FAIN

Goals

The main objectives are to develop and validate an open, programmable and dependable active network architecture, by means of

1. active network, node and management architectures,
2. a Pan-European and international active network infrastructure,
3. active services experiments to exercise the policy-based network management and the dynamic provisioning of services, and
4. evaluating active IP networks.

Thus, FAIN will provide an interoperable active network solution for flexible and secure service provision in IP networks and a programmable solution for flexible management provision in active networks.

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Technology

Programmable networks allow dynamic injection of code as a promising way of realizing application-specific service logic, or performing dynamic service provision on demand by multiple providers, which then gives the possibility to pass control to third parties as end users, operators, and service providers.

The FAIN project is driven by both market and technology evolutions:

• Increased market demand for open solutions leading to programmable networks with well-defined application programming interface (API);
• redistribution of service intelligence from switch-based intelligence to dedicated distributed computing platforms;
• increasing allocation of service control and management intelligence to the edges of the network, enterprise networks and customer terminals;
• evolution from protocol-based service control and management to middleware-based solutions.

The project develops a new active/programmable network architecture that encompasses the design and implementation of programmable nodes that support different types of execution environments, policy-based network management, and a platform-independent approach to service specification and deployment. The architecture is realised and evaluated in a pan-European testbed. The main entities are the node system, and the management system, each of which are composed of a number of basic components offering the needed facilities for secure code deployment and execution as well as managing the nodes and the network.

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Partners

• University College London
• Josef Stefan Institute (Associate Partner to UCL)
• National Technical University of Athens (Associate Partner to UCL)
• Universitat Politecnica De Catalunya (Associate Partner To UCL)
• T-Nova Deutsche Telekom Innovationsgesellschaft mbH
• France Télécom / R&D
• Koninklijke KPN NV, KPN Research (until 30th April 2001)
• Hitachi Europe Ltd.
• Hitachi Ltd.
• Siemens AG
• Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
• IKV++ Technologies AG (Associate Partner to FHG)
• Integracion Y Sistemas De Medida, SA (Associate Partner to FHG)
• University of Pennsylvania

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More about

The convergence of a number of technological areas combined with the growth in broadband access are driving the demand for more and flexible services, better network performance, enhanced functionality, short time-to-market, and lower cost. The FAIN project is taking up the challenges in providing solutions for a fast and flexible deployment of new network services and their management based on the concept of programmable networks. While network programming provides unprecedented flexibility in telecommunications, viable architectures for programmable networks must be carefully engineered to achieve suitable trade-offs between flexibility, performance, security, and manageability. One of the the key questions from the public fixed and mobile operator's and Internet service provider's points of view is: how to exploit this potential flexibility for the benefit of both the operator and the end user without jeopardizing the integrity of the network.