September 2002

E-NET: Emerging Networking Technologies

By Arturo Azcorra, Spain and David Hutchison, United Kingdom

      E-NET (Emerging Networking Technologies) is a European Network of Excellence funded under the last call of the Framework V Information Society Technologies (IST) Program.
      Networks of Excellence (NoEs) have been used as a method of conducting joint research in the European Framework Programs for many years, with an emphasis on university and industry laboratories doing longer-term research and coordinating their activities by means of workshops, short-term visits and exchanges, training and development of Ph.D. students, and exploitation and integration of the research results coming from the individual laboratories. One such NoE is Cabernet, specializing in distributed and dependable computing technologies. European Commission (EC) funding for an NoE has been focused on the coordination activities of the various laboratories involved. Another sort of coordination activity, funded from a different budget, has been in place in Europe for much longer: the COST Program started more than 25 years ago, and COST Actions bring together a number of research laboratories in a loosely coupled activity where the emphasis is on workshops and short-term exchanges. The budget of a typical COST Action is much smaller than that of an NoE. The lifetime of an NoE and a COST Action is typically three to four years. In Framework VI, it seems likely that NoEs will become more significant instruments (ways of doing research) and be more generously funded than at present, while COST Actions will continue much as before.
      The concept driving the E-NET NoE is stronger coordination of independent research initiatives within each state into European-scale initiatives, to work in a more coherent way toward international scientific collaboration. This collaboration is being applied to the particular research field of networking technologies to allow the integration of computers and networks into the everyday environment, allowing access for every ordinary citizen, enabling the use of a multitude of services and applications through self-configured and easy-to-use interfaces. We emphasise that the terms computers and networks mean not only existing sorts of PCs and current ways of accessing the Internet, but are used in their widest possible interpretation as any electronic device and any type of personal, local, or wide area network, either wired or wireless.
      The grid, consisting of networking and middleware layers supporting distributed applications, is seen as a fundamental infrastructure for the global information society, supporting all manner of electronic activities (e-science, e-business, e-health, e-leisure, etc.). E-NET's research activities will also contribute to advances in building the network layer of the Grid, including engineering better quality of service (QoS) into the network. Thus, E-NET's networking activities form a natural complement to the middleware work of the Cabernet NoE mentioned earlier.
      In addition, the E-NET partners form a network of excellence in current and emerging Internet technologies, and can act as a source of appropriate expertise for Europe; this includes the training of badly needed new people, through Ph.D. programs and advanced projects, with skills in networking and the Internet.
      E-NET is therefore structured as a distributed research center, composed primarily of research groups belonging to leading universities in Europe. E-NET collaborates with industry leaders to perform technology transfer when a given research result is in a mature enough state for appropriate exploitation. Collaboration agreements with leading universities and research centers outside Europe will be established to begin or reinforce wider international activities.
      The coordination of work within E-NET is achieved by a combination of three work lines:
      E-NET arose from combining two existing COST actions in networking: COST 263, "Quality of Future Internet Services," and COST 264, "Enabling Networked Multimedia Group Communication," and its current list of core research groups is based on the following institutions: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain), Lancaster University (United Kingdom), University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), Université Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris 6) (France), University of Liège (Belgium), University of Coimbra (Portugal), Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands), University of Athens (Greece), Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan (Sweden), ETH-Zurich (Switzerland), University of Krakow (Poland), Universita di Napoli Federico II (Italy), Fraunhofer Fokus (Germany), and Technical University Darmstadt (Germany).
      It is expected that several more institutions will soon join E-NET, including the University of Oslo (Norway), Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), Vienna University of Technology (Austria), Technical University Denmark (Denmark), and Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of Systems (France). Networking research groups from up to another 25 universities and research laboratories have applied to become associate members of E-NET.
      Research is carried out jointly by defining technical working groups on topics that have enough critical mass and shared interest. A technical working group chair is appointed to coordinate the group, and to coordinate with other groups. Groups will change focus throughout the network's life, to reflect the natural evolution of the advanced technical fields being addressed in E-NET.
      Some of the technical working groups planned at this stage are:
      The COST 263 and COST 264 Actions have initiated a successful series of international workshops (QofIS and NGC), and it is intended that E-NET members will consolidate their leading involvement in these key workshops as well as pushing ahead with ideas for new international endeavours.
      We expect E-NET to be reinforced through the European Framework VI Research Program, increasing its funding, incorporating other key institutions, and broadening its integration and joint research activities.

