Internet is widely deployed almost over the world. However, new
transmission technologies and new applications change the patterns of
the traffic in the net. Moreover, new users with different profiles can
change the patterns of the traffic.
The knowledge of the Internet traffic characteristics is necessary to
optimize resources, to design the growth of the network, and to know
the usage that of the resources. The complexity of the traffic analysis
for a network is related to the amount of traffic carried, the topology
of the network, the number of users, and the degree of detail desired
to the reports.
There are other projects working on IP traffic measurement on
high-speed networks like CAIDA.
The main difference between MIRA and other traffic analysis projects is
the need of a full packet capture that implies a lower capture ratio.
The MIRA platform is mainly divided in two subsystems. The
Traffic Capture Subsystem, collects samples of the traffic in a
high-speed link. In fact, it is a modification of the OC3MON software
for the PCA200 Fore ATM card adapter that provides periodic full IP
packet samples. This traffic capture is done in a passive way, which
means that it does not interfere the performance of the network. The
other subsystem, the Traffic Analysis subsystem has different modules
that extract different parameters of the network.
The results allow us to classify the traffic by application
and/or server. As our capture system is not able to capture all the
traffic, we get statistical results but correlating the captured data
to historic data. A server not detected at one time, if its services
persist in the network, will be detected later. A server of an unknown
application, with large amount of data generated, will become more
important if historic data of that server is accumulated. In that case
it will be detected.
Participants
This project has been developed jointly with: UC3M university, UPM university and TIDSA.
Description
The Spanish National Host comprises five organisations offering resources to ACTS projects. Telefonica has an experimental broadband network in Madrid, called RECIBA and this is supplemented by Universities in Madrid and Barcelona who have their own local broadband networks on offer and by the metropolitan area network in Barcelona. The host can offer multimedia conferencing, including multi-point, co-operative working, messaging and video retrieval as well as network connectivity. But, most importantly, the host also allows access to significant user communities that can be used by ACTS projects (or projects from other national or EU programmes) to perform operational trials or experiments of leading edge applications and services that involve real users.
Description
MICC aims to introduce the use of on-site mobile communications as a way of improving the global competititevess of the European construction sector. Such communications are essential if quality, efficiency and safety are to be improved. MICC is defining a European wide solution which will enable all on-site organisations to radically improve management of the site through new mobile applications and services.
After laboratory and site experimentation of emerging technology, the project will perform advanced sample application experiments on four construction sites to demonstrate the viability of the architecture and the improvement in quality, efficiency and of the long-term economic efficiency of the European construction industry in competing in the international marketplace. The project is user-led and takes its direction from the fundamental requirements of the construction industry. The Consortium has set up a Project Industry Forum to cooperate closely with suppliers and communication network operators. The partners are already in contact with National Hosts.
The objective of the InfoWin project is to provide the ACTS Information Window. This window allows information to flow from ACTS projects to the outside world, and also helps the outside world to be visible to the ACTS projects.
The window is intended to ensure that the work carried out in ACTS is timely and relevant. It ensures that ACTS participants keep an up-to-date view of the development of the market and its needs, and simultaneously it ensures visibility of the work carried out within ACTS.
To maximise the synergy to be obtained by carrying out the research and development of ACTS within the overall framework of a collaborative programme, the InfoWin project provides support for the internal communication of the ACTS programme, both within the projects and between projects and the Commission.
The main objective of MEPHISTO is to apply the principles of network management (TMN) to advanced all-optical core networks, namely exploiting wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) for transmission and routing. To this purpose, the project will develop an innovative and generic information model for operation and management of optical networks and network elements. MEPHISTO will also adapt and develop management software applications to perform fault, configuration and performance management, according to this new information model. Finally, MEPHISTO will demonstrate and assess the developed management system both in an optical network emulation software and in the hardware prototype of an optical WDM ring network.
MOON is a project in the scope of the second ACTS call and aims at the development of a framework for the management of the photonic layer of the future pan-European transport network. Key functionalities will be implemented in a field demonstrator network, called MOONET. Management of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical cross connects and WDM transmission links, spanning some hundreds of kilometres using optical in-line amplifiers, will be included
LION aims at giving answers to Network Operators (N.O.) about interoperability of client transport networks (e.g. ATM, SDH, IP-based) over an optical server one recommended as Optical Transport Network (OTN). In particular, the major target is to design and test over a testbed a multi-layer resilient network in a multi-domain environment. First the N.O. requirements will be defined for envisaged multi-layer network scenarios. Cost-effective integrated resilience strategies will be investigated supported by planning evaluations. The ITU-T functional modelling will be adopted to define first the OA&M and management requirements and then specifications for interfaces between network clients and OTN and between OTN domains. An "umbrella" management architecture that enables integration of TMN, WBEM, and SNMP will be designed to allow N.O. to manage the network as a whole. The above requirements and specifications will be translated into systems and sub-systems implementation to test in a testbed.
