Leader of FEDERICA JRA2 and NA2, TERENA Secretariat

Research activities on novel network architectures and protocols are anticipated all around the world to address a wide range of innovations. Pioneering clean slate initiatives such as Future Internet Design (FIND), Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI), and Stanford University?s ?Clean Slate Design for the Internet? in the U.S. clearly indicate a number of possible areas for innovations that will be of significant importance for the Internet of the future. These areas include: addressing and identification, cross-layer design, network virtualization, routing and traffic engineering, dynamic switching of optical circuits, decoupling of control and data, service discovery and composition, as well as management.

The European Commission launched the Future Internet Research and Experimentation (FIRE) initiative in its 7th Framework Programme (FP7). A key element of the research is that the new proposals for Internet architectures, protocols and services should not be defined by paperwork, but they should undergo early experimentation and testing in large-scale environments [1].

To provide efficient support for such innovative research activities the FP7 project titled Federated E-infrastructure Dedicated to European Researchers Innovating in Computing network Architectures (FEDERICA) [2] becomes the enabling platform for all stake-holders involved in ?Network of the Future? initiatives to develop highly innovative ideas, both evolutionary and clean slate, tested in a production-like, Pan-European e-Infrastructure used for proof of concepts.

To fulfill its goals, the FEDERICA infrastructure is being developed based on the virtualization principle and actually control and monitor more than one network at the same time. The infrastructure itself will also provide a useful tool to support research on the Future Internet. The success of the project does not rely only on the deployment of the infrastructure itself, but also on the results of the user projects dealing with revolutionary research.

The presentation includes: FEDERICA objectives, infrastructure, user consultation processes (NA2 activity), research areas (JRA2 activity).

[1] Future Internet Research and Experimentation: An overview of the European FIRE Initiative and its projects, 1 September 2008, http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/fire/

[2] M. Campanella: ?Federated E-infrastructure Dedicated to European Researchers Innovating in Computing network Architectures?, Future Internet Conference, 2 April 2008, http://www.fp7-federica.eu/

[1] Future Internet Research and Experimentation: An overview of the European FIRE Initiative and its projects, 1 September 2008, http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/fire/

[2] M. Campanella: ?Federated E-infrastructure Dedicated to European Researchers Innovating in Computing network Architectures?, Future Internet Conference, 2 April 2008, http://www.fp7-federica.eu/