Currently participating in the following research projects: |
HORIZON-SNS SElf-mAnaged Sustainable high-capacity Optical Networks (SEASON) |
The goal of the SEASON project is to design and validate a sustainable transport network infrastructure able to support beyond 5G and new
emerging services. The SEASON infrastructure will rely on the joint usage of Multi-Band (MB) and Space Division Multiplexing (SDM), spanning
the access, aggregation, and metro/long-haul segments, supporting the requirements for x-haul, further integrating the packet/optical and
computing layers, and targeting cost-effective capacity increase. A critical objective of such architecture is to ensure energy efficiency. SEASON
will rely on power-efficient Digital Signal Processing (DSP), MBoverSDM optical switching, point-to-multipoint transceivers allowing traffic
aggregation/router bypassing, and converged packet-optical solutions reducing the number of O/E/O conversions. Such complex infrastructure
requires rethinking the control and orchestration systems towards autonomous optical networks, addressing not only the integration - in
overarching control systems - of the Radio Access Network (RAN), access and transport segments but also adopting more agile DevOps
methodologies. SEASON will leverage on cognitive networks powered by streaming telemetry, real-time network measurements and Artificial
Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)-aided service management and orchestration for near-real time network operation, moving intelligence as
close as possible to the data plane, and devising a distributed system based on multiple communicating agents and data-driven closed control
loops.
SEASON will have a clear impact on the society, in a context with increased needs of connectivity and higher capacity demand required for
services such as VR/AR.
The SEASON consortium includes major European telecom operators (Telefonica, TIM), major vendors (ADVA, Infinera P/G, Ericsson), three
consolidated SMEs (Accelleran, Wings and WestAquila) and four top-reputed research centres and academia (CNIT, CTTC, Fraunhofer HHI, and
UPC).
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UNICO5G Towards a smart and effIcient telecoM Infrastructure meetiNG current and future industry needs (TIMING) |
Identifying Industry 4.0 as a key vertical, TIMING targets to design a solution to enable e2e reliable TSN services supported by operators'
infrastructures that are currently carrying on a best effort basis. TIMING will analyze TSN support in the Ethernet and Wi-Fi segments and
identify the enhancements to be made for supporting the sub-millisecond latency for TSN systems. Scheduling solutions to support these enhancements
will be devised. In addition, solutions to automate the deployment of e2e TSN services with assured performance will be designed. Such service automation
relies on a control plane, which will include a TSN controller able to control and monitor Ethernet and Wi-Fi TSN nodes, a TSN Connectivity Manager to
provide e2e connectivity across TSN and non-TSN segments, and a QoS estimation tool that includes accurate TSN traffic models.
TIMING will build PoC demonstrators validating the whole TIMING architecture. The POC will demonstrate: (1) at the modeling level, a tool that evaluates
the performance of the new TSN service to be deployed and the impact on the existing services (TSN and/or BE traffic); (2) at the control plane, the
capability to deploy reliable e2e TSN services with committed performance in terms of e2e delay; and (3) at the infrastructure level, the capability to
transport TSN traffic between two TSN domains: one with Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) emulating a factory, and the other with the AGV's controller,
which requires bounded latency communications with the AVs; other services for loading the system will be also included.
Finally, TIMING will maximize impact by influencing major vendors and service providers on the adoption of the developed principles through communication,
dissemination, and standardization activities, while exploiting the results and knowledge obtained, and contributing to the digital transition of the
industry and the green deal.
