Research Agenda

Fraunhofer FOKUS NET4DC

Converging Networks for Emerging Regions

  1. Lack of reliable energy supply
    • Energy and spectrum-efficient equipment and communication technologies with energy aware media access functionalities.
    • Sensor networks supported context aware robust wireless equipment to minimize energy consumption of communication equipment.
    • Energy supply based on alternative energy solutions such as solar and wind power and radio/network/management technologies/approaches to handle limitations and variations in power supply.
  2. Lack of wired infrastructures
    • Development of media access control for large area wireless multi-hop multi-technology connectivity operating on unreliable nodes.
    • Simultaneous support of heterogeneous link modes (infrastructure, ad hoc, mesh, relay…) enabling flexible deployment of the best suiting radio technology for given situation (optimizing reliability, energy efficiency and throughput).
    • Development of energy aware routing protocols that support heterogeneous large-scale networks efficiently with native mobility support.
    • Technically and economically justified support for satellite and short and long range free space optic networks as gateways towards the core network (whatever legacy systems there will be available) in case of missing optical fiber networks.
    • The use of overlay networks for the optimal management of very large area heterogeneous wireless backhauls.
  3. Lack of well-trained service-personnel
    • Development and deployment of self-managed and self-healing equipment.
    • Development of adaptive radio access technologies for these environments.
    • Determination of network dynamics and development of respective network management and service provisioning mechanisms.
  4. Limitations to OPEX and CAPEX due to limited financial capabilities of target customers
    • Enabling the optimal sharing of network resources through service level agreements and virtualisation, including schemes for fair distribution of resources depending on pre-defined set of criteria.
    • Utilization of low cost – easy to deploy wireless setups, which will decrease OPEX in addition to CAPEX due to simplicity in management and maintenance.
  5. Limitations on the applications making use of network access due to low available bandwidth
    • Development of delay tolerant session management functionalities to enable the use of a high number of hops possibly with high latency caused due to satellite links.
    • Context aware content adaptation in order to enable reasonable levels of internet utilization also considering different customer requirements.
  6. Challenging socioeconomic and political conditions
    • Analysis of socioeconomic and political conditions in different regions in order to determine the market expectations.
    • Definition of technical and economic requirements, which will lead to successful business models.