COST272: Packet-Oriented Service Delivery via Satellite: Part 1

By Erina Ferro, Italy; Gérard Maral, France; and Laurent Franck, France

Table 1. Actions currently running in the telecommunications domain.

Action

Title
COST 256 Modelling and Simulation Environment for Satellite/Terrestrial Networks
COST 258 The Naturalness of Synthetic Speech
COST 261 Electromagnetic Compatibility in Distributed and Complex Systems
COST 262 Spread Spectrum Systems and Techniques in Wireless and Wired Communications
COST 263 Quality of Future Internet Services (QofIS)
COST 264 Enabling Networked Multimedia Group Communication
COST211quat Redundancy Reduction Techniques and Content Analysis for Multimedia Services
COST265 Measurement Techniques for Active and Passive Fibres to support Future Telecommunications
COST266 Advanced Infrastructure for Photonic Networks
COST267 Semiconductor Devices for Optical Signal Processing
COST268 Wavelength Scale Photonic Components for Telecommunication
COST269 User Aspects of ICTs
COST270 Reliability of Optical Components and Devices in Communications Networks and Systems
COST271 Effects of the Upper Atmosphere on Terrestrial and Earth-Space Communications
COST272 Packet-Oriented Service Delivery via Satellites
COST273 Towards Mobile Broadband Multimedia Networks
COST274 Relational Structures as Knowledge Instruments
COST275 Biometrics-Based Recognition of People over the Internet
COST276 Information and Knowledge Management for Integrated Media Communication Systems
COST277 Non-linear Speech Processing
COST278 Spoken Language Interaction in Telecommunication
COST279 Analysis and Design of Advanced Multiservice Networks Supporting Mobility, Multimedia and Internetworking
COST280 Potential Health Implications from Mobile Communication Systems
COST282 Knowledge Exploration in Science and Technology
COST283 Computational and Information Infrastructure in the Astronomical DataGrid
COST284 Innovative Antennas for Emerging Terrestrial and Space-Based Applications
      This article presents the activities performed in the European-funded COST272 Action. COST272 brings together European researchers involved in satellite communications. The contribution starts with a presentation of the COST framework; then the COST272 motivation and activities are covered.

The COST Framework

      Founded in 1971, COST is an initiative by the European Commission (EC). The objective of COST is to coordinate nationally funded research at a European level1 in order to ensure that Europe holds a strong position in the fields of scientific and technical research. As such, COST stands for Cooperation in the Field of Science and Technology. Actions implemented in the COST framework are further categorized in domains, among these the telecommunications domain, to which COST272 is naturally related.
      There are about 180 COST Actions currently running, among these 26 in the telecommunications domain (Table 1). Actions have an average duration of three to four years and are finalized through the delivery of a final report. Yearly reports also enable monitoring of the Actions.
      COST is specific about in no way funding the conducting of research. Rather, funding is allocated in order to make it possible for researchers to convene and exchange views on a given theme (satellite communications in the case of COST272). The scope of each Action is described in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) submitted to and approved by the EC. In order to submit a candidate MoU, at least five countries (among the participating countries) must sign an MoU, committing themselves to Action participation.
      A COST Action is driven by a Management Committee comprising up to two delegates from each signatory country. The Management Committee meets at least three times a year. For the sake of efficiency, an Action is often organized in working groups. Depending on the Action size and allocated budget, meetings dedicated to working group activities may also be held. Apart from meetings, the Action budget (60,000 Euros a year on average) also gives provision for the organization of short-term scientific missions (STSMs). These missions make it possible for researchers to organize short stays in other institutions participating in the Action. STSMs act as a catalyst for starting up more permanent collaborations among institutions. Additionally, COST Actions are natural preludes to consortia formed as the result of EC issued calls for proposals.
      In this respect, the EC unveiled in mid-2002 some aspects related to the 6th Framework Programme (FP6). Two new tools are introduced in order to support the FP6: Networks of Excellence (NoEs) and Integrated Projects (IPs). It is interesting to note that NoEs are large-scale COST Actions, in line with the concept of providing means to support research coordination while not funding the actual research efforts. This way of proceeding credits a widespread feeling among the research community that theme-driven research activities are preferable to goal-driven research, at least when noncompetitive research is addressed.

