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Reconfigurability Cluster. Meeting 20/21 June
News from EC
GEANT
GEANT is the backbone network that will support research. It supersedes TEN155 (QUANTUM), from which it has evolved. It will form a pan-European interconnect for NRENs with extended coverage outside current EU members.
It provides a testbed for EU R&D via a very high speed network linking research, education, and knowledge resources based on local, national, public and commercial networks. It will allow distributed computing systems to be exploited. Its capability enhanced by results of R&D - thus forming a feedback loop.
Current capacity is often > 2.5Gbps, and in the core network > 10Gbps. 622 MBps is installed to North America. Geant is a pure IP network using POS - ATM does not scale economically. because of this it loses the resilience of SDH so there will be redundant connectivity for reliability.
Resources will probably be provided via VPNs (MPLS?, DiffServ? - to be decided).
Project started in June 2000 with a target to sign contracts in June 2001 and becoming operational Nov. 2001. As of June 2001, infrastructure contracts are in the final stages of preparation with 9 operators, 3 providing core capacity.
Cost has fallen dramatically in liberalised areas, still higher in monopolistic areas. 10-fold reduction in some cases.
Point of presence statistics:
- 27 PoPs for 32 NRENs;
- 8 PoPs at > 10 Gbs;
- 9 PoPs at > 2.5 Gbps;
European Distributed Access removes need for direct connection to PoPs for individual NRENs. Global connectivity with other areas is in hand.
The Geant contact point is DANTE.
Future IST Calls - 7, 7-bis, 8
The main points are:
- Call 7 (June 2001, 450 MEuro), 7-bis (Sept 2001, 25MEuro), 8, (end 2001, 330 MEuro).
- Call 7 opens all action lines again: IV.5.1, 2, 3.
- Reconfigurable Radio - includes topics not adequately covered.
- Terrestrial Systems - work still needed on QoS issues, optimisation for heterogeneity and assymetry, roaming for LCS, mobility in IPv6, novel systems (HAPs), technological and algorithmic development and demonstration to enhance network performance.
- Satellite Systems - complement space agency work, avoid overlap.
- Call 7bis - Mobile Initiative (not yet fully approved, expected in summer). Take-up measure at 50% full cost apart from SMEs.
- Push trials of 2.5G, 3G applications and services. Information day on 19th Sept.2001. See web page on CORDIS.
- Consortia must include service providers, operators and manufacturers. Max 18 months duration. Total budget 25 MEuro (5 projects or fewer). Main issues: interoperability and standards, pan-European roaming (esp. GPRS), micro-payment systems, business models, security, IPv6. Applications for LCS, commerce, business, entertainment, health.
- Call 8 - not much to say right now.
FP6 Status and IST Perspectives
Refer to IST FP6 Consultation Report for most context/information.
Some key points:
- Aiming for adoption in June 2002, after first reading by Parliament on July 2001;
- Instruments should be finalised by mid-July 2000 - many clarifications have been requested by Council and Parliament;
- WWRF workshops and Consultation meetings have been held;
- Context is long-term for systems beyond 3G. See Consultation meeting report for most material;
- Some relevant work starting already: MIND is looking at ad-hoc networking; but other areas, e.g. VPDNs, are not covered. Assymetry will dominate in the future (a view from NTT DoCoMo);
- Regulatory issues are very important.