Henrik Abramowicz

Ambient networks: an architecture for communication networks beyond 3G

In this article we present a new networking concept referred to as ambient networks, which aims to enable the cooperation of heterogeneous networks belonging to different operator or technology domains. We aim to provide a domain-structured edge-to-edge view for the network control to embrace the heterogeneity arising from the different network control technologies. In this way, it appears as homogeneous to the users of the network services. We aim for an instant network composition to allow rapid adaptation of the network domain topology as required for moving networks. This new view of network composition allows us to treat the communication endpoints as a special case of network domains as well. We introduce the ambient control space, which enables the ambient networks concept and introduce its main features. Two ambient control space functions, media delivery and generic link layer, are presented in more detail. AMBIENT NETWORKS: AN ARCHITECTURE FOR COMMUNICATION NETWORKS BEYOND 3G

The way 4WARD to the creation of a future internet

In this paper, we describe the approaches taken in the 4WARD project to address the challenges of the network of the future. Our main hypothesis is that the Future Internet must allow for the fast creation of diverse network designs and paradigms, and must also support their co-existence at run-time. We observe that a pure evolutionary path from the current Internet design will not be able to address, in a satisfactory manner, major issues like the handling of mobile users, information access and delivery, wide area sensor network applications, high management complexity, and malicious traffic that hamper network performance already today. Moreover, the Internetpsilas focus on interconnecting hosts and delivering bits has to be replaced by a more holistic vision of a network of information and content. This is a natural evolution of scope requiring nonetheless a re-design of the architecture. We describe how 4WARD directs research on network virtualisation, novel InNetworkManagement, a generic path concept, and an information centric approach, into a single framework for a diversified, but interoperable, network of the future.

Architecture and Design for the Future Internet

Architecture and Design for the Future Internet addresses the Networks of the Future and the Future Internet, focusing on networks aspects, offering both technical and non-technical perspectives. It presents the main findings of 4WARD (Architecture and Design for the Future Internet), a European Integrated Project within Framework Programme 7, which addressed this area from an innovative approach. Todays network architectures are stifling innovation, restricting it mostly to the application level, while the need for structural change is increasingly evident. The absence of adequate facilities to design, optimise and interoperate new networks currently forces a convergence to an architecture that is suboptimal for many applications and that cannot support innovations within itself, the Internet. 4WARD overcomes this impasse through a set of radical architectural approaches, built on a strong mobile and wireless background. The main topics addressed by the book are: the improved ability to design inter-operable and complementary families of network architectures; the enabled co-existence of multiple networks on common platforms through carrier-grade virtualisation for networking resources; the enhanced utility of networks by making them self-managing; the increased robustness and efficiency of networks by leveraging diversity; and the improved application support by a new information-centric paradigm in place of the old host-centric approach. These solutions embrace the full range of technologies, from fibre backbones to wireless and sensor networks.

Management and service-aware networking architectures (MANA) for future Internet — Position paper: System functions, capabilities and requirements

Future Internet (FI) research and development threads have recently been gaining momentum all over the world and as such the international race to create a new generation Internet is in full swing: GENI [16], Asia Future Internet [19], Future Internet Forum Korea [18], European Union Future Internet Assembly (FIA) [8]. This is a position paper identifying the research orientation with a time horizon of 10 years, together with the key challenges for the capabilities in the Management and Service-aware Networking Architectures (MANA) part of the Future Internet (FI) allowing for parallel and federated Internet(s).