A global effort towards next generation wireless networks Four European universities have teamed up with several global partners from America to China and Africa in order to study how to advance wireless networks and render them more secure and reliable for providing content-rich services. Digital Economy © Shutterstock Communication in recent years has become highly mobile, thanks to wireless network technologies that have taken over the planet. With the proliferation of IP-based content-rich services over mobile devices, novel and more efficient technologies are expected to merge in order to enhance the wireless networks we depend upon with respect to capacity, coverage, reliability, and quality of service. This brings with it new technology requirements including better multimedia responsiveness and more stringent security. In this context, the EU-funded S2EUNET (Security, services, networking and performance of next generation IP-based multimedia wireless networks) took up these emerging challenges. Representing a truly global effort, the project consortium included four universities from Europe and nine from other parts of the world, namely China, Mexico, Tunisia and the US. Together, the project team studied emerging technologies in future wireless and mobile networks that are capable of offering more efficient, more reliable, and more secure IP-based multimedia services. Specifically, beyond examining cutting-edge security solutions in wireless networks and outlining emerging service development and applications in the field, S2EUNET modelled and evaluated performance of the networks. It then studied processing and transmission of multimedia information over heterogeneous networks, together with modelling of mobile radio channels as well as networking protocols. These joint efforts yielded four edited books or special issues on the topic, 59 joint publications, and 16 joint research project proposals. Moreover, the project resulted in 25 joint workshops and conferences, in addition to strong new partnerships among the project’s member universities. The outcomes, publications and partnerships are no doubt paving the way to providing more advanced technologies for next generation wireless and mobile networks. Keywords Wireless networks, S2EUNET, security, networking, multimedia
