Network Architectures for Horizon 2020

Towards the next generation of networking technologies

By the middle of 2013, the migration to the latest transmission and switching technology will have been accomplished. This has dramatically increased capacity across the network but is still based on the same basic network architecture that has existed since the start of packet networking. As the demands on these networks grow and change, can these current network architectures support the wide range of cloud services, sensor networks, scientific content delivery networks and high-speed mobile networking?

The purpose of this activity is to research network architecture designs that might be better suited to a broader range of emerging services than the current architecture. The architectural designs could be amendments to the current architecture, clean-slate architectural design paradigms or something in between. This work should support and pave the way for the GÉANT and NREN architecture approach until the end of Horizon 2020.

The objectives of this research are:

• To focus on how to design the next GÉANT and NREN network architecture, providing a set of architectural proposals for GÉANT and the NREN community in order for them to select the right path for their Horizon 2020 network architectures.
• To research which general architecture and network technologies are best suited for cloud-based services and how NRENs can design and build their networks to offer cloud-based services that scale to the full range of their users.
• To research access architectures suited to the aggregation of traffic from public Wi-Fi-based hotspots and private service providers. LTE (4G) offering.