The goal is to design and test a resilient and managed transport network realised by an OTN carrying different clients (e.g. SDH, ATM, IP-based) with interworking and interconnection between layer transport networks and domains. The identified requirements will be validated in a testbed where IP-routers and SDH equipment will be integrated over an OTN infrastructure. The following objectives will be met: define the interworking and interconnection requirements between client-server layer networks and domains; define the functional requirements of an IP-based transport network; enhance the functional architecture of an OTN to account for new emerging features (e.g. digital optical container); implement, integrate and test Network Node Interfaces (NNI) between transparent domains and Client Node Interfaces (CNI), both based on digital optical container; implement, integrate and test an "umbrella" management system over a testbed; to develop and test strategies for integrated resilience controlled by an overall OA&M and a management system adopting QoS demanding applications; make techno-economic evaluations of an IP-based network over an OTN.
The following milestones/results are foreseen: integrated multi-layer network requirements and scenarios; functional description of an integrated OTN carrying multi-clients; functional requirements and implementation of CNI and NNI based on digital optical container; design of an "umbrella" management architecture implemented with CORBA and WBEM; OA&M concepts in an integrated multi-layer network; resilience interworking strategies in multi-layer networks; multi-layer resilient network planning and evaluation; testbed validation experiments.
LONG aims to foresee and solve problems related to the design, configuration and deployment of Next Generation Telecommunication networks specially when new services and applications are carried out across them.
The new version of the IP protocol, IPv6, will become an integral part of these Next Generation networks. In addition to this, the proliferation of new high bandwidth and asymmetric access technologies, like ADSL and CATV, will also shape the network design of these Next Generation Networks. On the other side, applications must be aware of the advanced services provided by the networks and protocols, and must take into account the impact of the underlying network. LONG aims at gaining an in-depth knowledge in the design and deployment of IPv4/IPv6 transition scenarios, as well as in the operational inter-working when heterogeneous access (ADSL, CATV, ISDN) and transport (IP/ATM, IP/SDH, IP/WDM) technologies are in place. The integration of IPv6 with advanced network services will be validated in LONG.
On the other hand, LONG focuses on extending the framework of applications, so that they benefit from the services provided by these Next Generation networks. In order to achieve these goals, LONG faces the following objectives:
To deploy a Next Generation testbed.
To adapt and validate a representative set of applications to the Next Generation Network scenarios.
To perform trials and experiments.
To develop guidelines for migration of networks and applications and disseminate results.
The key goal of the project is to design and implement an intelligent and dynamic DWDM switching all-optical network architecture. This network will be able to provide Bandwidth/Wavelength on Demand with QoS between the different nodes and the IP clients. The network architecture is based on the ASON (Automatically Switching Optical Networks) standard, with intelligent optical cross-connect (OXC) for routing and switching, and optical add-drop nodes. The optical devices will integrate tunable lasers, controlled initially by the Network Manager and later dynamically by the control plane. Thus, the control plane of the network, responsible for setting up, releasing and restoring a connection will be developed under the policies of the GMPLS. The management plane, initially used for establishing the connections and for monitoring all the network topology and equipment status will be implemented with the HP Openview management software.
The E-NEXT Network of Excellence targets a key area of Information Society Technologies, namely computer networking. Framework Programme 6 aims to develop the technological basis and the people-skills necessary to deliver the promise of the information revolution - new audio-visual services and products, electronic delivery of business, health, education, entertainment, government, science and so on - and this will fundamentally impact every aspect of life and work. The delivery of all of these e-endeavours depends entirely on computer networks.E-NEXT aims to integrate a critical mass of expertise and to re-structure research practice such that Europe can take a lead in computer networking and act as a world force in this area. The main objectives of this NoE will be: the development of a virtual research centre to integrate the world-class research of the members and to stimulate the exchange of personnel, the education and training of personnel inside and outside the network, the dissemination of research results and in general the spreading of excellence, and the stimulation of innovation by appropriate technology transfer into existing and new companies, both large and small.E-NEXT will achieve these objectives through its management structure consisting of network and country coordination committees, and six workpackages: network coordination, joint research, integration and training, distributed work environment, spreading excellence, and dissemination.E-NEXT is targeted at line 3.1.8 in the First Call for proposals, Networked Audio-Visual Systems and Home Platforms. This line aims to 'support the innovation and development of technologies for end-to-end interoperable audio-visual networks, services and applications'. E-NEXT will make a major contribution to these aims, as well as potentially contributing to other areas of IST, for example to Broadband for All, and to Research Networking.
The motivation of the EuQoS(End to end Quality of Service) project is to resolve the outstanding design issues presently associated with the delivery of end to end QoS service across heterogeneous networks. It is necessary to resolve these issues and accordingly upgrade the infrastructures so that new applications can be supported by the Internet and new service packages can be offered by operators, ISP and other service providers.