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HORIZON-SNS Deep Programmability and Secure Distributed Intelligence for Real-Time End-to-End 6G Networks (DESIRE6G) |
Over the past decades the mobile communications has evolved over the different generations to the current 5G, and transformed
into a fundamental infrastructure that supports digital demands from all industry sectors. However, 5G systems are expected to fall
short on meeting the anticipated stringent performance requirements for the new generation of real time mission-critical
applications. In view of that, DESIRE6G will design and develop novel zero-touch control, management, and orchestration platform,
with native integration of AI, to support eXtreme URLLC application requirements. DESIRE6G will re-architect mobile networks
through a) its intent-based control and end-to-end orchestration that targets to achieve near real time autonomic networking; and b)
a cloud-native unified programmable data plane layer supporting multi-tenancy. The latter will be supported by a generic hardware
abstraction layer designed for heterogeneous systems. Flexible composition of modular micro-services for slice specific
implementations and flexible function placement depending on HW requirements will enable granular use case instantiation and
service level assurance with minimum resource consumption and maximum energy efficiency. The DESIRE6G data, control,
management, and orchestration plane is supported by a pervasive monitoring system, extending from the network to the user
equipment or IoT terminal. DESIRE6G will employ distributed ledger technology to support a) dynamic federation for services across
of multiple administrative domains and b) infrastructure-agnostic software security. Finally, DESIRE6G will enable communication-,
and energy- efficient distributed AI, at the network edge, while considering application-level requirements and resource constraints.
The proposed innovations will be validated employing a VR/AR/MR and a Digital Twin application at two distinct experimental sites.
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HORIZON-SNS PRogrammable AI-Enabled DeterminIstiC neTworking for 6G (PREDICT-6G) |
6G is envisioned to accelerate the path started in 5G for catering to the needs of a wide variety of vertical use cases, both current and emerging.
This will require major enhancements of the current 5G capabilities especially in terms of bandwidth, latency, reliability, security, and energy.
PREDICT-6G's mission is therefore set towards the development of an end-to-end 6G (e2e) solution including architecture and protocols that can
guarantee seamless provisioning of services for vertical use cases requiring extremely tight timing and reliability constraints. To succeed, the
solution will target determinism network infrastructures at large, including wired and wireless segments and their interconnections. PREDICT-6G
will develop a novel Multi-technology Multi-domain Data-Plane (MDP) overhauling the reliability and time sensitiveness design features existing in
current wired and wireless standards. The ambition is for the MDP design to be inherently deterministic. To achieve this, PREDICT-6G will develop
an AI-driven Multi-stakeholder Inter-domain Control-Plane (AICP) for the provisioning of deterministic network paths to support time sensitive
services as requested by end-customers and with different scaling ambitions, e.g., from the network in a single vehicle to a large, geographically
dispersed network. This requires timely monitoring and prediction of the behavior of the complete network, including identifying potential sources of
quality violations and analyzing various routes of the traffic flows. These capabilities will be delivered through the PREDICT-6G AI-powered Digital
Twin (DT) framework, allowing the prediction of the behavior of the end-to-end network infrastructure, and enabling anticipative control and
validation of the network provisions to meet the real-world time-sensitive and reliability requirements of the running services.
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HORIZON-CL4 Agile uLtra Low EnerGy secuRe netwOrks (ALLEGRO) |
ALLEGRO aims at designing and validating a novel end-to-end sliceable, reliable, and secure architecture for next-generation optical
networks, achieving high transmission/switching capacity -- with 10 Tb/s for optoelectronic devices and 1 Pbt/s for optical fiber
systems --; low power consumption/cost -- with > 25% savings -- and secure infrastructures and data transfers. The architecture relies
on key enabling innovations: i) smart, coherent transceivers exploiting multi-band & multi-fiber technologies for P2P and P2MP
applications, based on e.g., high-speed plasmonic modulators/photodetectors and programmable silicon photonic integrated
waveguide meshes; ii) loss-less, energy-efficient transparent photonic integrated optical switches, eliminating OEO conversions, e.g.,
with on-chip amplification in the O-band for datacom applications; iii) a consistent approach to security, in terms of functional/
protocol architectures and communications, further improving QKD systems, enabling optical channel co-existence and researching
on quantum-resistant (post-quantum) cryptography, developing systems based on physically unclonable functions; and iv) a scalable
AI/ML assisted control and orchestration system, responsible for autonomous networking, dynamic and constrained service
provisioning, function placement and resource allocation, leveraging devices increasing programmability and overall network
softwarization.