Table 2. COST272 Action data.

Action title

 Packet-Oriented Service Delivery via Satellites

Started in

 June 2001

Ending in

 June 2005

Chairman

 Prof. Gérard Maral

Participants

 Belgium Brussels University
Croatia University of Zagreb
France French Space Agency (CNES), Telecommunications for Space and Aeronautics (TeSA), Telecom Paris (ENST)
Germany German Aerospace Centre (DLR)
Greece Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Italy National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT), National Research Council (CNR), Telecom Italia Lab
Norway Telenor
Slovakia To be defined
Slovenia Jozef Stefan Institute
Spain University Carlos III of Madrid, University of Vigo
United Kingdom University of Bradford, University of Surrey

Number of meetings as of late June 2002

 Three management committee meetings

Web site

 http://www.tesa.prd.fr/cost272

The COST272 Action

      COST272 started in June 2001. Most of its participants came from two previous Actions: COST252 (Evolution of Satellite Personal Communications from 2nd to Future Generation Systems) and COST253 (Service Efficient Network Interconnection via Satellites), ended in 2000. Table 2 summarizes the Action data.
      The main objectives of the Action are to contribute to the identification of key requirements, analysis, performance comparison, architectural design, and protocol specification of future packet-oriented satellite communication systems, with a clear focus on Internet-type system concepts, applications, and protocols/techniques on the various layers.
      Satellite communications are currently not keeping pace with the development witnessed in terrestrial networks; however, in an all-IP environment they could easily facilitate early deployment of the service to many users currently out of reach of communication services. Deployment of such an all-IP environment in the satellite segment, however, requires the examination/study of suitability of the existing protocols and algorithms, and the implementation of the required modifications/ adaptations, or even the development of more efficient algorithms that take into account the peculiarities of the satellite systems. Additionally, satellite communications are expected to play an important role in such competitive environment, driven by some recent technological advances that have enabled:       Based on these advances, broadband satellite networks will represent an attractive solution to provide two-way connectivity direct to the end user and to furnish new services such as high-speed Internet access and private network solutions. Furthermore, satellite networks are best suited to satisfy the increasing demand for the broadcast and multicast type of services with the additional advantage of providing global accessibility.       These reasons are the strongest motivation for the Action participants. In order to cope with the wide scope of the problem, the Action is subdivided in three working groups, as shown in Fig. 1.
      After one year of activity, the Action has produced about 40 documents, covering subjects ranging from coding to security for multicast communications. The Action participants also promoted an Expression of Interest (called OSMOSISNET) as a reaction to an EC request in the scope of the FP6 preparation.

Conclusions

      The COST272 Action provides the opportunity for European researchers in the field of satellite communications to meet and coordinate their activities.
      Current COST272 activities are distributed over two axes:       Expected research outcomes are:       COST272 is also a core network for setting up industrial and academic consortia in view of elaborating proposals in response to calls for participation initiated by the EC.

Figure 1. Action activities organization breakdown.