The esprit network of excellence in distributed computing systems architectures

Objective

The mission of Cabernet is to coordinate top-ranking European research in distributed and dependable systems, to make that research accessible to governments and industries and to further the quality of education concerning such systems. CaberNet addresses all aspects of the design of networked computer systems. These systems can range from embedded systems used to control an aircraft in flight to globe-spanning applications searching for information on the World-Wide Web.

Key issues in many distributed systems or applications are:

1) achieving a level of dependability (e.g reliability, security and/or safety, etc.) that transcends that of the components from which the system is built,
2) dealing with system scale in such a way that the system does not collapse under its own weight, and
3) designing systems and applications that can run over a very wide range of platforms.

Typical application areas for such systems include:

- Electronic commerce
- Embedded systems
- Fault-tolerant systems
- Mobile computing
- Multimedia communication
- Safety-critical systems
- Secure systems
- Telecommunication systems
- Transportation systems
- Video storage and video-on-demand services
- Web applications
- Wireless networking

Distributed and dependable systems research is fundamental to all these areas. Today, we understand the general principles involved in engineering small- to medium-scale distributed systems. Several distributed systems that may be classified as "large-scale" have also been built but they have been constructed mainly on the basis of ad hoc solutions. General principles need to be derived, from which specific solutions can be tailored. Similarly, we understand a lot more now about many of the fundamental techniques involved in achieving dependability. But the application of these concepts to very large scale distributed systems, their cost-effective integration into the system design process, the problems of validating a planned design with respect to some given required balance of various system properties, all require much further research.

CaberNet is the Network of Excellence in distributed and dependable systems.

Programme(s)

• FP4-ESPRIT 4 - Specific research and technological development programme in the field of information technologies, 1994-1998

Topic(s)

• 4.0 - Long Term Research

Funding Scheme

ACM - Preparatory, accompanying and support measures

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

Address

6 Kensington Terrace
NE1 7RU Newcastle Upon Tyne
United Kingdom

Participants (13)

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

France

Address

Avenue Edouard Belin 14-16
31054 Toulouse

Chorus Systèmes SA

France

Address

6 Avenue Gustave Eiffel
78182 Saint-quentin-en-yvelines

Fundacao Da Faculdade de Ciencias de Universidade de Lisboa

Portugal

Address

Faculdade De Ciencias,edificio C 4 -3 .Piso
1700 Campo Grande

Institut National de Recherche En Informatique et En Automatique Unite de Recherche Inria de Rennes

France

Address

Domaine De Voluceau
78153 Le Chesnay

Institut National de Recherche En Informatique et En Automatique Unite de Recherche Inria de Rocquencourt

France

Address

Domaine De Voluceau
78153 Le Chesnay

Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores

Portugal

Address

Rua Alves Redol 9
1000-029 Lisboa

Sun Microsystems International Bv

Netherlands

Address

Computerweg 1
3821AA Amersfoort

Technische Universitat Wien

Austria

Address

Treitlstrasse 3
1040 Vienna

The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge

United Kingdom

Address

Pembroke Street
CB23QG Cambridge

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PISA

Italy

Address

Lungarno Pacinotti, 43
56124 Pisa

Universita diBologna

Italy

Address

Piazza Porta S. Donato 5
40127 Bologna

Universitat Kaiserslautern

Germany

Address

Erwin-schroedinger Strasse 1
67663 Kaiserslautern

Universiteit Twente

Netherlands

Address

Drienerlolaan 2
7500 AE Enschede