To achieve the target objectives and KPIs, ALLEGRO has defined a clear methodology ending in ambitious demonstrators. The
consortium includes a good balance of industry and research/academia with know-how in complementary fields. The results of
ALLEGRO will be disseminated in leading conferences, events, and high-impact journals. They will have a concrete and measurable
economic and social impact, contributing towards achieving key European objectives, reinforcing European leadership and digital
sovereignty in the ongoing digital and green transition.
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H2020 Beyond 5G - OPtical nEtwork coNtinuum (B5G-OPEN) (https://www.b5g-open.eu) |
B5G-OPEN targets the design, prototyping and demonstration of a novel end-to-end integrated packet-optical transport
architecture based on MultiBand (MB) optical transmission and switching networks. MB expands the available capacity of
optical fibres, by enabling transmission within S, E, and O bands, in addition to commercial C and/or C+L bands, which
translates into a potential 10x capacity increase and low-latency for services beyond 5G.
To realize multiband networks, technology advances are required, both in data, control and management planes.
Concerning devices, these include new amplifiers, filterless subsystems, add/drop multiplexers, etc. Such technology
advances complement novel packet-optical white boxes using flexible sliceable Bandwidth Variable Transceivers and novel
pluggable optics. The availability of MB transmission will also lead to a complete redesign of the end-to-end architecture,
removing boundaries between network domains and reducing electronic intermediate terminations.
The control plane will be extended to support multiband elements and a 'domain-less' network architecture. It will rely on
physical layer abstraction, new impairment modelling, and pervasive telemetry data collection to feed AI/ML algorithms that
will lead to a Zero-Touch networking paradigm including a full featured node operating system for packet-optical whiteboxes.
The results will be shown in two final demonstrations exposing the project benefits from operator and user perspectives.
B5G-OPEN will have a clear impact on the society showing the evolution towards a world with increased needs of
connectivity and higher capacity in support of new B5G services and new traffic patterns.
The consortium includes partners from 8 countries: three major telecom operators, three vendors, four SMEs and four
research centres and academia, combining several years of experience and a successful record in past European projects
on related technologies, thus guaranteeing its success.
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IBON: AI-Powered Intent-Based Packet And Optical Transport Networks and Edge and Cloud Computing for Beyond 5G |
The aim of IBON is to design and build a ubiquitous, secure and explainable Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered intent-based networking
(IBN) platform that spans end-to-end (from terminals to the RAN and transport network and from edge to cloud computing) and is aware of
its state and context to autonomously take proactive actions for service assurance. The IBN platform is integrated in a zero-touch control
and orchestration platform featuring an AI Function Orchestrator to manage AI pipelines. The objective is to create an AI-assisted elastic
and dynamic infrastructure supporting per-domain and e2e networks and services real time (RT) e2e operation automation, ensuring near-RT
decision making and non-RT tight coordination. Specific components will be developed and integrated to create an agile platform that
goes well beyond 5G and supports application-level resilience and intelligence through replication and elasticity. Demonstration will be
carried out in an experimental environment.
The project will actively contribute to relevant standardization bodies and open source projects to promote IBON solutions to the wider
community.
IBON has the potential to create a significant shift in the way telecom services are commercialized, representing new market/higher
volume opportunities for vendors, and tremendous potential for start-ups creating specialized applications.
