked Audio-Visual Systems and Home Platforms. This line aims to 'support the innovation and development of technologies for end-to-end interoperable audio-visual networks, services and applications'. E-NEXT will make a major contribution to these aims, as well as potentially contributing to other areas of IST, for example to Broadband for All, and to Research Networking.
The motivation of the EuQoS(End to end Quality of Service) project is to resolve the outstanding design issues presently associated with the delivery of end to end QoS service across heterogeneous networks. It is necessary to resolve these issues and accordingly upgrade the infrastructures so that new applications can be supported by the Internet and new service packages can be offered by operators, ISP and other service providers.
We aim to design the fundamental building block of a network monitoring infrastructure that allows researchers and network operators to process and share network data across multiple sites. CoMo supports i) arbitrary traffic queries that run continuously on the live data streams, ii) retrospective queries that analyze past traffic data to enable network forensics.
Data streams may have different formats (e.g., packet sequences, flow summaries, etc.) and originate from different platforms (e.g, passive link monitors, routers, wireless access points, etc.). CoMo can operate in the presence of different devices and data sources and provide a unified data interface to queries. Multiple CoMo systems will also cooperate to rapidly disseminate queries throughout the network of monitors, allowing operators to "drill down" to relevant data locations in the network.
SABA (New Services for the Broadband Academic Network) is a research
project integrated in the Spanish R&D Program, funded by CICYT. Its main goal is the improvement of the services offered by the present Internet by proposing new technologies, architectures, and protocols with the aim of incorporating broadband technologies.
SABA-DOS is a project which addresses the design, experimentation and evaluation of tele-meeting, tele-education/learning and tele-conference over a next generatión Internet. It supports broadband communications, multicast, quality of service control facilities and protocols like RSVP, IPv6, RTP-RTCP and other protocols which are considered to play an important role in the future Internet.
SABA-DOS is a continuation of the SABA project of the Spanish Telematic Services and Application Research Program, which maintains the objective of exploring the future paths to be followed in the Spanish Academic Research Network Red Iris. SABA-DOS will use SABA's results as the starting point and will continue evaluating new proposals for protocols and services for the next generation Internet.
A network service platform will be designed to enhances the SABA platform with the elements necessary for the creation of the services addressed in the project, such as QoS or CoS control, multicast, new protocols, etc. This platform will be used to perform service experiments including external users. The experiments will include project tele-meetings, tele-meetings with outside users, distributed courses, tele-training within the EPO and distributed seminars and congresses. This project is devoted to the experimentation and evaluation of tele-meeting, tele-education/learning and tele-conference over a broadband communication network of second generation Internet type, with multicast, quality of service control facilities and protocols like RSVP, IPv6, RTP-RTCP as a key elements of the future Internet.
Duration
31/12/99 – 30/12/01
Participants
UPM, UC3M, UPC
Description
Main objective is to propose a Packet-over-WDM network solution, including traffic properties and management, based on optical packets and asynchronous transmission over metro and backbone distances. The project will capitalise on both optics and electronics to find out the optimum combination to reach multi-Tb/s capacity. To cope with the on-going convergence in the transport of voice, data and multimedia applications, the project will also define several classes of service, adapted to optical layer specifics. On the metro side, the project will consider a buffer-less network using a medium access control protocol. The backbone will be based on 10 Tb/s multi-layer (wavelength and packet) opto-electronic medium access control protocol with opto-electronic packet routers, incorporating core and edge functions. Finally, the project will demonstrate highly integrated optical and electronic devices, included in a sub-equipped experimental platform. Work description: A first task will be to tackle the network issues: - Define network requirements and functional specifications of the network elements; - identify a migration path from short-term approaches; - Carry out traffic studies to analyse IP traffic behaviour when transported over WDM, and propose optimised buffering schemes, access control protocols and routing algorithms taking into account a multi-QoS environment; - Investigate network management issues, such as interoperability between packet and WDM levels. A second task will be to investigate and implement the required network elements: - A network testbed will be implemented with its associated access control protocol to show a buffer-less multi-QoS optical packet metro network of capacity beyond 1Tb/s (2.5Gb/s line-rate); - A 10-Tb/s opto-electronic optical packet router (2.5/10Gb/s line-rate) incorporating gateway functions between metro and backbone will be implemented using a two-layer (wavelength and packet) approach; A third task will be to provide the required advanced components: - Fast and highly integrated optical space and wavelength switching modules, based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (up to 32 gates per module), and incorporating adapted high-speed electronic drivers; - electronics for clock recovery, buffering, and switching will be developed, based on SiGe and III/V technologies. Milestones: - Functional definition and migration path of optical-packet-over-WDM scenario - Analysis of traffic models and logical network performance; - Info-model of packet/WDM management; - Test-bed including metro network, optical packet router and interfaces to IP - New architectures and routing techniques, 40Gb/s studies; - Optical switch modules (32 gates); - Electronics for signal processing.
The Network of Excellence (NoE) e-Photon/One focuses on the 'Broadband for All' strategic objective of the IST 1st call, targeting network-oriented and system-oriented aspects of the optically enabled Broadband.
The Integrated Multimedia Project (IMMP) primarily studies the integration of interactive multimedia services and system architectures addressing both residential and business users and focusing on the overlaps and synergy between the two. The main focus is on investigating and using IP/ATM connections and using applications relevant to the business sector. The evolution towards new multimedia applications will take place in a step by step fashion with successful services developed only after extensive end-user evaluations. This process will be followed in the project emphasising end-user trials and the feedback from them. t is necessary for IMMP to conduct focused trials with selected services to understand the key ssues (technical, human and commercial) which will affect the successful deployment d end user acceptance of such services. Of particular relevance will be common new services that can be utilised in both business and residential areas.
Past Projects 
The Integrated Multimedia Project (IMMP) primarily studies the integration of interactive multimedia services and system architectures addressing both residential and business users and focusing on the overlaps and synergy between the two. The main focus is on investigating and using IP/ATM connections and using applications relevant to the business sector. The evolution towards new multimedia applications will take place in a step by step fashion with successful services developed only after extensive end-user evaluations. This process will be followed in the project emphasising end-user trials and the feedback from them. t is necessary for IMMP to conduct focused trials with selected services to understand the key ssues (technical, human and commercial) which will affect the successful deployment d end user acceptance of such services. Of particular relevance will be common new services that can be utilised in both business and residential areas.