Ideas for future Network Topics from the IST Programme

1. Ideas for future Network Topics from the IST Programme Martel Morgenstrasse 129 Bern 3018 Switzerland Tel: +41 31 994 2525 Fax: +41 31 994 2529 E-mail: martin.potts@martel-consulting.ch

2. Near-term items • Increased exploitation of research network capacity for large-scale experiments: • ATRIUM (dark fibre between Paris-Liège-Antwerp) • pan-European (TEN-155, Géant) • Europe–Japan IPv6 link • Europe-Canada • Europe-USA • (Note that the physical access to such networks is often difficult for reasons of either cost or technology) • IPv6 pre-service trialling: • network services (multicast, QoS) • applications • evolution strategies, …

3. Near-term items • GRIDS • Measurement and monitoring • 1 terabyte of measurement data per day: Sprint • defining and monitoring end-user QoS (SLA/SLS) • Use of policies for allocating network resources • Active Networks: • resolving conflicts caused by several sources wanting to update software simultaneously • testbed implementations are required to gain confidence and acceptance. • Management/Configuration is „an engineering nightmare“

4. Near-term items • Home networks • embedded systems • plastic fibre • broadband wireless • applications

5. New architectures to improve Web performance • Developing distributed computing middleware (incl. dynamic distributed caching) to support retrieval services, by avoiding the hot spots in traffic near the popular servers and decreasing the average distance from the end-user to the data. • Requirements: • Advanced security mechanisms on the basis of either real-time parameters or collected evidence • Design of caching and dynamic buffering distribution techniques to minimize the distance from the data that the users experience.

6. Next-Generation Distributed Applications with QoS-sensitive Middleware • Distributed middleware promises to offer simplification and coordination of the core networking technologies, the network protocols, the operating systems and the application level services to leverage the support of various QoS requirements. • Requirements: • an architectures that supports distributed signalling and control functionalities, but with access to common network resource allocation capabilities • a standard set of software components (to allow the developers to focus on higher-level software).

7. Advanced Signalling and Control in Next-Generation Networks • The QoS enabled transport/network domain will likely be separated from an object-oriented service/application domain, leading to the need for a distributed processing architecture. • Requirements: • to support new services in NGNs • a unified control and management architecture, possibly radically different from the existing ones • to enable multi-service, data-centric, QoS sensitive networks to be de-coupled from the different transport and control technologies.

8. Applications for Next-Generation Networks • To expand upon the concept of the media gateway (used to bridge two protocol units – eg. for VoIP). • Requirements: • decomposed gateway concept (can encompass ancillary equipment such as stand-alone signal processors, voice mail systems and integrated voice units) • procedures to regulate the relationships between the media gateway and the media gateway controllers • controller awareness of the terminations that the media gateway supports • service creation techniques.

9. Optical layer signalling • The explosive growth of optical networking solutions demands a novel optical layer signalling and control. • Control planes to combine MPLS traffic engineering with optical cross-connects technology is a promising way to provide a framework for real-time provisioning of optical channels. • Requirements: • control mechanisms matched to the optical network needs and suitable for distributed application • an approach balancing the optical transport network’s needs and the cost of changing the mode of operation.

10. Ultra-Wideband WDM Networks • Increasing the number of available wavelength channels allows: • capacity enhancements • less-hierarchical network layouts • significant node consolidation • reduced processing of transit traffic. • Requirements: • all-optical transmission and routing in the spectral range 1280-1680 nm would lead to systems with more than 1,000 channels • major advances in optical technology are required on both components and systems.

11. Future wireless networks using Space-Time systems • The use of space-time processing techniques in wireless communication systems to increase the spectral efficiency. • Requirements: • to resolve open issues concerning: space-time coding, channel estimation, space-time detection/equalization, adaptive space-time multiplexing • Future wireless systems must provide: • universal coverage • support for a wide range of services • highly flexible network infrastructure • software radio capabilities • new techniques/tools for the efficient management of resources.

12. Some Discussion Items • How best to introduce broadband access ? • The deployment of new technologies is more of a market issue, than a technological one. Low cost, high quality and security are to be considered in developing roadmaps for each technology • Important services to be offered today are voice, TV, high-speed Internet (ADSL, CATV, HFC, Gbit/s Ethernet, Powerline, ….) • (QoS, security, … in each case) • Wireless technology for the last mile: HiperLAN, LDMS • („dual band“: wide area/home network) • Interworking and interoperability