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MENTOR: Machine lEarning in optical NeTwORks (https://mentor.astonphotonics.uk/) |
Optical fiber networks is one of the major drivers of our societal progress and a key enabler of the global telecommunication
infrastructure. Optical networks underwent considerable changes over the past decade, as consequence of a continuous
growth (exceeding 20% per year) of bandwidth demand. The current growth sets strong requirements in terms of capacity
and costs for the operators, which seek to decrease the cost per transmitted bit. Several solutions have been proposed, and
among them wide-band is more favourable to network operators, compared to more/or novel fibers. However, wide-band
optical system presents new major challenges: optical components must guarantee similar performance over a broad
spectrum, network optimization is carried out on a non-flat spectrum and with a much larger number of channels making
design, optimization and control a complex problem. Therefore, application of machine learning (ML) techniques is of the
growing importance for high-capacity multi-band (MB) optical systems. ML is becoming the technique of choice to solve
complex nonlinear technical problems, such as, advance component design and management of wide-band networks.
The European Industrial Doctorate MENTOR presents a timely proposal to train 6 ESRs in the interdisciplinary field of high
industrial importance: ML applications in multi-band optical communications. As ML can properly works only when a large
amount of real data is available, it is crucial to bring together academic partners and the industry that provide access to the
data. MENTOR consortium offers the strong industrial commitment of four large companies that significantly contributed in defining the research and training
topics to be studied together with the world-leading academic partners in MENTOR. MENTOR will contribute to the
European economy by design of the next generation of high-capacity optical networks.
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Empowering Clean-energy Transition of Energy Intensive Industry Through Advanced and Innovative Digital Tools (Genius) |
In GENIUS, we show the importance of 5G technologies for vertical industries and participate in the development of a complete digital twin (DT) for maximising the synergies of local renewable power generation and electric vehicle fleets..
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Past research projects: |
NGIatlantic: Experimental Assesment of Fast Quantum Key Distribution (https://ngiatlantic.eu/) |
To setup the EU-US Experimental Quantum Communication Laboratory (EQC Lab), as part of the NGIatlantic.eu 3rd Open Call.
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REAL-NET: REAL-time monitoring and mitigation of nonlinear effects in optical NETworks (https://real-net.astonphotonics.uk/) |
The exponential surge in the global data traffic driven by the skyrocketing proliferation of different bandwidth-hungry on-line services and various broadband services,
brings about the escalating pressure on the speed (capacity) and quality (bit error rate) characteristics of information systems.
It is well recognized nowadays that rapidly increasing data rates in the core fibre communication systems are quickly approaching the limits of current transmission technologies,
many of which were originally developed for communication over linear (e.g. radio) channels.
It is widely accepted that the nonlinear transmission effects in optical fibre represent now a major limiting factor in modern fibre-optic communication systems.
Nonlinear properties make optical fibre channels considerably different from wireless and other traditional linear communications channels.
There is a clear need for development of radically different methods for coding, transmission, and (pre & post) processing of information that take the nonlinear properties of the optical fibre
into account and for training of a new generation of engineers with expertise in: optical communications, nonlinear science methods, digital signal processing (DSP), design of implementable algorithms.
From the industry perspectives, design of practical and implementable processing algorithms requires knowledge of ASICs and real world conditions and restrictions.
The multi-national & multi-interdisciplinary REAL-NET project provides timely doctoral training for 6 PhD students through industry relevant research in the fast growing area of high practical
relevance and will lead to development of novel practically implementable disruptive techniques for fibre-optic communications.
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METRO-HAUL: METRO High bandwidth, 5G Application-aware optical network, with edge storage, compUte and low Latency |
The aim of this project is to design and build a smart, but cost-effective, optical metro infrastructure able to support traffic originating from heterogeneous 5G access networks, addressing the anticipated capacity increase and its specific characteristics such as mobility, low latency, and high bandwidth. This infrastructure will be able to also support a wide variety of 5G applications with special emphasis on services from various industries vertical to the ICT.
This will be achieved by architecting new access-facing and core-facing nodes, complete with storage and compute facilities, interconnected by novel, spectrally efficient, and adaptive optical transmission networks. Advanced concepts, such as hardware disaggregation and virtualisation, will assist in hitting challenging cost targets whilst enabling automation and programmability - all supported by a purpose-designed SDN-based control plane which will interface with client applications, intelligently catering for the wide range of 5G KPIs.
