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Content archived on 2024-04-16

Exploitation and Service Project

Objective

Application pilot projects require advanced communications facilities to link together their project sites. Due to the complexity introduced by transborder communication, a consulting and assistance service is needed. Therefore, the objectives of ESP - the Exploitation and Service Project - were:

. to derive from the application pilots (APs) important criteria for the usage of future communication networks and to communicate these to the PNOs, to improve interworking of network provisions and application trials
. to serve as a transnational focal point for support and advice to APs on the use of network facilities, counselling on appropriate interface specifications and protocols to establish connections, and to provide assistance in locating and resolving interface problems during trial operations on test- networks and testbeds.
Application pilot (AP) projects reqire advanced communications facilities to link together their project sites. The needs and plans of the individual APs differ from one another. Therefore, ESP used communication scenarios to specify suitable commercially available services to support particular needs and to support their usage within advanced test networks. An inherent mismatch between provisions and requirements for broadband services to support communication experiments soon became apparent. ESP thus provided both a survey of available products for the APs and suggestions on useful network enhancements to the PNOs. The bundling of results from application pilots in the area of broadband communications also ensured that intermediate results could be more easily utilised commercially. Finally, in order to eliminate the discrepancies between:
offerings and needs;
existing standards and future market requirments;
properties of existing or planned technology and user needs,
ESP recommended future broadband provisions and developments though to be economically feasible on a European scale.
Technical Approach

The needs and plans of the individual APs differ from one another. Therefore, ESP used communication scenarios to specify suitable commercially available services to support particular needs, and to support their usage within advanced test-networks. An inherent mismatch between provisions and requirements for broadband services to support communication experiments soon became apparent. ESP therefore extracted requirements based on the early experience gained by the APs, and recommended which recent standards might be found applicable. ESP thus provided both a survey of available products for the APs, and suggestions on useful network enhancements, to the PNOs. The bundling of results from application pilots in the area of broadband communications also ensured that intermediate results could be more easily utilised commercially.

Finally, in order to eliminate the discrepancies between:
. offerings and needs
. existing standards and future market requirements
. properties of existing or planned technology and user needs.

ESP recommended future broadband provisions and developments thought to be economically feasible on a European scale.

Key Issues
. A transnational focal point for advice to application pilots.
. Appropriate network interface specifications, where protocols and suitable hardware / software are not readily available.
. Practical assistance to APs and PNOs to locate and resolve interface problems.
. Feedback of results and experiences to all actors concerned.
. Transfer of knowledge gained to relevant standard organisations.
. Proposals for the generalisation of the current ISO/OSI model taking into account the management and support of distributed, multimedia broadband applications.

Achievements
ESP partners became convinced of the need for an integrated communications platform, to support future test programmes. By refining and applying its multimedia communication framework, ESP achieved greater synergy from parallel work undertaken by application pilots and network service providers. Prototype multimedia tele-services now need to be made available quickly, to verify ESP's results on a broader experience base. These might best be supported by a technology-independent communications platform implemented in existing end-systems - made as close as possible to the infrastructure foreseen for B-ISDN. Such an approach provides the only feasible way to solve the 'chicken and egg' situation between available networks and possible applications.

Data on the communication profiles used by APs, as collected and analysed by ESP, may now be used to support an intense discussion on appropriate standards, the benefits of future network technologies, and other related developments .

The ESP project was originally conceived to support application pilots seeking to utilise broadband links on a trans-national basis within Europe, and taking advantage of special conditions offered by operators for such experiments. In practice however, not all application pilots have found it necessary to span international borders in order to achieve valid results concerning future European tele-services. Many practical difficulties were also encountered in various initiatives to establish trans-national experimental links. ESP therefore recommends that greater use be made of existing national testbeds and test-networks; even if these cause some limitations on the geographic location of trial users that may be supported in any one experiment.

Many of the questions, interim solutions and results which arose from the work in ESP are now the basis for a new RACE-project (CIO).

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Last update: 27 October 1992

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/R1091

European Union, 2024