the networked future: mobile and wireless communications

The Networked Future:

Mobile and WirelessCommunications

A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessedthrough the Europa server http://europa.eu

Luxembourg: Office for Publications of the European Union, 2006

ISBN:92-79-02366-7

© European Communities, 2006

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged

Printed in Belgium

The Networked Future:

Mobile and WirelessCommunications

INDEX

02

INTRODUCTION 3

New and integrated radio access 4

Seamless mobile services 6

Addressing the R&D Challenges of the next Decade 8

Flexibility for the networked world 12

Satellite convergence 14

Personalised services on the move 18

Making a reality of ambient networks 20

New radio technologies for better mobile services 22

A think-tank for future wireless communications 26

Wireless gets personal 28

Communications for public safety and security 30

Mobile TV: unlimited audience, coverage and usage 32

SPICE 36

Projects List 40

Capturing Ambient Intelligence for Mobile Communications through Wireless Sensor Networks 38

INTRODUCTION

Digital mobile communications is one of the great success stories of recent years, offering people

levels of mobility and services never available before.The new 3G services will push mobile even

further, opening up opportunities for true broadband mobile services.

This is not the end of the road for mobile, however. On the contrary, we are still only at the

beginning of the mobile revolution.Already the requirements for the next generation of mobile

and wireless communications technology are emerging.

Future systems must put user needs centre stage - seamlessly integrating the many different

communication systems we see emerging today so as to deliver personalised enhanced services

to users. In addition, they will require open interfaces and architectures to allow different players

to inter-work and offer new services. Such an open approach will be essential for players to

compete in a market where users are increasingly mobile and their requirements continually

changing. Digital rights management and content management will also be important considerations.

Future mobile and wireless networks will need to combine different access networks and

technologies - satellite as well as terrestrial – and get them to work together so as to optimise

different services requirements and operational conditions.This brings many new research

challenges: in particular solving interoperability issues across multiple networks and a variety of

connected devices.We will need new solutions to accommodate a wide range of requirements

on data rate, quality of service, security, availability and price according to users’ expectations.

This brochure describes IST research on Mobile and Wireless Communications, showing the

integrated nature of European research in this domain. It presents profiles of specific research areas

holding a promising future, together with selected project descriptions to exemplify and illustrate

key on-going research and technology development.

Research here aims to enable users to access advanced services and applications in the most

optimal way catering for different services requirements and operational environments.These

systems may include the personal level (personal, body area/ad hoc networks), the local/home

level (W-LAN, UWB), the cellular level (GPRS, UMTS), and the wider area level (DxB-T, BWA).

A satellite overlay network (e.g. S-DMB) complements the resulting access landscape.The work

aims to arrive at a consolidated European approach to technology, systems and services, including

location-based services, as well as contributions to standards and future spectrum requirements.

The brochure is one of six in The Networked Future series, describing European funded

research for Network and Communication Technologies.

03

New and integrated radio access

Research on new and integrated radio access technologies is oriented to meet

the exacting requirements of future mobile and wireless systems.

04

The success of future mobile and wireless communica-tions systems depends on meeting, or exceeding, theneeds, requirements and interests of users and society asa whole. It seems likely that this will require an increase inspectral efficiency to allow high data rates and high usercapacities far beyond those of second or third generationsystems. Moreover, flexible resource allocation will play akey role in future mobile radio networks.

In recent years, much research has been carried out inincreasing the performance and efficiency of various airinterface components like coding or detection.Also newair interface concepts based on either single carrier ormulti-carrier transmission have been proposed whichshow promising performance results.To design the nextgeneration mobile radio systems, a clear understandingof the requirements on these systems is necessary and a comprehensive overview of new air interfacetechnologies is required to really choose between thebest available technologies.

These new and integrated radio access technologies arebeing addressed as part of IST’s research for Mobile andWireless Systems and Platforms Beyond 3G.The workaims to arrive at a consolidated European approach totechnology, systems and services, including location-based services, and contributions to standards. It alsoaims towards a clear European understanding ofspectrum requirements and novel ways of optimisingspectrum usage for “systems beyond 3G”.

Requirements for Future Radio SystemsFuture mobile radio systems will have to meet exactingrequirements. Data rate per user is expected toincrease significantly, but could also vary substantiallybetween the peak vs typical.With data traffic dominatingover voice transmissions, the demands in data ratebetween downlink and uplink are becoming asymmetric.Quality of service – a complex parameter which can bedefined in several ways – is of particular interest tomobile users.And with many future services likely to belocation based, mechanisms will be necessary to derivethe user’s location or other context.

Although hidden from the user, one of the mostimportant issues is the integration of packet-switchedand IP-based traffic.

Network operators have made significant investments inbuilding IP core networks based on internet systemarchitectures. Further efforts are needed to optimisethese and ease the integration of fixed and wirelessnetworks.

Frequency spectrum and bandwidth allocation will be important considerations. Radio spectrum is scarce,and therefore expensive, and hence future systems will have to be very efficient in how they use the limitedspectrum available.Alternative methods of spectralallocation and use could also be considered.The systemmust be able to dynamically change the allocatedresources as users’ requirements and availablecapacities change.

Particular attention should be paid to how the airinterface might affect terminal, base station and otherinfrastructure costs.Also regulatory authorities arespecifying mandatory limits for the maximum powerconsumption and radiation for both the base station and the mobile terminal.

European excellence for smart antennasAntennas are essential to the functioning of wirelesscommunication systems. IST’s Antenna Centre ofExcellence (ACE) aims to improve the performance of antennas in future wireless systems.

The ACE Network of Excellence undertakes a variety of activities. It is compiling a list of antenna softwaretools and providing education and training on antennadesign, integration and manufacturing. Networkmembers are also able to share antenna measurementand testing facilities.All types of antenna are covered:millimetre and sub-millimetre waves; smart antennas formobile phones and other small terminals; wideband andmulti-band antennas; and planar and conformal arrays.

ACE: www.ist-ace.org

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Further Informationwww.cordis.lu/ist/ct

Air Interface TechnologiesVarious air interface technologies are candidates to fulfilthe challenging requirements for next generation mobileradio systems.These include:

• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM):The principle of OFDM is to modulate a high rate serialdata stream into multiple parallel data streams.The parallel subcarriers are spaced such that theparallel signals are orthogonal to each other and do notinterfere.This has a number of attractive features,including high spectral efficiency, relatively simplereceivers and high flexibility in terms of subcarrierallocation. Its main weakness is a higher peak-to-averagepower ratio compared to single-carrier modulation.

• Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA):is a strong candidate for the downlink of future mobileradio systems since it combines the advantages ofOFDM and CDMA.The principle is to map the chips of the spreading code on different subcarriers.Advantages are high spectral efficiency, low inter-ference and relatively simple detection.

• MIMO OFDM: Multiple antennas are one of the mostimportant contributors to reliable communicationsespecially in hostile environments.The presence ofseveral antennas is usually exploited to provide somesort of diversity. MIMO OFDM systems offer thepotential to exploit the advantages of both MIMO and OFDM techniques.

• Ultra-wideband: Ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology(RT) is an emerging technology for short-range radiocommunication, which potentially solves many of thecurrent problems in spectrum management and radiosystems engineering. UWB systems operate by spreadingvery small amounts of effectively radiated average power– typically less than 0.5 mW – across a very wide bandof frequencies relative to their centre frequency.

The key factors for any air interface are coverage,capacity, and cost. Only if a new air interface technologycan significantly improve coverage and/or capacity for agiven cost with respect to second generation (GSM) andthird generation (UMTS) systems, will it have a market.Known measures to increase the efficiency are forexample macro/network diversity, power control andsoft handover. Recently, powerful techniques toguarantee QoS and increase the system efficiency havebeen developed.These exploit the spatial dimension –for instance through multiple antennas (see box) - aswell as the design of robust error correction schemes.

Seamless mobile services

Personalisation and seamless access will be key features in making future mobileservices and devices easier to use and offering greater added value.

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Mobility has become a central aspect of the lives ofEuropean citizens in business, education, and leisure.While developments in the mobile arena bring manybenefits, the bewildering array of new systems andservices can be confusing for end users.

Already, the average citizen has difficulties in under-standing all these new systems, let alone using themeffectively. Not only will this slow down the deploymentof new services, it will contribute to the digital divide,making it difficult for certain users to benefit from newdevelopments. In addition, network operators have todeal with the complexity of a multi-access networkingenvironment.The enhancement of existing technologiesand development of new Beyond 3G systems willincrease this complexity even more.

To make the most of the opportunities offered by newtechnologies, future mobile services and devices willneed to be much easier to use.

Services Everywhere“Services” has a very general meaning: it coverseverything from communications to computing facilities,from home/building/public-space functionality to securityrelated tasks.

Services may be as simple as remote control of anentertainment device (e.g. a television) via a wirelesslink, or access control to a building. Conversely, servicesmay be very complex, and may require locationawareness, quality-of-service (QoS) support, messageexchanges with network databases, structuredinteraction with remote networking devices (e.g., mediagateways), etc.The emergence of new research areas,such as pervasive computing, will further increase thediversity of the devices and services with which usershave to deal.

Currently, to exploit such “services”, users mustfrequently use different devices, and configure each ofthem in different ways.These devices must be recognisedand authenticated using different procedures, be chargedwith different means and must use heterogeneousaccess technologies and protocols.This places anenormous burden of complexity on users and, often,implies the physical burden of carrying different devices.

Such complexity is likely to limit the effectiveexploitation of the wide range of access technologies,virtual reality, ambient intelligence and context –awaresolutions currently under study and development.

Personalisation and seamless access will be key featuresin making future mobile services and devices easier touse and offering greater added value.To make the mostof the opportunities offered by new technologies, futuremobile services and devices will need to be much easierto use.The user can be anywhere, at home, on themove and still able to access his customised services.Continuity of service from fixed to mobile access andseamless roaming of services across operators,heterogeneous networks and terminals, country andcultural boarders should become a reality.

Smart cards for mobile networksUBISEC is aiming at solutions for context-aware andpersonalised authorisation and authentication services in heterogeneous networks, based on smartcards.

UBISEC foresees automatic customisation beingprovided through a set of user, device and applicationprofiles which are secure and situation-dependent.Access control and authentication, as well aspersonalised content delivery, will be administeredautomatically by smartcards through a set of advanced,distributed network services. Directory, discovery andprovisioning services support the mobile user whilemoving across heterogeneous networks.

The work focuses on advanced personalisation andlocalisation technologies with high security so as tomaintain privacy and protect computing devices, theirsoftware components, and personal user data includinguser profiles.

UBISEC: www.c-lab.de/ubisec/

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Personalised AccessPersonalisation will be an important feature of futureservices. It will ensure users receive services mostsuited to their needs and situation (context), while alsosafeguarding their privacy and protecting their personaldata.

An important lesson learned from 2G wireless systems(GSM) is the portability of the user identity throughdifferent mobile phones. In future systems such anapproach could be extended to cover a variety ofdifferent networking technologies and devices.Each user would be provided with a personalised profileto be used for different services, eventually usingdifferent classes of terminals.

To create and maintain a personalised user profile,behavioural information would be processedautomatically. However, the user should at least have thepossibility to control the information gathered aboutthem; they may also wish to control how their personalinformation is used. Hence security of information anduser privacy are key issues here.

Simplifying user accessThe SIMPLICITY project aims to simplify the process of using actual and future “services”. Specifically, it willdesign and deploy a brokerage level able to:

• Personalise service delivery as a function of userpreferences and needs;

• Allow seamless portability of services and runningapplications/sessions through heterogeneous terminalsand devices; and

• Smoothly adapt service delivery to the underlyingnetworking and service support technologies andcapabilities.

The project will describe user scenarios and businessmodels, and explore new brokerage mechanisms andpolicies in a multi-access networking environment.These will inform the design of a universal multi-application device to provide users with a simple anduniform mechanism for customising services andterminals which will be validated in a test-bed.

SIMPLICITY: www.ist-simplicity.org


Addressing the R&D Challenges of the next Decade

Drawing on the collective expertise of the sector actors – the eMobility Specific Support Action

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In the context of the Lisbon goals, sector actorsestablished the eMobility Technology Platform todevelop a Strategic Research Agenda for the mobile andwireless communications sector including broadbandcommunication.As such, it provides a focus for theconcerted effort of all concerned sector actors. It is acommon platform for the multi-sectorial and multi-disciplinary work required to enable advances in mobileand wireless technology, serving the needs of citizens inthe global context.

In order to support the activities of eMobilityTechnology Platform, the eMobility Specific SupportAction is designed to assist the open consultation andparticipation of a broad spectrum of stakeholders indefining the objectives, scope and approach to futuremobile, wireless and broadband systems and their use.

With the growing emphasis on a user-centric vision, therange of stakeholders in the eMobility TechnologyPlatform concerned expands beyond manufacturers,network and service providers to include contentproviders and application providers, R&D centers anduniversities.Academia and leading edge users play animportant role in identifying strategically importantresearch issues, new technology options as well astechnical and non-technical requirements.

The eMobility SSA covers the additional efforts requiredfor this extended participation of stakeholders toprovide the EU with a well founded Vision and StrategicResearch Agenda.

The Membership of the eMobility Technology Platformincludes, as of June 2006, 312 organisations from 34countries, including 88 industry organisations, 95 SMEsand 129 members from research organisations.

The results of the work so far are reflected in fourStrategic Research Agenda reports for eMobility(http://www.emobility.eu.org/).

The Strategic Research Agenda foreMobilityBy the year 2020, mobile and wireless communicationswill play a central role in all aspects of Europeancitizens’ lives, not just telephony, and will have a majorinfluence on Europe economy, wirelessly enabling everyconceivable business endeavour and personal lifestyle.After only a decade of mobile service being available inEurope, 3rd Generation mobile services, wireless accessto the Internet and the Internet itself are maturing andattention is focussing on consolidation and on lookingbeyond the current Internet to future systems.Thescope of activities includes the use of broadband andwireless to enable innovation in other sectors(transport, energy, health care, education, etc. as well aslooking at architectures which support “beyond IP”concepts to achieve broadband for everyone.

The following vision statement articulates the essenceof the future aims and vision: “The improvement ofthe individual's quality of life, achieved throughthe availability of an environment for instantprovision and access to meaningful, multi-sensoryinformation and content”. Realisation of this visiondemands a major shift from the current concept of“anywhere, anytime” to a new paradigm of “anynetwork, any device, with relevant content andcontext in a secure and trustworthy manner”.

The future system will be complex, consisting of amultitude of service and network types ranging acrossWireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Personal Area, LocalArea, Home Networks, Moving Networks to Wide AreaNetworks.The increasing dependency of society on suchcommunication infrastructure requires new approachesand an emphasis in European research captured here in anew concept called the “SET Concept” thatunderscores the need for a 3-dimensional vision ofresearch activities that will deliver Simplicity, Efficiencyand Trust.

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Set ConceptThe SET Concept is designed toovercome potential technical,business and psychological barriers tothe adoption and acceptance of newtechnologies and services. It takesinto consideration the interests ofusers, network operators, serviceproviders, and manufacturers, andprovides a challenging researchagenda for all.

Simplicity- It emphasises researchinto new solutions for managingcomplexity seamlessly on behalf ofservice providers and for hidingcomplexity from a user in accessing,using and creating services. Complexity is delegatedfrom a user to the communication system which mustadapt to the individual’s life stage preferences andsituation, and a variety of other contexts.

Efficiency- Solutions which result in efficient use ofspectrum and network resources, and higherthroughputs, through appropriate cooperation andadaptation techniques.The new target is not necessarilyhigher bit rates as in the past.Autonomous selforganisation is needed to continuously operate at theoptimum point under dynamically varying conditions, aswell as capabilities to easily incorporate (as yetunconceived) future services and requirements.

Trust- Wireless communications will enable an always-connected environment, facilitating services to supportprivate and professional life of individuals, families, andspecial interest groups. Intelligent services will be basedon sensitive personal information, context and profilestraversing different network types, and multiple businessand administrative domains.Any successful adoption anduse of future services and networks in all walks of life,imposes the creation of a trust environment.This isnecessary to overcome possible psychological barriersthrough building a sense of trust in the integrity, privacy,security of information and networks, as well as toprotect society against malicious, criminal or terroristactivity.

Research ChallengesSimplicity

• Ubiquitous connectivity and session continuitythrough auto-connectivity between legacy and newtypes of networks:WSN, PAN, LAN, HomeNetwork, Moving Networks,Wide Area Networksand techniques which facilitate self-(configuration,organisation, healing) and management ofheterogeneous and dynamic networks and services.

• A network agnostic service execution platform thatinteracts with networks and terminals and alsofacilitates the deployment, adaptation andmanagement of services on the various (includingmobile) devices.

• Innovative services based on a user’s ambientintelligent and streamlined context classificationsmethodology

• Enabling techniques for user-created contentfacilitating peer-to-peer communication

• Smart user interfaces and interactions with learningcapabilities

• New mobile device form factors, included embeddedwireless chip connectivity

• Radically simplified mechanisms and technologies forcontext capturing, processing, distribution andintegration into intelligent services.

• New and efficient search engines with automaticzero-configuration and complexity management(including the management of privacy and trust).

Addressing the R&D Challenges of the next Decade

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• Intelligent customer care and provision of smartsupport in real-time in case of technical difficulties.

Efficiency

• Joint optimization of coverage, capacity and qualitytechniques through cooperation and adaptationtechniques

• Efficient mechanisms for joint exploitation andoperation of available diversities intime/space/frequency/code/power domains

• Investigation of alternative deployment concepts andsystem architectures beyond the classical cellularapproach

• Efficient cross-layer operation and optimization

• Intelligent resource (frequency, battery, power,hardware, software) discovery and managementtechniques

• End-to-end content and media adaptation techniquessuch as time-shifting, intelligent catching,opportunistic transport/transmission, rate/qualityadaptation.

• Centralised and de-centralised self-organisingnetwork topologies for both operator-based andoperator-less radio access network concepts forspecial application areas (e.g., disaster relief andcampus networks)

• Seamless convergence between fixed and mobile atboth service and network levels, exploitingbroadband optical technologies.

• Innovative transceiver architectures and jointlyoptimized RF and baseband hardware designs,matching the nano-electronics roadmaps andexhibiting new degrees of scalability, flexibility,security, energy-aware performance, cost efficiencyand design productivity.

• Evaluation of Network Information theoretical limitsof cooperative and self-organising networks andresearch into advance coding design and signalprocessing schemes to achieve these limits.

• Investigation of the impact of new frequency bandsfor future systems on the radio propagation andspecification of appropriate output power levels toensure compliance with relevant guidelines andregulations related to human exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields.

• New methods of frequency usage, coexistence,cooperation and sharing techniques for/betweenexiting and newly identified frequency spectrum andradio access technologies, based on cognitive andspectrum-agile radios to select the most appropriateradio access technology for a given environment.

Trust

• Secure data management, and synchronization andprivate exchange of user profile and contextinformation

• Efficient encryption and cryptographic mechanismsand algorithms suitable for different types of devicesand networks

• Identity management & privacy

• Secure and dependable end-to-end networkprotocols and applications enabling a simple-to-usetrusted transaction environment

• Unified Digital Rights Management

• Transparent and flexible Service Level Agreements

• Combined multi-layered mobility support andauthentication/authorization across diverse networksand support of simultaneous use of multiple accesstechnologies.

• Secure software and execution environmentincluding O/S

• Device and network protection against (virus, trojan,DoS attacks) and intrusion detection

• Safe and secure software download enablingnetworks and device re-configurability

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Building on Europe’s strengthsAs was achieved with GSM, the SETConcept offers new opportunity forEurope to be the leader in adopting aholistic and balanced approach torealisation of the future mobile andwireless communication system.TheSET Concept will result in efficient andusable technologies and was developedtaking into great consideration users’interest and needs as well as recognisingthe important role of wirelesscommunications in Europe’s economy.The research programmes will need tobe focused on enhancing the axis ofresearch (Simplicity, Efficiency,Trust) inthe SET Concept through innovativetechniques and technologies and targetedtowards a system that comprises multiple networktypes.The SET framework offers a useful means tomeasure the relevance and output of researchprogrammes, also facilitating faster standardisationprocesses and reducing time to market. Supportingmeasures to evaluate the evolving European policyenvironment against the SET framework are alsoneeded, if effective and timely research exploitation is tobe secured.

As a further step to ensure such exploitation, the mostrelevant research results should be integrated anddemonstrated in an open infrastructure for research andeducation purposes that facilitates joint optimisation ofdifferent sub-systems under the same conditions.Theseinclude, for example, use of different and new frequencybands, new spectrum sharing methods, interworking andseamless mobility solutions, new security techniques,cognitive paradigms, ambient intelligence, and newusages and context aware services.This infrastructure isexpected to act as a European showroom of advancedmobile technology and services highlightingachievements from leading projects, and an open test-bed to host SMEs and students through partnershipswith Universities, research centres and throughinternational cooperation.


Flexibility for the networked world

By making devices and systems smarter and more flexible, future mobilecommunications systems will be easier to use, deploy and maintain.

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As technology develops, users are faced with an ever-broadening range of ICT devices and network-basedservices, along with a bewildering array of configurationprocedures, access technologies and protocols.Excessive complexity places an enormous burden onusers, service providers and network operators andrisks slowing down the deployment of newtechnologies. In these circumstances, there is a dangerthat Beyond 3G applications will not exploit the fullpotential of ambient intelligence, context-aware servicesand novel access technologies.

One solution is to make wireless devices and systemssmarter and more flexible. Engineers call this“reconfigurability” and have pursued such an approach for a number of years. It is now recognised that thisreconfigurability needs to extent throughout mobilecommunications systems, from the user device rightthrough to the network infrastructure.

This so-called “end-to-end reconfigurability” is seen bymany in the wireless industry as a key enabling technologyfor systems beyond 3G. It has the potential to revolu-tionise wireless just as the PC revolutionised computing.

Challenges for New ArchitecturesReconfigurable equipments and systems will generallyprovide much higher flexibility, scalability, configurabilityand interoperability. Reconfiguration will stretch over allnetwork layers and be implemented on open platforms.

There are three major challenges here:

• Transforming embedded flexibility into end-to-endreconfigurability: The protocol stacks used to run thesystem should be partly or fully defined in software so that they can be downloaded, reconfigured andexecuted.These protocols are on the terminal, accessnetwork entities and associated procedures/protocols,and may cover one or more air interfaces.

• Capturing the newly enabled reconfigurability functionalitiesinto sizeable benefits: The corresponding optimisation ofresources (spectrum, radio systems and equipment),and reconfiguration functions (discovery, negotiations,control and triggering).

• Finding right balance between integrated versus distributedapproaches: The reconfigurability functions, architecturesand intelligence may either be integrated - logically orphysically - in one equipment, or distributed dependingon the requirements, constraints and availability ofenabling technologies.

These axes drive the definition of an architecture anddesign of reconfigurable and flexible system concepts thatenable seamless and transparent communication acrossheterogeneous environments.An active cooperationbetween end users, operators, service providers and newcomers is needed to firm up the definition of the mostappropriate distribution of intelligence betweenreconfigurable terminals and networks.

Benefits of Reconfigurable ArchitecturesThe advent of end-to-end reconfigurability will influencethe structure of the industry, creating new markets andnew employment opportunities, notably in the area ofcontent creation, new services and service/contentcreation tools but also in wireless informationtechnology administration (WIT).

Industry, end-users and standards will benefit through:

• Efficient,Advanced and Flexible End-User Service Provision:The reconfigurability management of the network andsystems will serve the optimal provision of end-userservices and applications.This aspect of end-to-endreconfigurability encompasses the tailoring of applicationand service provision to user preferences and profile,taking into consideration the network/terminalcapabilities, configuration and profile, as well asservice/charging/security profiles and related context.

• Efficient Spectrum, Radio and Equipment ResourcesUtilisation: In collaboration with the regulatoryauthorities and local regulators, the resultingtechnologies will offer flexible use of spectrumresources and associated security issues. Such anapproach would simplify the process of optimizingresource usage. For instance, with equipments andsystems capable of operating in such a situation, aprivate user could be granted access to a portion ofbandwidth that is unlicensed.

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• Reduced Cost to Upgrade Fielded Systems:Thecommunications standard used by a device will be fieldupgradeable through software downloads, e.g. over theair.The economics of expensive infrastructure systemswill be improved, since the cost of the hardware anddeployment could be amortized over a longer lifetime,

• Multi-Standard Platforms: A single hardware platformwill be shared dynamically amongst multiple applica-tions, with channel resources shifting among differentcommunications standards as the load shifts.This willsignificantly reduce the cost of infrastructure tosupport a mixture of legacy and newly-deployed fixed-standard radio devices.

• Better Support for Customised Solutions: A developer willbe able to modify the communications standard of adevice without investing in a new hardware design.Users who need relatively small volumes of devices,for whom the cost of custom hardware is currentlyprohibitive, will gain the ability to improve theiroperations with devices optimised to their specificneeds.

• Reduced Standards Risk: An operator will be able to deploy expensive infrastructure or large numbers of mobile devices without locking in the communicationsstandard that will be used.This insulates the operatorfrom potential changes in the standard and from marketuncertainty.


End-to-end reconfigurabilityThe End-to-End Reconfigurability (E2R) integrated project aims to bring thefull benefits of the valuable diversity within the radio eco-space, composedof a wide range of systems such as mobile, wireless local area (W-LAN) andbroadcast.The consortium includes key European players inreconfigurability, software defined radio (SDR) and cognitive radio (CR).

E2R will devise, develop and test architectural designs of reconfigurabledevices and supporting system functions.Activities address end-to-enddevelopment (stretching from the users’ devices to Internet Protocol),services and reconfigurable architecture. In particular it focuses on intrinsicfunctionalities such as management and control, download support,spectrum management, regulatory framework and business models.

Benefits will include an expanded set of operational choices for users,application and service providers, operators and regulators forheterogeneous mobile radio systems.

E2R: http://e2r.motlabs.com/

Satellite convergence

Convergence of broadcast and mobile communications is opening up new markets

for satellite-based services, which will make a significant contribution to future

wealth creation.

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Satellites today provide both direct access to, and thebackbone of European and Worldwide digitalinformation broadcast networks, as well as interactiveand subscription TV services, mobile services to ships,aircrafts and land-based users, and data distributionwithin business networks. Satellites are also a keyelement in the Internet backbone, and enable bothbroad and narrowband Internet access services fromremote and rural locations. Satellite services provide anessential component of disaster relief activitiesworldwide, offering reliability, instant and long-termavailability, over very wide areas. In addition to civilapplications, the unique coverage advantages of satellitesystems position them as key players for risk and crisismanagement for institutional, government and defenceapplications.

Satellite-delivered broadcast, broadband and mobileservices are converging.The moves towards locationbased services stimulated by Galileo and the increasinginterest in environmental monitoring and security meansthat future satellite systems and technologies are fullycapable of delivering a broad mix of features, as andwhen required.Telecommunication satellite services maybe seen as the supporting infrastructures to otherapplications such as Earth Observation satellite services,Navigation satellite services.

Next steps will put emphasis on developing solutionsthat further ease the integration and convergencebetween satellite communications systems andterrestrial systems, thus making it far more appealingand ubiquitous for the user.

Hybrid networks, in which satellite complementsterrestrial technologies rather than compete, must bedeveloped. Satellite can then be seamlessly integratedinto hybrid systems, and its contribution will evolve inline with the progress of technology during the lifetimeof the satellite. Ultimately, satellite should have thecapability to serve as a universal overlay of anyterrestrial network, fixed or mobile, as well as being ableto deliver service where satellite has clear advantages(e.g. in remote and rural areas).

Seamless service provisioning across networks is amongthe key targets of innovation, with increasing focus onthe design of end to end wireless systems forheterogeneous connectivity solutions that areincreasingly being considered for several market andcrisis management scenarios.

Multimedia via satelliteFuture mobile satellite systems (MSS) could potentiallyfill three roles:

• Extension of existing mobile satellite services: especially inincreasing capacity and achievable bit rates, focused onniche markets (the “evolutionary approach”).Theconvergence of broadcast and point-to-pointconnections, and the advent of concepts like multicast,opens new possibilities for the MSS market. Differentsolutions seem to be possible, especially in theintegration of the network elements, be it eithersatellite or terrestrial based.

• Convergence of broadcast with MSS services and theadvent of multicast services. In contrast to theevolutionary approach, the aim here is to come to asolution with the highest possible integration of thesatellite and terrestrial systems. One promisingcandidate in this direction is the IMT-2000/UMTS-vision of a fully integrated system, even to the extentof using the same (dual-mode) terminals.

• Coverage extension for mobile terrestrial networks,resulting in a higher integration of satellite networkswith terrestrial networks and the internet.

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Co-operation for future satellitecommunicationsDevelopments in satellite communications in Europe are guided by the Task Force on Advanced SatelliteMobile Systems (ASMS-TF).The Task Force was formedin March 2001, at the initiative of the EuropeanCommission and the European Space Agency (ESA).

This industry-led initiative aims to create a Europeanvision of the future of mobile systems, from bothtechnological and economic perspectives, and to identifycritical standardisation and regulatory issues. It isbuilding on earlier results generated under the Frame-work Programmes and on on-going activities sponsoredby ESA and the IST Programme.

Members include manufacturers, operators, serviceproviders, research organisations, academic institutions,mobile industry specialists, and car manufacturers.

ASMS-TF: http://asms.wss.bcentral.com/default.aspx

Research for Satellite CommunicationsThe IST Programme’s work related to satellitecommunications is largely consistent with thisevolutionary picture anticipated by the industry.

IST-sponsored activities do not target space-specificequipment, such as payloads or platform technologies,nor the ground equipment used exclusively in a satellitecontext.These activities are the remit of the EuropeanSpace Agency (ESA). Rather, IST projects take terrestrialsystems and networks as a starting point, with a view tovalidating the related technologies and services in themixed satellite-terrestrial environment that is likely toemerge in future.

Most projects include a satellite and a terrestrialnetwork component, and aim at optimising inter-operability within this heterogeneous environment.


Satellite convergence

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Building European excellence in satellitecommunicationsSatNEx is a Network of Excellence in satellite commu-nications. Bringing together twenty-two of Europe’sforemost universities and research institutions, theNetwork aims to establish a long-lasting, durableintegration of European research in satellite commu-nications and develop a common knowledge base.

The partners have established a Joint Programme ofActivities (JPA) addressing research as well as theintegration and training needs. Integrating Activitiesbring together the Network’s researchers, researchtools and test-beds into a Europe-wide collaborationplatform.

The joint research strategy provides a focus forresearch activities, including system studies and researchtrials.Training, dissemination, knowledge transfer andstandardisation activities help to spread this knowledgeacross the wider research and industrial communities.

Under the Sixth Framework Programme, work onsatellite RTD is seeking to identify a coordinatedEuropean view of the role that advanced mobile satellitecommunication systems may play in 3G and future“systems beyond 3G”.Activities are carried out incoordination with the thematic priority on "Aeronauticsand Space", and are clearly placed in the context ofrelated ESA efforts.

Research topics include:

• Convergence of multicast / broadcast andtelecommunication services: covering issues such ascommonality with terrestrial technologies; integrationwith terrestrial networks; simulation tools; andapplication-enabling technologies.

• Increasing spectral and power efficiency: consideringaspects such as adaptive modulation and codingtechniques, fade countermeasures, dynamic spectrumallocation, and multi-user detection techniques.

• Multimedia satellite system (MSS) terminals: covering afull range of equipment, from palmtop and handhelds,to laptops, vehicular, maritime and aeronautical.

• Services and network architecture: including solutions for stand-alone networks, integrating the terrestrialand satellite portions of 3G networks (T-UMTS and S-UMTS), and extending T-UMTS to broadcasting.

Support to standards activities remains an importantoutcome of this work.

Integral Satellite Initiative The Integral Satellite Initiative (ISI) Technology Platformbrings together a unified, industry-led forum all researchand technology aspects related to satellitecommunications, including mobile, broadband, andbroadcasting applications.The purpose is to foster anddevelop the entire industrial sector, maximise the valueof European research and technology development, andcontribute to EU and ESA policies.

Satellite communications is the most mature andeconomically important (up to 70% of the revenues) ofthe space applications in terms of European spaceindustry. Europe has world-class competence andcapacities in satellite communications and is a strongglobal player.

Satellite communications constitute a strategic sectorfor Europe, with significant economic impact and highsocietal relevance.They are instrumental for European-wide and international broadcasting, mobilecommunications, broadband access, bridging the digitaldivide, safety, crisis management, disaster relief, and dualuse applications.

ISI aims to be instrumental in achieving and maintainingEuropean leadership and competitiveness on a Europeanand global level, fostering the entire industrial sector,and maximising the value of related research andtechnology development. ISI embodies the critical massrequired to pursue the above objectives consideringshort term priorities, medium-term evolutions, and long-term strategic directions.

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The specific challenges of the Strategic Research Agendaof ISI are described in the following non-exhaustive list:

• Surpass the state-of-the-art in systemarchitecture design and implementation

• Overcome technical limitations withEuropean solutions

• Largely improve marketing conditions forEuropean Industry

• Remove international regulatory barriers

• Strongly pursue open standardisation oftechnology

ISI is an open platform, whose membership embraces allrelevant and interested private and public stakeholders,altogether currently more than 145 organisations from24 counties participate. ISI intends to collaborate andcooperate with the European Commission, theEuropean Space Agency (ESA), the EU and ESA MemberStates and Associated States, the National SpaceAgencies, International Organizations, User fora, andother European Technology Platforms. ISI fostersinternational cooperation under a global perspective.


Personalised services on the move

By integrating mobile network and broadcast communications DAIDALOS will open

the way to a new generation of personalised and pervasive end-to-end services for

mobile users.

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BackgroundImagine leaving home to go on a business trip and beingable to take your personal communication services withyou.All the e-mails you studied on your PC at home willalso be available on the terminal in your car, where theyare read to you by your handheld device while youdrive.This seamless handover from broadband internetconnection at home to digital broadcast connection inthe car is one of the research results by EU projectDAIDALOS.

The central problem tackled by DAIDALOS is theincreasing number, and complexity of, accesstechnologies. Rapid technological and societal changes,together with the bewildering emergence of numerousnew services have created a complex environment fornetwork operators and a confusing situation for endusers.The enhancement of existing technologies anddevelopment of new “Beyond 3G” systems will increasethis complexity even more.

A major challenge for these future networks will be toprovide ubiquitous access to an unlimited set of IP-based services at reduced costs for both the users andoperators. One solution is through wireless “hotspots”that are already being installed in various locations.These wireless LANs (WLANs) have limited coverage,however. By marrying up broadband internet withmobile networks (3G) and broadcast communications(DVB-T) the operator is able to increase coveragewithout investment in new infrastructure.With theirmulti-hop characteristics, these so-called mobile ad-hocnetworks are more flexible, making them especiallysuited to provide increased radio coverage at low cost.

FocusDAIDALOS will fundamentally improve the usability ofEuropean telecommunication technologies by integratingmobile network and broadcast communications. It aimsto seamlessly integrate heterogeneous networktechnologies so as to allow network operators andservice providers to offer new and profitable servicesfor voice, data and multimedia.

DAIDALOS’s vision is of a world in which:

• Mobile users can enjoy a diverse range of personalisedservices - seamlessly supported by the underlyingtechnology and transparently provided through apervasive interface.

• Mobility has been fully established through open,scalable and seamless integration of the variousnetwork technologies.

• Network and service operators are able to developnew business activities and provide profitable servicesin such an integrated mobile world.

To realise this vision the project is developing a solutioncalled Intelligent Interface Selection.This will enableusers to benefit from the comprehensive features ofseveral telecoms networks without having to choosebetween 3G,WLAN, or broadcast access technologieseach time they use a voice, data or multimedia service.The communication device automatically selects theoptimal network interface and access technologyaccording to the user preferences, such as cost, speed,or specific capabilities.

Project ActivitiesAt a technical level, DAIDALOS aims to develop anddemonstrate an open architecture based on a commonnetwork protocol (IPv6).This is being realised throughfour technical objectives:

• Design, prototype and validate the necessaryinfrastructure and components for efficientdistribution of services over diverse networktechnologies beyond 3G;

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• Integrating complementary network technologies toprovide pervasive and user-centred access to theseservices;

• Developing an optimised signalling system forcommunication and management support in thesenetworks;

• Demonstrating the results of the work through strongfocus on user-centred and scenario-baseddevelopment of technology.

DAIDALOS will present a number of innovations thatwill provide users with a new quality of mobilecommunication.These include: the integration ofheterogeneous networks; a seamless real IPv6infrastructure which will also allow for broadcasting; andpervasive systems offering context-aware andpersonalised applications.

Theoretical results are being verified against twotechnical scenarios. In the DAIDALOS Mobile Universitystudents studying abroad have access to their personalset of services and can dynamically discover localservices and devices. In the second demonstrator, theDAIDALOS Automobile scenario, supporting servicesare delivered in and around the vehicle through featuressuch as personal multimedia, ad-hoc mobile networkingand session mobility.

Impact and ExploitationDAIDALOS has the potential to revolutionise mobilecommunication, enabling European citizens to shapepersonal mobile services to their individual needs. Inthese future communication services the interactionbetween humans, communication terminals, cars, andrelated infrastructures will become more natural andintuitive.

Automobiles are a particularly exciting application forthese ad-hoc networks. Cars’ onboard networks willcommunicate with ad-hoc sensors on the road to sendand receive messages in real-time.Areas of applicationinclude services like safety warnings, traffic information,and real-time information on road conditions. Forinstance, the project has already demonstrated theseamless use of a personalised communication service,such as e-mail or digital video, while moving from afixed-line internet connection to mobile broadcasting viaDVB-T in a car parked in front of the building.

Further InformationProject Name:Designing Advanced Interfacesfor the Delivery andAdministration of Locationindependent Optimised per-sonal Services (DAIDALOS-II)Project Reference & Type:IST-026943 (Integrated Project)Website:www.ist-daidalos.orgDuration:Jan 2006 - Dec 2008 (36 months)Project Funding (EC/total)€13.8 / €22.1 millionProject Contact:Riccardo Pascotto,Deutsche Telekom AG,[email protected] INFSO Contact:www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_d/cnt/index.htm

Making a reality of ambient networks

Focusing on the dynamic relationships between different access networks,Ambient

Networks aims towards new solutions that will enable users to be connected

anywhere and anytime.

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BackgroundOver recent years the concept of “ambient intelligence”has emerged to describe interactions between a multitudeof network-enabled devices, services andartefacts. In this ambient intelligenceworld technology will be almost invisible,embedded in all kinds of objects andeveryday environments, such as the home,office, car and train. Users’ access toapplications and services – many of whichwill be delivered within mobileenvironments – will be simple andeffortless.

This vision presents many challenges fromthe network point of view. For instance, itrequires that different access systems,including new radio interfaces, beintegrated on a flexible network platform.Different interoperable systems will needto be optimised for particular applicationsand environments and to allow scalabledeployment of system capacity accordingto the demands of operators and end-users.And it will require end-to-endreconfigurable communication, based on an openarchitecture supporting fast creation of services andcontent.

Difficult technical questions arise here. How should thenetworks surrounding the user be activated? How can weempower the players for competition and cooperation?What is the best means to support heterogeneous air-interface and service technologies so as to deliverseamless services and ease the service provider role? Andhow can we achieve a modular and scalable functionalityin one common framework?

FocusThe Ambient Networks project is addressing these issues.It has set out to create scalable and affordable network

solutions for mobile and wireless systemsbeyond 3G. Its approach will provide richand easy-to-use communication servicesfor all, ensuring the user is able to beinstantly best connected at any place andat any time.

Ambient Networks offers a fundamentallynew vision based on the dynamiccomposition of networks to avoid addingto the growing patchwork of extensionsto existing architectures.This will provideaccess to any network, including mobilepersonal networks, through instantestablishment of inter-networkagreements. It is geared towardsincreasing competition and cooperation inan environment populated by a multitudeof user devices, wireless technologies,network operators and business actors.

The project is coupled to two other FP6projects: End-to-End Reconfigurability research (E2R),dealing with reconfigurable network architecture, andWINNER, dealing with future radio interfaces.The threeprojects were jointly launched by the Wireless WorldInitiative (WWI), an international cooperationrepresenting industry, academia and governments, with theaim to develop long-term technologies for global wirelesscommunication.

Project ActivitiesResearchers are investigating a number of designparadigms for horizontally structured mobile systemsthat offer common control functions to a wide range ofdifferent applications and air interface technologies. Sucha radical change requires the definition of new interfacesand a multitude of standards in key areas of futuremedia- and context-aware, multi-domain mobilenetworks.

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The work focuses on the transient and spontaneousmerging – composition - of different types of networksand network resources and the management of theresulting common control space. Imagine, for instance,that you take your wifi-enabled PC onto a train. Forconstant internet access, the PC will need tocommunicate with the train’s wireless network,which in turn will need to communicate withdifferent cells within the mobile (3G) network.Service delivery requires a negotiation andrearrangement of the control layer functionalitybetween these different networks.

The project’s results comprise a complete andcoherent wireless network solution; an architecturefor self-configuring network components thatreduces deployment and operational costs; and acomplete protocol suite for network compositionevolved from IPv6.The results will facilitateincremental market introduction of new services andwill stimulate sustainable growth in the European mobilecommunications sector.

Impact and ExploitationPersonal communications and services have been majordriving forces in the growth of the European economyin the last decade. New wireless technologies willcontinue to be key drivers for new competitiveeconomies, enabling a healthy applications sector. Newmarket opportunities will open up, as mobile andwireless technology becomes as pervasive asmicroprocessors are today.Ambient Networks’technologies should enable a competitive,heterogeneous and modular wireless world.

Ambient Networks has the potential for a fundamentaland sustainable impact on the development of futuremobile networks.The project will shape the futuretelecommunications arena and extend it into otherareas like IT services and content delivery. In so doing, itwill bring the vision of ambient communications onestep nearer reality.

The project will also create new business opportunitiesfor wireless access and network service provisioning. Itwill foster the emergence of new businesses by allowingusers and small enterprises to connect their ownnetworks and introduce their own new services.And ithas both the determination and the critical massnecessary to create industry and market consensus soas to make a decisive impact on standards.

Further InformationProject Name:Ambient NetworksProject Reference & Type:IST-027662 (Integrated Project)Website:www.ambient-networks.orgDuration:Jan 2006 – Dec 2007 (24 mths)Project Funding (EC/total):€12.8 / €22 millionProject Contact:Henrik Abramowicz, Ericcson,[email protected] INFSO Contact:www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_d/ct/index.htm

New radio technologies for better mobile services

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Improvements in radio access technologies being explored by WINNER will be crucial

for enabling new mobile services and applications anytime and anywhere.

WINNER Overall ObjectivesThe key objective of the WINNER project is to developan innovative concept in radio access in order toaddress high flexibility and scalability with respect todata rates and radio environments.The futureconverged wireless world requires in the long-termperspective a ubiquitous radio system instead ofdisparate systems for different purposes (cellular,WLAN, short-range access etc.).

The vision of a ubiquitous radio system concept isproviding wireless access for a wide range of servicesand applications across all environments, from short-range to wide-area, with one single adaptive systemconcept for all envisaged radio environments. It willefficiently adapt to multiple scenarios by using differentmodes of a common technology basis.

The concept will comprise the optimised combinationof the best component technologies, based on ananalysis of the most promising technologies andconcepts available or proposed within the researchcommunity.The initial development of technologies andtheir combination in the system concept will be furtheradvanced towards future system realisation.

Compared to current and evolving mobile and wirelesssystems, the WINNER system concept will providesignificant improvements in peak data rate, latency,mobile speed, spectrum efficiency, coverage, cost per bitand supported environments taking into accountspecified Quality-of-Service requirements.

Objectives of WINNER I to III in aphased approachThe WINNER vision results in the overall objectives forall the WINNER Phases as follows:

• To develop a ubiquitous scalable radio access systembased on common radio access technologies that willadapt to and be driven by different user needs andscenarios, by utilising advanced and flexible networktopologies, physical layer technologies and frequencysharing methods.

• To base the design of the WINNER I and II radiosystem on a horizontal integration for different radioenvironments and spectrum conditions in terms offrequency range and carrier bandwidth with respectto spectrum availability.

• To make efficient use of the radio spectrum in orderto minimise the cost-per-bit by utilising and combiningthe technologies researched within WINNER I and IIin an efficient way.

• To define the system in such a way that it can berealised through cost competitive infrastructure andterminals.

In recent years tremendous advances have been made inradio technology research.The design of new radiosystems provides the unique opportunity to combine thebest of the recent advances in order to maximise theirbenefits from the perspective of defining new andimproved radio interfaces using a systematic investigationand development approach and to feed the results intothe international standardisation and regulatory process.The combination of new technologies, which are mutuallyoptimised, is the key for significant performance leap.

The ubiquitous WINNER radio system will be realisedthrough a phased approach (Figure 2-2), each Phase ischaracterised by a major milestone and a basicobjective.These are described below.The expectedduration of all Phases is six years. Each of the threePhases with a specific focus will has a duration of twoyears to allow an adaptation to actual developments intechnology, international standardisation, regulation andthe political environment.This Annex I is addressingPhase II.

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In Phase I a scenario analysis was performed to capturethe user requirements. Additionally, a set of technicalassessment criteria was defined, which will serve as abasis for the assessment of potential enablingtechnologies and the selection of the most promisingones, as well as the definition of suitable building blocks.From this assessment, a first concept for a ubiquitoussystem was defined with respect to the deployment andpropagation conditions in the potential target frequencyranges, and its basic performance has been evaluated inPhase I.

Phase II is focussed on the detailed system design,optimisation, validation (through limited trials) andpreparation of further trials in Phase III.This translatesinto the following WINNER II objectives:

G1 To design and optimise the new ubiquitous radioaccess system, whose parameters can be scaledor adapted to the requirements of acomprehensive range of mobile communicationscenarios. From a coverage area point of viewwide-area, metropolitan and short-range scenarioshave to be supported.The radio access systemshould be capable of supporting variable bit rates,with peak data rates of up to approximately 100Mb/s for medium to long-range heavy traffic areaswith high mobility, and up to approximately 1Gb/s for hot spots and short-range scenarios.

G2 To continue the identification and analysis ofchallenging user scenarios and correspondingusage scenarios in concordance with all WWI IPsbased on WINNER I.To derive requirements forthe WINNER II radio interface and to evaluateand refine the scenarios based on the evaluatedradio interface performance and other externaldevelopments.

G3 To define the detailed radio interfacetechnologies needed for the ubiquitous radiosystem concept, including the followingitems: adaptive transmission schemes, duplexschemes, multi antenna concepts, andenhanced radio protocols, including MediumAccess Control (MAC)/ Radio ResourceManagement (RRM) protocols for multiantenna configurations in order to develop asystem specification.

G4 To develop in detail radio network topologiesand deployment concepts capable ofproviding a ubiquitous radio coverage area,for example by the use of fixed or mobilerelays, feeder systems, ad-hoc networking.Thedefinition includes the functionality andexternal interfaces of the different networkelements, communication protocols forinformation exchange between them andRadio Resource Management (RRM)algorithms to assign the available radioresources to the corresponding elements.Thiswill be part of the system specification.

G5 To define the detailed radio level cooperationmechanisms between different Radio AccessNetworks (RAN).The choice of mechanisms willinclude, but will not be limited to, handoverbetween new RANs or between new and legacyones, combined Radio Resource Management(RRM) and concurrent/ complementary use ofdifferent RANs.This will be part of the systemspecification.

G6 To investigate missing cases for the propagationconditions and to continue from WINNER I thedevelopment of related channel models includingpath loss, multipath propagation and direction ofarrival models in the identified potential targetfrequency ranges.

G7 To define functionalities that implement efficientand flexible spectrum use and sharing as part ofthe system specification.

G8 To contribute to the international standardisationand regulatory process – in particular to thedevelopment of the necessary reports andrecommendations in ITU-R in the preparatoryphase of WRC 2007 – and where appropriate toother international bodies, where WINNER II canprovide technical input. One example might be

Requirements Analysis

Technology assessment

System concept design




Month 1 Month 24 Month 48 Month 72

• Scenario Analysis• Requirements Capture• Definition of Assessment Criteria• Identification of Key Technologies • Technology Evaluation &

Selection• Definition of System Concept• Performance Estimation• Complexity Estimation• Input to Regulation

• Detailed System Concept Design • Evaluation of Interdependencies• Optimisation & Validation by

Simulations • Evaluation of new Technologies• Detailed Performance Estimation• Detailed Complexity Estimation• Contributions to Standardisation• Input to Regulation• Limited trials• Preparation of more extensive

Trials

• Investigation of Implementation Issues

• Hardware Validation

• Refinement of System Concept

• Including Feedback from Trials

• Increased Contributions to Standardisation & Regulation towards a Global Standard

Detailed System Design

Optimisation Validation

Limited Trials



Limited Trials

System Refinement

Key Components

Validation in Trials

System Refinement

Key Components


Phase I Phase II Phase III







Month 1 Month 24 Month 48 Month 72Month 1 Month 24 Month 48 Month 72

• Scenario Analysis• Requirements Capture• Definition of Assessment Criteria• Identification of Key Technologies • Technology Evaluation &

Selection• Definition of System Concept• Performance Estimation• Complexity Estimation• Input to Regulation

• Detailed System Concept Design • Evaluation of Interdependencies• Optimisation & Validation by

Simulations • Evaluation of new Technologies• Detailed Performance Estimation• Detailed Complexity Estimation• Contributions to Standardisation• Input to Regulation• Limited trials• Preparation of more extensive

Trials

• Investigation of Implementation Issues

• Hardware Validation

• Refinement of System Concept

• Including Feedback from Trials

• Increased Contributions to Standardisation & Regulation towards a Global Standard



Limited Trials



Limited Trials

System Refinement

Key Components


System Refinement

Key Components


Phase I Phase II Phase III

Figure 2-2: Project Phases and major areas of activity

New radio technologies for better mobile services

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the 3G evolution study item in 3GPP on specialtopics depending on the detailed workplan in3GPP.

G9 To perform limited trials in Phase II in order toproof the concept of basic functionalities of theWINNER II system.

G10 To prepare the trial campaign in Phase III by theselection of the hardware and software platformof the trial system and preparatory activitiestowards the application of a frequency testlicense.

G11 To disseminate results via internationalconferences, reputable journals and theorganisation of workshops as part of a globalharmonisation process.

WINNER III will be focussed on system refinement, keycomponents and validation in trials.Therefore, thefollowing focus areas will be addressed in the followingPhase III:

• Adaptation to external developments such asupcoming specification and standardisation activities,e.g. after the potential identification of new spectrumin WRC 2007.

• Nearly real world/practical system investigations suchas implementation complexity, deployment andbusiness aspects etc.

• Dissemination and external promotion of theWINNER II results and specifications in aninternational harmonisation process as part of pre-standardisation and standardisation activities.

• Validation and proof of system in more extensivetrials of key components in the intended Phase III.

The WINNER I and II vision of aubiquitous radio systemThe users do not consider the underlying technology,but will perceive the “look and feel” of the services,usefulness of contents, the quality of service cost andthe user-friendly device (i.e. user interface, compatibility,power consumption/on time, form factor).Therefore,Quality-of-Service and user experience are essentialselling points.The capabilities of the radio systems areusually a physical bottleneck in the overall networkinfrastructure.Therefore, the vision of WINNER I and IIfor mobile radio communications is a ubiquitous radiosystem covering the full range of scenarios from local

area to wide-area, which provides a significant improve-ment compared to current systems in terms of perfor-mance, efficiency, coverage and flexibility. In view of:

• further enhancement of 3G systems, such as 3Gevolution activities in 3GPP

∑ different international research activities

• new developments, especially in the wireless IT sector(IEEE specifications)

• future re-farming of currently allocated frequencybands to mobile and wireless communications

The new radio system has to be scalable to differentcarrier bandwidths and carrier frequency ranges inorder to overcome a likely fragmentation in the market.

Achievements of WINNER IThe overall objective of Phase I was to develop a systemconcept adaptable to meet a wide range of scenariorequirements.This objective was achieved and a flexiblesystem concept has been proposed based on thecombined results from activities mainly conductedwithin the following five principal areas:

• Definition of requirements:The WINNER I systemconcept is user centric.To reflect this system concept,requirements defining the overall design andperformance goals of the WINNER II air interface andradio access network were defined based on bothtechnical and user oriented system requirements.Theformer type of requirements were based on physicallimitations and the anticipated state-of-the-artperformance of systems beyond IMT-2000 whereasthe latter type of requirements were derived basedon fundamental results obtained from user scenarioanalysis.

• Significant contributions to the internationalregulatory process:WINNER I has contributedsignificantly to the work of ITU-R WP8F. It has coveredthe development of the ITU-R methodology forestimating the spectrum requirements for systemsbeyond IMT-2000 and significant work on RadioAspects. For example during WINNER I the WP6 hasprepared and submitted total over 60 regulatorycontributions to ECC PT1, ECC TG3 and ITU-R WP8Fmeetings.All contributions submitted to PT1 wereagreed with minor modifications by PT1 and theybecame agreed European contributions to ITU.Thecontributions to the ITU were very successful: a major

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part of the current ITU-R WP8F methodology workingdocument and the Tool based on the methodology andintended for doing the actual calculations bothoriginates from WINNER I. In the Draft ITU-R WP8FRadio Aspects report major content such as the list ofrequired radio parameters, most of their values and theview about the preferred frequency range including it'sjustifications originate from WINNER I.

• Identification of key technologies and systemconcept design:The WINNER I system concept isbased on state-of-the-art technologies and procedures.Such technologies and procedures have been identifiedwithin several key areas such as advanced radio-linktechnologies, duplex arrangements, multiple accessschemes, advanced beamforming and MIMOtechnologies and methods for enhanced radioprotocols. New deployment concepts based on fixedrelays have also been identified. Based on the ModesConvergence Manager the Modes ConvergenceReference Model has been established as a concept torepresent any scenario specific WINNER I protocolstack and also to handle the problem how to switchbetween different stacks.A concept on how to meshbase stations and fixed relay stations into an existentcellular system in a plug and play manner has also beendeveloped. Furthermore, a framework for cooperationarchitectures between WINNER I RAN and legacyRANs, including the cooperation architecture entitiesand the mapping of the cooperation functionalities(mobility management, admission control, locationbased handover, scheduling / load control and QoSmanagement) in these new entities has been defined.Asspin-off of the activities in this area, a large number ofscientific papers has been prepared and submitted tointernational conferences and magazines.

• Assessment of key technologies and systemconcept proposals:The justification of identified andselected key technologies and system conceptcomponents was a central activity in Phase I. Suchassessments were conducted both on the link andsystem levels as well as on the network levels.Tosupport those activities different channel models weredeveloped. Initially channel models based on existingmodels were selected and adapted for early assessmentuse. In parallel, acquisition of measurement data fordiverse outdoor and indoor environments at both 2GHz and 5 GHz frequency ranges considering an RFbandwidth of 100 MHz were conducted in order toprovide wide-band channel models for final assessmentuse.

• Feasibility studies:The implications of thetechnology conceptschosen for theWINNER I systemconcept have beenstudied in terms offeasibility andcomplexity.Thefeasibility of multi-bandwidth transmissionwas verified. It has alsobeen established thatfixed (L1/L2/L3) relaysare useful in both, short-range/hot area andwide-area scenarios toincrease the capacity ofa radio cell substantiallyas well as to increasethe range of coverage ofa base stationsubstantially. Moreover,sharing, co-existenceand flexible spectrumuse have also beenstudied and analysedextensively and suitableways how to employ bythe WINNER I systemconcept to improve theoverall spectrumefficiency, ease thepossible spectrumidentification anddeployment of thenetworks has beenproposed.

Further InformationProject Name:Wireless World InitiativeNew Radio I (WINNER I)Project Reference & Type:IST-507581 (Integrated Project)Website:www.ist-winner.orgDuration:Jan 2004 – Dec 2005 (24mths)Project Funding (EC/total):€11.8 / €21.2 millionProject Contact:Dr Werner Mohr, Siemens AG,[email protected]

Project Name:Wireless World InitiativeNew Radio II (WINNER II)Project Reference & Type:IST-027756 (Integrated Project)Website:www.ist-winner.orgDuration:Jan 2006 – Dec 2007 (24mths)Project Funding (EC/total):€12.5 / €22.4 millionProject Contact:Dr Werner Mohr, Siemens AG,[email protected] INFSO Contact:www.cordis.lu/ist/ct

A think-tank for future wireless communications

By bringing together the best brains in Europe within a virtual campus, NEWCOM

is probing the frontier of future wireless communications systems.

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BackgroundDigital mobile communications is one of the greatsuccess stories of recent years, offering people levels ofmobility and services never available before.The new 3Gservices will push the mobile opportunities even further.This is not the end of the road for mobile, however.On the contrary, we are still only at the beginning of themobile revolution.

Future mobile networks will need to combine differentaccess networks and technologies - satellite as well asterrestrial – and get them to work together so as tooptimise different services requirements and operationalconditions.This brings many new research challenges: inparticular solving interoperability issues across multiplenetworks and a variety of connected devices.We willneed new solutions to accommodate a wide range ofrequirements on data rate, quality of service, security,availability and price according to users’ expectations.

FocusNEWCOM - Network of Excellence in WirelessCOMmunications – is creating a European networklinking a large number of leading research groups withexpertise relevant to future wireless communications.

Its vision is to:

• Strengthen, develop and integrate research in the field

• Empower groups and individuals via disseminationactivities

• Ensure effective use of the knowledge produced viaexploitation, commercialisation, and standardisationstrategies.

NEWCOM effectively acts as a decentralised university,organised in a matrix fashion. It is implementing anelaborate plan of initiatives which together constitute a Virtual Knowledge Centre.

The Network will contribute to future researchchallenges within the Strategic Objective "Mobile andwireless systems beyond 3G", a frontier research area in the IST Priority.

Project ActivitiesNEWCOM’s activities are organised according to amatrix approach. One dimension of the matrix ischaracterised by basic research organised on well-established topics and grouping leading Europeanresearchers active in the field.These “departments” are looking at:

• Analysis and Design of Algorithms for Signal Processing atLarge in Wireless Systems: including defining andimplementing common software/hardware platforms.

• MIMO Radio Channel Modelling for Design Optimisationand Performance Assessment of Next GenerationCommunication Systems: including development of best-practice rules, benchmarks and databases to supportchannel measurement and modelling.

• Design, Modelling and Experimental Characterisation of RFand Microwave Devices and Subsystems: Specifically, theaim here is to integrate research in the areas of basicRF front-end building blocks such as power amplifiers,oscillators, and filters, so as to identify the key featuresof devices and subsystems for the physical layerperformance.

• Analysis, Design and Implementation of DigitalArchitectures and Circuits: Aiming to fill the growing gapbetween functional requirements coming from systemdesigners and hardware/software capabilities offeredby available technologies.

• Source Coding and Reliable Delivery of MultimediaContents: Gathering know-how and developing toolsand recommendations for robust transmission ofmultimedia contents over wireless networks.

• Protocols and Architectures, and Traffic Modelling for(Reconfigurable/ Adaptive) Wireless Networks: The focus isto develop a new protocol suite better tailored to theneeds of the mobile environment, e.g. maximizingperformance while decreasing cost in terms of batteryand network resource consumption.

• QoS Provision in Wireless Networks: Addressing aspectssuch as mobility, security and radio resourcemanagement.

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Cutting across these in the other dimension are theNEWCOM Projects.These address important "hot"problems whose solution requires multidisciplinary skillsdrawn from NEWCOM “departments”.The fiveNEWCOM projects focus on future solutions andresearch needs in:

• Ad hoc and sensor networks;• Ultra-wideband communication systems;• Functional design aspects of future generation wireless

systems;• Reconfigurable radio for interoperable transceivers;

and • Cross-layer optimisation.

The Joint Programme of Activities also involvesresearcher exchanges, organisation of workshops andconferences, and the broad dissemination of scientificresults. Graduate courses are also offered, delivered viahigh-speed networks.

Impact and ExploitationNEWCOM has a strong commitment to dissemination.As well as publication in respected scientific journals andconferences, the project makes particular efforts toengage in industry events.A Best Paper Award is presentedto the author(s) of the paper(s) chosen by the AdvisoryBoard as having made the most significant contribution tothe wireless communication area at large.

Also for industry, the project organises NEWCOM Dayswhere the main research results of the year arepresented to invited representatives from thetelecommunications industry. SMEs are seen as animportant target, both for encouraging joint researchprogrammes and exploiting the Network’s resultsthrough joint agreement of IPR exploitation.

NEWCOM also emphasizes the promotion ofentrepreneurship among its researchers, by encouragingthem to register and exploit their IPR, and supportsthem in a number of ways. Researchers have theopportunity to submit their ideas and results to the IPRManager for a first evaluation, and even to postponepublication so as to allow a possible patent application.The Consortium includes several incubators to facilitatethe creation of start-ups. In addition, the project hasprepared a summer school on IPR exploitation and islaunching a business plan competition for NEWCOMresearchers and PhD students.

Further InformationProject Name:Network of Excellence inWireless COMmunications(NEWCOM)Project Reference & Type:IST-507325 (Network of Excellence)Website:http://newcom.ismb.itDuration:Mar 2004 – Aug 2006 (30 mths)Project Funding (EC/total::€8.00 million Project Contact:Stephen Sadler, IstitutoSuperiore Mario Boella,[email protected] INFSO Contact:www.cordis.lu/ist/ct

Wireless gets personal

MAGNET targets personalised and user-centric solutions for future mobile and

wireless communications.

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BackgroundThere is a common belief that new technologies shouldbe centred on the user, improving the quality of life andadapting to the individual without the user needing tobe aware of technical details.To achieve this, futurecommunications environments must provide context-aware services and support personalisation andubiquitous access. Users should beable to create a personal profilethat, according to the situation andmoment, will allow them to accessthe most relevant information viathe most suitable means ofcommunication.

The concepts of Personal AreaNetworks (PANs) and PersonalNetwork (PN) have emerged asmeans of connecting a person’sdevices to provide wireless accessto data and services. PNs consistof communicating clusters ofpersonal and foreign digitaldevices, possibly shared withothers, and connected throughvarious suitable communicationsmeans.They are configured in anad-hoc fashion, as the opportunityand the demand arise to supportpersonal applications.

At the heart of a PN is a core personal area network,which is physically associated with the owner of the PN.Unlike PANs which have limited geographical coverage,PNs have an unrestricted span and may incorporatedevices into the personal environment regardless oftheir geographic location.To extend their reach, theyneed the services of infrastructure-based, and possiblyalso ad-hoc, networks.

FocusMAGNET focuses on this new generation of adaptivepersonal networks.Through research it aims to developenvironments that are smarter, more responsive, andmore accommodating to the needs of the individual

without jeopardizing privacy and security.

In its vision, support for professional and privateactivities takes place through the user's own personalnetwork consisting of a core personal area networkextended with clusters of remote devices which couldbe private, shared, or public and able to adapt to thequality of the network accessed. In addition to the

technological aspect, MAGNET isalso addressing socio-economicissues necessary for the conceptto make sense from a business anduser perspective.

MAGNET’s mission is to enablecommercially viable personalnetworks that are attractive,affordable and also beneficial forthe end-users in their everydaylife.What makes the MAGNETproject particularly interesting isthat it constitutes a systemsapproach to what is expected tobe one of the most importanttelecom-related growth markets ofthe future: the personal areanetwork.

Project ActivitiesAchieving the MAGNET objectives

requires the solution of a number of technologicalissues related to networking aspects, coexistence andinter-working between a multitude of different networkinterconnection schemes, wireless technology for PNs,security and privacy.These solutions will be validatedthrough demonstrators.

Specifically, the work focuses on:

• User Requirements: The introduction of PN servicesalong with the associated technologies will constitutea paradigm shift. Currently, there are no businessmodels or scenarios for PNs. Hence, a betterunderstanding and knowledge of possible businesssolutions, as well as market and socio-economicaspects, are necessary to achieve the full benefits ofthe PN concept.

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• Networks and Interworking: Addresses various systemaspects that are important for PN networks:middleware for mobile distributed systems, resource-and context discovery, addressing and routing, self-organisation, and mobility management of sub-networks and other PN components.

• Air Interfaces: Is investigating adaptive and scalable airinterfaces for PNs, through evaluation of userrequirements, measurements and modelling of thechannel and analysis of several physical and mediumaccess control layer techniques in a PAN environment.

• Security and Privacy: Uses a multi-layered securityconcept addressing not only the security and privacyrequirements of users and businesses, but also how toestablish a secure PN in an inter-provider and multi-hop communication scenario. It also addresses thesecurity and privacy aspects of PN applications.

• Flexible Platforms and Prototypes: Activities here areevaluating the implementation challenges and assessingthe performances of results from the other workpackages. In addition, field trials are planned withindustrial prototypes to demonstrate the entirePAN/PN architecture.

The project also plans to make a major contribution tothe standardisation bodies and fora.

Impact and ExploitationMAGNET produces a framework for future PNtechnologies and architectures. Results will be madeavailable for wide dissemination and the aim is to pushthis framework as a basis for further industryexploitation.

MAGNET’s results will form the basis for a new marketaround the PN concept.This market will encompassnew equipment and software (e.g. for the PAN core ofthe PN), as well as additional use of existing andemerging services, and development and deployment ofnew services to PNs and for interconnecting PNs.

This new personal networks market will result in:additional employment within the ICT industry; thecreation of new service providers and spin-offcompanies; additional revenues in equipmentmanufacturing and software; and new value addedservices for users.

Further InformationProject Name:My Personal Adaptive GlobalNET (MAGNET), and itsextention MAGNET beyondProject Reference & Type:IST-507102 (Integrated Project)& INFSO-IST-027396Website:www.ist-magnet.orgDuration:Jan 2004 – Dec 2007 (48 months)Project Funding (EC/total):€20 millionProject Contact:Prof. Dr. Ramjee Prasad,Aalborg University,[email protected] INFSO Contact:www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_d/cnt/index.htm

Communications for public safety and security

WIDENS aims to realise flexible and scalable broadband communications networks

capable of being rapidly deployed by the civil and emergency services.

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BackgroundRadio communications are widely used by the policeand other emergency services and are central to theeffective handling of any emergency situation.A numberof these professional mobile radio (PMR) communicationssystems are in use in Europe but technical constraintsoften mean they are not capable of operating togetherat regional, national and international levels.

FocusWIDENS is investigating next generation public safetycommunication systems based on ad-hoc broadband andwireless networks.

Rapid deployment is a key feature of the WIDENSsystem. Its networks could be deployed in areas wherethere is no available communication infrastructure tosupport emergency or peacekeeping operations.They could also be used as a stand-alone system toprovide communications in remote areas while beingconnected to backbone network and/or a command-and-control centre via satellite or airborne platform.In addition,WIDENS systems could be used as a back-up in areas where there is a lack of network capacity tosupport emergency-related traffic or wherecommunications infrastructure has been destroyed.

The project is developing a network with broadbandcommunication capabilities and that supportscommunication between nodes with a wide range ofmobility levels. It thus contributes to the evolution of anumber of different wireless systems and technologies.

Project ActivitiesFrom a technical perspective,WIDENS focuses onproviding a communications “hot spot” with high data rate(2 Mbit/s) and capable of inter-operating with existinginfrastructure networks (TETRA,Tetrapol).The WIDENSad-hoc network is composed of “terminodes” – a versatilesoftware defined radio communication node with mixedand enhanced features for terminal handset and IP router.The terminode plays the role of:

1. A wireless node to extend the coverage area, supportingadvanced ad-hoc relaying features, up to the IP layer.

2. An end-user terminal when it runs an application,delivering enhanced services (voice, data, images).

3. A gateway toward a backbone network or otherterminals.

Key research areas in WIDENS to realise such asolution include:

• System architecture design: for a rapidly deployable andscalable communication system based on ad-hocnetwork technologies. It must meet user requirementswith respect to robustness, reconfigurability,performance, QoS support, security, andinteroperability with existing systems.

• Scalable configurable ad-hoc network: Development ofthe IP network layer focusing on issues of ad-hocrouting, quality-of-service, and management andreconfigurability.

• Ad-hoc MAC/PHY layers adaptation: Development ofphysical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC)layers to support the ad-hoc mode.

• Integration and evaluation: Integration of the resultswithin end-to-end applications as an example of theservices that can be added to the network. In addition,one of the key challenges is to demonstrate thebenefits of the tight vertical integration of the variouslayers of the terminode in terms of the scalability,reliability and efficiency of mobile ad-hoc networks.

Significant contributions to standardisation are alsoexpected, including through MESA, an EU-US initiativeon public safety communications standards.

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Impact and ExploitationThe WIDENS broadband communications capabilitieswill enable new emergency communication applicationsand services.These will include:

• Real-time video transmission for applications such astelemedicine, surveillance, remotely-controlledrobotics and small remotely-controlled flying platformsfor access to hazardous or dangerous areas.

• Fast download and transmission of large files thatcould include: fingerprints, X-rays and geographicaldata.

Europe has an important role in PMR equipmentmanufacturing:WIDENS will help to maintain thecompetitiveness of European industry in a global marketby setting the technological agenda for next generationsystems. In this way public safety, emergency anddisaster applications will be enhanced with high datarate solutions that are interoperable with existingcommunications infrastructures used by Europe’semergency services (TETRA,Tetrapol…).

Through discussion with public safety users’,WIDENS ishelping to achieve better understanding of their visionand needs in rapidly deployable broadbandcommunications systems and services. It is also helpingto mobilise the joint efforts of European public safetyofficials, regulators, industrial and research organisationstowards harmonising international standards in this field.

Further InformationProject Name:Wireless Deployable NetworkSystem (WIDENS)Project Reference & Type:IST-507872 (Specific TargetedResearch Project)Website:www.widens.orgDuration:Feb 2004 – Jan 2006 (24 mths)Project Funding (EC/total):€2.9m / €5.1mProject Contact:Vania Conan,ThalesCommunications,[email protected] INFSO Contact:www.cordis.lu/ist/ct

Mobile TV: unlimited audience, coverage and usage

Harnessing satellite and terrestrial network assets to optimise

the delivery of Mobile TV service to mobile users in a cost

effective way

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BackgroundMobile TV is expected to become a killer applicationand to generate revenues of several billion euros by2010 in Europe for the media and mobile industry.Several market surveys have shown that around a thirdof mobile subscribers are ready to pay a 5-15 eurosmonthly flat fee to watch TV on their mobile.Several 3G network operators already propose a MobileTV service to their customers in streaming mode. Itconsists in a multi channel offer made of general andthematic programs to satisfy most of users’ interests. Itattracts a growing number ofsubscribers, however theservice quality is adverselyaffected by a high cellularnetwork traffic load and/or ahigh audience level since theTV programs are delivered ondedicated radio resources toeach terminal (unicast).

To develop further Mobile TVmarket in Europe, there is aneed to develop newsolutions that would overcomethese current limitations.To this end, a combinedbroadcast/unicast solution is well adapted to delivermainstream TV programs as well as specialty contentsto an unlimited audience without any constraints on theusage scenarios.

Among the possible broadcast solutions, a hybridsatellite/terrestrial digital mobile broadcasting systemmakes an attractive complement to terrestrial 2G & 3Gcellular networks.This system operates in theworldwide available ITU primary satellite frequencyallocation in the S-band (2GHz) adjacent to theterrestrial UMTS band. It is a cost effective solutionwhen targeting global coverage. Satellite offers widegeographical coverage and it is ideally complemented byterrestrial gap-fillers in urban environment to allowgood quality reception to mobile users at home andinside buildings.

FocusMAESTRO is the latest in a series of European researchprojects aiming to realise this innovative satellite basedsolution implementing a broadcast/multicast layercomplementary to the existing 2G and/or 3G cellularnetworks. MAESTRO has built on the results of earlierEuropean RTD projects under FP5, such as MoDiS,SATIN and RELY as well as research activities supportedby ESA and CNES that have contributed significantly tothe overall feasibility of the proposed concepts.

The MAESTRO project hasassessed the potential marketbenefits, contributed toprepare the regulatoryframework, demonstrated viastandardisation thecoexistence of the systemwith the T-UMTS system,demonstrated the businessrelevance and finally validatedthe system architecture andperformance with a test bedin laboratory and field

conditions.

The project mainly focused on the use of 3GPP-definedWCDMA radio interface technology for both satelliteand terrestrial component since it was considered anasset to privilege a marginal cost impact onto 3Ghandset terminals (~0 euros in volume production) thana delivery capacity (~0.16 bit/s per Hz). However, theproject also investigated the use of OFDM based radiointerfaces to boost capacity to reach an spectrumefficiency up to 1 bit/s per Hz at a relatively higher costimpact on 3G handset terminals (few euros on Bill ofMaterial).

The project showed that the required site density forterrestrial repeaters is comparable with 3G site densityallowing cost effective deployment since site acquisitionis costly and affect time to market.

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Project ActivitiesThe project has contributed to the definition andvalidation of the most critical services, features andfunctions of satellite system architectures, so as toachieve the highest possible degree of integration withcellular network infrastructures. It has not only assessedthe satellite systems’ technical and economical feasibility,but has also highlighted their benefits in complementingcellular network for the delivery of rich multimediaservices.The project achievements can be summarisedas follow:

• Assessment of the commercial services relevant forthis hybrid infrastructure with a service demonstrator.Three focus group involving more than 160participants have been invited to react to variousservice types and QoS;

• Consolidation of the business model with partnersacting in the business chain to determine the mostprofitable business scenarios;

• Definition of the mission requirements as well as thesystem architecture supporting key functions andperformances;

• Validation of the key functions and performances witha consistent set of simulations at different layers aswell as an end to end test bed in laboratory and fieldconditions;

• Detailed simulation of the radio interface physicallayer with respect to all possible impairments in thetransmission chain as well as terrestrial and satellitepropagation conditions;

• Characterisation of the satellite signal propagation inoutdoor (to verify recent models) as well as indoor(1st time in the world) environments with anextensive measurement campaign using in orbitsatellite;

• Performance assessment with simulation of differentalgorithms for the radio resource allocation, packetscheduling and admission control implemented at theaccess layer;

• Evaluation of different security architectures adaptedto the different business scenarios identified and teston the test bed;

• Specification, development and characterisation with asimulator of a robust stream and file protectionprotocols adapted to the system to improve thequality of service;

Mobile TV: unlimited audience, coverage and usage

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• Dimensioning and cost estimate of the system tosustain the business models;

• Development and integration of an end to end testbed for the validation of the system functions andperformances.About 300 scenarios have been tested;

• Assessment of OFDM based radio interface for thesystem;

• Definition and dimensioning of a direct satellite returnlink to support for example public protection disasterrelief missions;

• Regulatory activities at National, European and worldlevel to prepare for the deployment of the system. Itresulted mainly in a EC mandate issued in October2005 and a draft ECC decision issued in March 2006on the subject.A set of 25 regulatory contributionshave been submitted.;

• Standardisation activities carried out at ETSI TC-SES S-UMTS and 3GPP RAN which resulted in thedemonstration of possible coexistence with UMTSsystem as well as adoption of the WCDMA radiointerface as a Satellite Radio Interface at ITU level. 47standardisation contributions have been submitted.

• Promotion of the system concept and project resultsin various workshop and conference as well asscientific publications (90 publications among which 3best award papers) in Europe and Asia not to mentionface to face meeting with mobile, satellite and mediaoperators as well as government institutions.

• Five tutorials have been organised in differentworkshop and conference in Europe and America.

Impact and ExploitationBased on the promising MAESTRO project results,Alcatel created Alcatel Mobile Broadcast, an InternalVenture whose remit is to promote and lead thedevelopment of a hybrid satellite/terrestrial mobilebroadcast system called “Unlimited Mobile TV”(“Télévision Mobile Sans Limite” in French).Thisresearch & development project has received publicsupport from the French Agency for IndustrialInnovation (“Agence de l’Innovation Industrielle” inFrench), pending acceptation of this support at theEuropean Union level.

As the project leader,Alcatel federates companies likePhilips and Sagem Communication (SAFRAN Group), aswell as several innovative SMEs: DiBcom, an expert onintegrated circuits for mobile TV reception,TeamCast, aspecialist in DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) standardsmodulators used for fixed and mobile Digital TerrestrialTV, and UDcast, an Internet video transport anddistribution specialist. French university researchcenters, such as CNRS, INRIA and CEA-LETI are alsoinvolved in the project, which opens the door for workwith laboratories throughout Europe (e.g. theFraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS inGermany).

This solution would be using an evolution of the DVB-Hstandard in the S-Band (2GHz), which is currently beingstandardized within the DVB Forum.Thanks to the fullavailability of the S-Band in all European countries, thesolution would allow to deliver up to 45 mobile TVchannels in broadcast mode anywhere in Europe at256kb/s in average with a high image quality, includinginside buildings for the areas covered by terrestrialrepeaters. First elements of this solution couldpotentially be rolled out by 2008 for the terrestrial partof the system, followed by a full-scale deployment thatwould include satellite, potentially by 2009.

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First analyses of terrestrial deployment cost of thesolution based on S-Band show that this solution wouldbe significantly more cost effective than in the UHFband, thanks to the possibility of co-siting terrestrialrepeaters with existing cellular sites and sharingantennas with 2G or 3G base stations. Furthermore, theS-Band beingwidely availablethroughoutcontinents, theinnovativesolutionstemming fromthe MAESTROproject could aswell be usedoutside Europein large countrieslike China, India,or Brazil.

Further InformationProject Name:Mobile Applications & sErvicesbased on Satellite & TerrestrialinteRwOrking (MAESTRO)Project Reference & Type:IST-507023 (Integrated Project)Website:http://ist-maestro.dyndns.orgDuration:Jan 2004 – February 2006 (26 months)Project Funding (EC/total):€5.20 / €10.3 millionProject Contact:Nicolas Chuberre,Alcatel Alenia Space,[email protected] INFSO Contact:www.cordis.lu/ist/ct

Project partners

Alcatel Alenia Space France F

Motorola SAS F

LogicaCMG UK Limited UK

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES BELGIUM S.A. B

Ascom (Suisse) AG CH

University College London UK

University of Bologna I

The University of Surrey UK

Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung derangewandten Forschung e.V. D

UDCAST F

SPACE HELLAS S.A. EL

ERCOM ENGINEERING RESEAUXCOMMUNICATIONS F

AWE COMMUNICATIONS GMBH D

GFI CONSULTING F

SES GLOBAL L

BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PLC (*) UK

E-TF1 F

BOUYGUES TELECOM F

Alcatel CIT F

Alcatel SEL AG D

SPICE

The project SPICE (Service Platform for Innovative Communication Environment) is

addressing the still unsolved problem of designing, developing and putting into

operation efficient and innovative mobile Service creation/execution platforms for

networks beyond 3G.

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BackgroundMobile communications and Internet services havebecome an essential part of everyday life of Europeancitizens. However, most end-users today considermobile communication and Internet as totally separatedICT facilities.Voice telephony and SMS are thedominating communication services in mobilecommunication. For a number of reasons, despite thegood availability of broadband radio technologies, thebusiness of mobile services has not yet taken off.Examples of these reasons are:

• Time to market for newservices developments istoo long

• Integration and deploymentcost are too high due to theinherent complexity andheterogeneity of serviceexecution environments

• Users own many differentcommunication devices andare surrounded by manyaccess technologies but theyusually cannot handle thecomplexity of accessingtheir services via several ofthese devices.

• Service provisioning involves more and more parties -Telco, content/service providers, third party networksand service providers, and even end-users - increasingthe complexity of the environment for serviceoperation.

• Continuity of service from fixed to mobile access andseamless roaming of services across operators andnetwork is far from being a reality.

FocusThe SPICE consortium acts on this by developing amethod for rapidly generating new services that hidesthe complexities of the new communicationsenvironment and allows commercial services to bedeveloped and deployed efficiently and economically.

To achieve this ambition, the SPICE consortiumintegrates the competence and knowledge of leadingEuropean telecom operators/service providers and keyIT and telecommunications suppliers. SPICE also includes

SMEs and research instituteswith appropriate specialistknowledge in the projectteam. SPICE is co-ordinatedwith several establishedIntegrated Projects via theWireless World Initiativeorganisation.WWI representsa major joint effort fromindustry, academia andgovernment in Europeinvesting several hundredmillion Euros in research tolay the foundations for thelong-term future of globalwireless communications.WWI is a new approach of

international research cooperation with more that 100 organisations and about 700 colleagues workingtogether.

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Project ActivitiesSPICE will research, prototype and evaluate an extendableoverlay architecture and framework for rapid creation anddeployment of intelligent and personalised Mobile

Communication and Content /Information Services.Project activities aim:

• To provide end-users with communication means andtailored applications anywhere, anytime and on anydevice;

• To provide service providers and non-professional userswith service enablers that facilitate and quickenapplication development.

• To allow operators to take up the role of ServiceProvider

• To build a user-transparent infrastructure that hides thecomplexity of services and applications crossing overdifferent access domains and copes with the variousaccess network technologies and offering a diversity ofservices.

Impact and ExploitationFor end-users, operators and service providers, theSPICE project will turn today’s confusing heterogeneityinto an easily manageable and rich service environmentby exploiting the diversity of device capabilities andfostering service adoption.The SPICE approach willbroaden business opportunities in the communicationsand associated business sectors.The SPICE solution willbenefit the Service developer community in giving themopportunities for multiple sales or royalties from servicecomponents; it will benefit network and serviceoperators in that the cost of generating, deploying andoperating new services will be reduced; and it willbenefit the society and the user community in thatsocially beneficial and enjoyable services will be widelyavailable at an affordable cost level.The SPICE ServicePlatform and open service architecture with innovativeenablers will facilitate easy and fast creation anddeployment of mobile services by non-professionalusers and service providers.

Further InformationProject Name:SPICEProject Reference & Type:IST-027617 (Integrated Project)Website:http://www.ist-spice.orgDuration:January 2006 – June 2008Project Funding (EC/total):€12 million/ €22.1 millionProject Contact:Christophe Cordier,France Telecom R&[email protected] INFSO Contact:www.cordis.lu/ist/ct

Capturing Ambient Intelligence for Mobile Communications

The objective is to provide heterogeneous wireless sensor network solutions to

enable Context Capture for Ambient Intelligence, in particular for mobile and

wireless systems beyond 3G; thus enabling truly multi-sensory and personal mobile

applications and services, as well as assisting mobile communications through

sensor information.

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Technological Roadmap The wireless communications will play a central role inour lives, mainly in the domains, such as healthcare,business, security, leisure, sports and home. Proactivesensor networks, communicating with others and withthe environment are needed.

A lot of sensors are being developed, for example forhealthcare, including positioning sensors, motion sensorsand physiological sensors. Current sensor based systemsare mainly stand alone and provide very specificapplications.The challenge is to integrate these systemsto provide reusable information for many applications.Little ”intelligence” is embedded on sensors, so thatcentralised computing is necessary.The powerconsumption of embedded sensors and of course RFtransmissions should be as low as possible.The autoenergy concept is a promising possibility.

Ambient IntelligenceAmbient Intelligence is a keycomponent in the next epoch ofmobile and wireless communicationsystems. However, the enablingtechnology that provides systems withinformation to allow for AmbientIntelligence has been neglected andcurrently consists of many independentmodes of input, mainly relying on activeuser interactions or specialised sensorsystems gathering information.

Therefore the Integrated Project e-SENSE proposes a context capturingframework that enables theconvergence of many input modalities,mainly focussing on energy efficientwireless sensor networks that aremulti-sensory in their composition,

heterogeneous in their networking, either mobile (e.g.Body Sensor Network) or integrated in theenvironment e.g. from single sensors to thousands ormillions of sensors collecting information about theenvironment, a person or an object.This framework willbe able to supply ambient intelligent systems withinformation in a transparent way hiding underlyingtechnologies thus enabling simple integration.

Confrontation of invisible technologies with theusual techniques

The “invisible” things…Thinking about “capturing ambient intelligence formobile communications through wireless sensorsnetworks leads to analysing the user’s acceptance ofusing a variety of technologies as in the followingillustration:

Figure 1: Sensorised Environment

through Wireless Sensor Networks

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In this perspective, studying the user’s acceptance oftechnology leads obviously to consider user relation tosensor networks as essential. However consideringmobile communication issues, the question of themobile phone as the appropriate terminal is not soobvious and should be considered.

Even if the main characteristic of the innovativeness ofubiquitous computing relies on the sensors spread inthe environment, thinking about application to beproposed to users in mobile communications impliesthinking about the appropriate devices to provideservices to user in mobile situations.

Obviously the mobile phone appears to be the mostappropriate device for providing user with WSN basedservices in mobile situations because it is already themost popular communication device. Moreover, if weconsider its current mutations (smart phone) andalternatives (PDA), the mobile phone appears to be theideal device because of its computing and networkingfeatures which are compatible with ubiquitouscomputing applications.This is exploited by the strepMOTIVE.

Expected ImpactImproving the efficiency and the intelligence of theWireless Sensor Network technology is expected to haveimpact in areas such as;Work and the Networked Home,Personal, Family and Society support, Personal, Family andSociety support, Health and Safety and Personal Securityas well as on EU competitiveness in this fast growing areaand also an impact on EU and International Wirelessstandards.

Projects List

To date, the following projects relevant to Mobile & Wireless Communications have been supported under FP6.These are funded under the Strategic Objectives:

• IST-2002-2.3.1.4 Mobile and Wireless Systems Beyond 3G• IST-2004-2.4.5 Mobile and Wireless Systems and Platforms Beyond 3G

They also include General Accompanying Measures.

Further information on each of the projects is available at the URL shown.

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Project No. Project Acronym Project Website Project No. Project Acronym Project Website

Integrated Projects

026943 DAIDALOS-II www.ist-daidalos.org

027714 EZR www.e2r.motlabs.com

027227 e-SENSE www.ist-e-sense.org

507023 MAESTRO ist-maestro.dyndns.org

027396 MAGNET-BEYOND www.ist-magnet.org

027617 SPICE www.ist-spice.org

027756 WINNER www.ist-winner.org

027664 WWI AMBIENT www.ambient-networks.orgNETWORKS

Networks of Excellence

026957 ACE www.antennasVCE.org

027738 CRUISE http://www.telecom.ece.ntua.gr/cruise/

507325 NEWCOM http://newcom.ismb.it

027393 SatNEx www.satnex.org

Specific Targeted Research Projects

507039 4MORE www.ist-4more.org

027567 AROMA http://www.aroma-ist.upc.edu/

507607 B-BONE b-bone.ptinovacao.pt

027423 C-MOBILE

027234 COMET

027002 ENABLE www.ist-enable.org

001858 EVEREST www.everest-ist.upc.es

027675 FIREWORKS

026905 MASCOT www.ist-mascot.org

026459 MDS

027055 MIDAS www.ist-midas.org

027659 MOTIVE

027965 ORACLE www.ist-oracle.org

001812 PHOENIX www.ist-phoenix.org

026955 PLASTIC www.ist-plastic.org

026851 RESOLUTION

507558 SIMPLICITY www.ist-simplicity.org

027610 SIMS www.ist-sims.org

027187 SURFACE www.ist-surface.org

506926 UBISEC

026906 UNITE www.ist-unite.org

027960 URANUS

507872 WIDENS www.widens.org

506746 WINDECT www.windect.ethz.ch

027402 WIP

Specific Support Actions and Coordination Actions

027215 3GWEB http://www.w3.org/2006/3GWeb/

015811 ALIPRO www.eurescom.de/alipro/

026924 eMobility www.emobility.eu.org

511743 MOCCA mocca.objectweb.org

507557 MOSSA asms.wss.bcentral.com/mossa

507104 SIDEMIRROR www.sidemirror-ist.org

507627 SPECTRUM www.telecom.ece.ntua.gr/spectrum/

027297 SPORT VIEWS

015774 VAS CHINA www.VAS-CHINA-project.org

For further information please contact:

European CommissionInformation Society and Media Directorate-General

Communication Technologies UnitBU29/4 - B-1049 Brussels

URL: cordis.europa.eu/ist/ct

the networked future: mobile and wireless communications

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