METRO-HAUL will coordinate the disparate elements of transmission, switching, networking, compute, and storage, orchestrating dynamic solutions for multiple 5G applications.
METRO-HAUL will carry out Proof of Concept demonstrations of its networking solution involving the interconnection of metro node prototypes, the use of the project's transmission technologies, and the associated control plane and orchestration software. The final project demonstrations will also involve the demonstration of actual 5G and vertical services across the METRO-HAUL test-bed.
Additionally, the project will actively participate in the relevant standardization bodies, promoting METRO-HAUL solutions to the wider community.
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TWINS: cogniTive 5G application-aware optical metro netWorks Integrating moNitoring, data analyticS and optimization |
The TWINS architecture will be developed to integrate a wide range of optical technologies that will be controlled using automation schemes and programmability features that will enable concepts such as hardware disaggregation and virtualization, the coordination of which will be supported by a purposely designed control plane. Optical nodes will be dynamically adapted to the needs of specific services, optimally exploiting the data plane through use of relevant data monitoring and analysis schemes. In fact, TWINS aims at designing and demonstrating a set of monitoring solutions to remarkably enhance the performance, reliability, and security of optical metro networks. |
SYNERGY: Service-oriented hYbrid optical NEtwork and cloud infrastructuRe featuring high throuGhput and ultra-low latencY |
A critical barrier to the future growth of the Internet and the development of new innovative services is the underlying network infrastructure on which the Internet connects users with content and applications. Service providers can no simply keep spending linearly to service the internet; a new approach is required. |
IDEALIST: Industry-Driven Elastic and Adaptive Lambda Infrastructure for Service and Transport Networks |
Traffic demand is increasing dramatically, year on year, with typical growth figures of up to 60% for Internet based traffic. Such traffic increase is impacting on both network costs and power consumption. Moreover, traffic is not only increasing but becoming much more dynamic, both in time and direction. For these reasons, transport network evolution from current DWDM systems towards elastic optical networks, based on flexgrid transmission and switching technologies, could significantly increase both transport network scalability and flexibility. Further benefits come from multilayer interworking mechanisms enabling electronic switching technologies (IP/MPLS, OTN, etc) to directly control the bandwidth of the Bandwidth Variable Transponders (BVT) for optical bandwidth optimization purposes. |
GÉANT: Pan-European research and education network that interconnects Europe's National Research and Education Networks |
Within the GÉANT project, REACTION targets all the scientific and technical objectives of the GN3plus call, topic 6.
REACTION will propose, design, and validate a flexible optical network scenario enabling software-controlled super-channel transmission. A novel bandwidth variable transponder (BVT) supporting 1 Tb/s multi-carrier transmission will be developed. The considered BVT will be enhanced to support, besides dynamic adaptation among different bit rates, modulation formats, spectrum allocation, and coding/FEC types, the sliceable functionality. These solutions will be assessed in terms of networking performance through specific simulative studies in the case of provisioning, elastic operations, de-fragmentation and restoration scenarios. |
STRONGEST: Scalable, Tunable and Resilient Optical Networks Guaranteeing Extremely-high Speed Transport |
Internet traffic has been growing quickly for many years, despite adverse economic conditions and this growth will continue in the future. To cope with this evolution, the cost of today’s network solutions is still too high. |
VISION Project |
Today the media and communication services are essential for the development of social and professional relationships. The advances of recent years in information
technologies have brought a revolution in the development of these services, greatly boosting the economic and social development in industrialized countries. |
DICONET: Dynamic Impairment Constraint Network for Transparent Mesh Optical Networks |
DICONET project is targeting a novel approach to optical networking providing a disruptive solution for the development of the core network of the future. |
BONE:Building the Future Optical Network in Europe |
A European ICT Network of Excellence. |