ICT-2007.1.1: The Network of the Future

Target outcome

  1. Ubiquitous network infrastructures and architectures supporting:
    1. convergence and interoperability of heterogeneous mobile and broadband network technologies
    2. flexible and spectrum efficient radio access enabling ubiquitous access to broadband mobile services for short range to wide area networking ;
    3. elimination of the barriers to broadband access and ultra high speed end to end connectivity with optimised protocols and routing;
    4. context awareness;
    5. optimised traffic processing between core and edge networks;
    6. scalability, delivering an order of magnitude increase in the number of connected devices and enabling the emergence of applications that are machine-tomachine or sensor-based - beyond RFID - and are capable of functioning within a multiplicity of public or private operating environments.

  2. Optimised control, management and flexibility of the future network infrastructure, supporting the evolution towards cognitive networks and capable of:
    1. enabling seamless end to end network and service composition and operation across multiple operators and business domains;
    2. supporting a wide diversity of service attributes and requirements, which will be an order of magnitude more complex than those of today’s infrastructures,
      through support of programmability and dynamic features, with reconfigurability of resource allocation, of protocols and routing, self organisation and management;
    3. managing in real time new forms of ad-hoc communications with intermittent connectivity requirements and time-varying network topology;
    4. enabling intelligent distribution of services across multiple access technologies with centralised or distributed control.

  3. Technologies and systems architectures for the Future Internet, aimed at overcoming the expected long term limitations of current internet capabilities, architecture and protocols, driven by the need for: generalised mobility; scalability from the perspective of devices, service attributes and application environments; security; trusted domains; new forms of routing and content delivery with dynamic peering of end to end delivery and control, of ad-hoc connectivity in a generalised wireless environment. The work of exploratory nature will address how various classes of new requirements constrain the foreseeable evolution of the internet and identify corresponding long term solutions.

  4. Coordination and support actions:
    1. roadmapping and conference support;
    2. coordination with related national or regional programmes or initiatives

Expected impact

Funding schemes: CP, NoE, CSA

Indicative budget distribution: 171 M€: