Objective
Future networks must support a wide and rapidly evolving range of service types. Future networks must be programmable to provide the required flexibility. This project will prove the feasibility of constructing a managed, scalable, programmable network infrastructure that uses application layer active networking to provide dynamic customisation of services. It will identify key IST requirements and develop innovative solutions to support security, mobility and multicast. An improved active network architecture will be implemented. Flexible and scalable management solutions based on policy driven autonomous agents will be investigated. Wide-area tests of an integrated prototype will prove that the project results offer a coherent deployment option and will identify areas requiring further work.
Objectives:
The principal objective of this project is to prove the feasibility of providing a managed, scalable, programmable network infrastructure capable of supporting the future needs of the Information Society. This will be based on active networking in the context of the Next Generation Network infrastructure. To fully realise the benefits of an active network infrastructure, a flexible management system is required, combined with a common information model for resources - both processing and network. The management of active networks, the extent to which management information must be shared, and the communication mechanisms required by the management system are currently open research issues.
The detailed scientific objectives of the project are to develop innovative solutions to the open research problems identified above, and test the solutions through a combination of implementation experiments and modelling.
Work description:
This project will use an existing, state of the art, active network platform prototype. This is component based, and consists of network machines such as routers and associated processing platforms. It supports the dynamic addition of software components such as programmes, protocols, and policies. The project will develop innovative extensions to improve the manageability and scalability of the platform, including extensible multicast protocols, dynamic resource discovery to assist with mobility, information sharing protocols providing reliable efficient delivery, protocols providing security, policy exchange protocols and message and policy handling at active nodes. The work will be carried out in the context of Next Generation Internet Protocols (IPv6) to ensure that it is compatible with the services that are being developed in this context.
No existing active network implementation has more than a rudimentary management system. The project will design, build and test a suite of policy driven management components to overcome this deficiency. It will consider system and management architecture, information models and component models, management tools and mechanisms, security components, billing tools and mechanisms and middleware support for management.
The project will be primarily concerned with resource management and efficient information transfer. It is expected that the most significant innovations will be the management architecture and the proposed policy sets. The policies are expected to influence providers and management fora such as the TMF. There should also be significant innovations in the areas of policy syntax and policy interactions, both of which are currently unresolved research issues.
An integration and testing phase of the project will show for the first time that it is possible to build an advanced active infrastructure, integrated with an active management system that is effective on a wide-area network compatible with Next Generation Network protocols. This will significantly influence early deployment of public service networks based on the technology.
Milestones:
- Identification of key mechanisms and management functions required.
- Novel architecture for managed active networks.
- Proof of benefits of extensions to existing basic active network prototypes in the context of IPv6.
- Proof of feasibility of policy-based approach to active network management.
- Proof of benefits of modular multicast stack
- Predictions of system performance, novel modelling tools.
- Proof that project results work in an integrated system based on IPv6 in the underlying network layer.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- social sciencessociologygovernancepublic services
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesinternetinternet protocols
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Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
EC1A 7AJ LONDON
United Kingdom