Main objective is to propose a Packet-over-WDM network solution, including traffic properties and management, based on optical packets and asynchronous transmission over metro and backbone distances. The project will capitalise on both optics and electronics to find out the optimum combination to reach multi-Tb/s capacity. To cope with the on-going convergence in the transport of voice, data and multimedia applications, the project will also define several classes of service, adapted to optical layer specifics. On the metro side, the project will consider a buffer-less network using a medium access control protocol. The backbone will be based on 10 Tb/s multi-layer (wavelength and packet) opto-electronic medium access control protocol with opto-electronic packet routers, incorporating core and edge functions. Finally, the project will demonstrate highly integrated optical and electronic devices, included in a sub-equipped experimental platform. Work description: A first task will be to tackle the network issues: - Define network requirements and functional specifications of the network elements; - identify a migration path from short-term approaches; - Carry out traffic studies to analyse IP traffic behaviour when transported over WDM, and propose optimised buffering schemes, access control protocols and routing algorithms taking into account a multi-QoS environment; - Investigate network management issues, such as interoperability between packet and WDM levels. A second task will be to investigate and implement the required network elements: - A network testbed will be implemented with its associated access control protocol to show a buffer-less multi-QoS optical packet metro network of capacity beyond 1Tb/s (2.5Gb/s line-rate); - A 10-Tb/s opto-electronic optical packet router (2.5/10Gb/s line-rate) incorporating gateway functions between metro and backbone will be implemented using a two-layer (wavelength and packet) approach; A third task will be to provide the required advanced components: - Fast and highly integrated optical space and wavelength switching modules, based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (up to 32 gates per module), and incorporating adapted high-speed electronic drivers; - electronics for clock recovery, buffering, and switching will be developed, based on SiGe and III/V technologies. Milestones: - Functional definition and migration path of optical-packet-over-WDM scenario - Analysis of traffic models and logical network performance; - Info-model of packet/WDM management; - Test-bed including metro network, optical packet router and interfaces to IP - New architectures and routing techniques, 40Gb/s studies; - Optical switch modules (32 gates); - Electronics for signal processing.
The Network of Excellence (NoE) e-Photon/One focuses on the 'Broadband for All' strategic objective of the IST 1st call, targeting network-oriented and system-oriented aspects of the optically enabled Broadband.
The Integrated Multimedia Project (IMMP) primarily studies the integration of interactive multimedia services and system architectures addressing both residential and business users and focusing on the overlaps and synergy between the two. The main focus is on investigating and using IP/ATM connections and using applications relevant to the business sector. The evolution towards new multimedia applications will take place in a step by step fashion with successful services developed only after extensive end-user evaluations. This process will be followed in the project emphasising end-user trials and the feedback from them. t is necessary for IMMP to conduct focused trials with selected services to understand the key ssues (technical, human and commercial) which will affect the successful deployment d end user acceptance of such services. Of particular relevance will be common new services that can be utilised in both business and residential areas.
Past Projects 
Internet is widely deployed almost over the world. However, new
transmission technologies and new applications change the patterns of
the traffic in the net. Moreover, new users with different profiles can
change the patterns of the traffic.
The knowledge of the Internet traffic characteristics is necessary to
optimize resources, to design the growth of the network, and to know
the usage that of the resources. The complexity of the traffic analysis
for a network is related to the amount of traffic carried, the topology
of the network, the number of users, and the degree of detail desired
to the reports.
There are other projects working on IP traffic measurement on
high-speed networks like 
The Spanish National Host comprises five organisations offering resources to ACTS projects. Telefonica has an experimental broadband network in Madrid, called RECIBA and this is supplemented by Universities in Madrid and Barcelona who have their own local broadband networks on offer and by the metropolitan area network in Barcelona. The host can offer multimedia conferencing, including multi-point, co-operative working, messaging and video retrieval as well as network connectivity. But, most importantly, the host also allows access to significant user communities that can be used by ACTS projects (or projects from other national or EU programmes) to perform operational trials or experiments of leading edge applications and services that involve real users.
The Integrated Multimedia Project (IMMP) primarily studies the integration of interactive multimedia services and system architectures addressing both residential and business users and focusing on the overlaps and synergy between the two. The main focus is on investigating and using IP/ATM connections and using applications relevant to the business sector. The evolution towards new multimedia applications will take place in a step by step fashion with successful services developed only after extensive end-user evaluations. This process will be followed in the project emphasising end-user trials and the feedback from them. t is necessary for IMMP to conduct focused trials with selected services to understand the key ssues (technical, human and commercial) which will affect the successful deployment d end user acceptance of such services. Of particular relevance will be common new services that can be utilised in both business and residential areas.