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| Experimental applications demonstrate the capabilities of advanced communications in a variety of business and public service sectors. They permit evaluation of potential advantages in terms of efficiency, reliability, or in terms of providing an alternative to the drainage of natural resources or to further damaging the environment. At a more specialised and technical level, it is helpful that common interest groups experiment with emerging technologies to understand the requirements of potential users. Ultimately, such interest groups may identify "best practices", for applying the technology in products. |
The ACTS Programme is oriented towards end-users of advanced communication and thei needs. Much of ACTS research is linked to existing trials, an approach which ensures the relevance of the results and broadens the awareness of benefits realised by advanced communications.
ACTS experimentation is broadly classified in three main types:
- Usage trials where end-users of advanced services experiment with and demonstrate innovative uses for their own business, public service or personal interests.
Usage trials in ACTS are being carried out in many industries and business sectors, including tourism, insurance, shipping, the legal, publishing and entertainment sectors, the public service sector (e.g. health care, education) and more generally, in the many different forms of electronic commerce.
- Service trials enable advanced communication services to be demonstrated and tested by network operators and service providers. Both validate standards and inter-operation protocols and to stimulate demand and new applications.
ACTS trials in this category include the development of co-operative working, video-on-demand, interactive and digital TV. To give examples of the scope of such trials, there is a need for standardised secure payment systems to support everyday commercial transactions, and a standard copyright mechanism to protect the digital products of European Union service providers against large-scale commercial piracy and illegal copying.
- Technology trials focuse on the testing of individual prototype components and complex platforms with an operational environment.
These include experimental multimedia storage and retrieval systems, optical transmission systems, optical components and mobile communication systems.
All RTD projects undertake experimentation in the context of one or more existing trials of advanced communications. Information on these can be found under the corresponding projects:
Synopsis of Projects' Experimentation and Trials
(sorted alphabetically by project acronym)
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W
Projects by Title
(includes detailed descriptions on each trial)
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W
Projects by Number
AC001-AC050 | AC051-AC100 | AC101-AC115 | AC201-AC242 | AC301-AC367 | EP29212, P056, P210, P258
Projects by Chain groups and Domains |
