N3GBCC

National Host for 3Gb Applications

Jan. 01, 2004 to Dec. 31, 2004

Test- and Development Center for Mobile Uses of the Research and Science

The project will create an open national 3Gb (3rd Generation and beyond) centre of competence with an 3Gb test bed. The test bed will form a basis for development, deployment and evaluation of new innovative network components, mobile services and applications in industrial and research projects.

Challenges

In face of the existing technology jungle, a lot of experts have come to the conclusion that future communication and information services should be provided “seamlessly” on top of different network technologies, including even fixed networks, and that in contrast to look for disruptive technologies favour an evolution of technologies. This means that mobile services and applications could be accessed ideally from different end systems, different access networks in a customized way to the individual user demands.

In face of the overall complexity of converging network technologies and the increasing pace of introduction of new network technologies and service platforms, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the different players of the future value chain to maintain state of the art know-how and gain early access to all relevant infrastructures. Furthermore, in regard to emerging integrated 3Gb network environments and seamless 3Gb service platforms the maintenance of such an infrastructure is a costly task and requires a comprehensive know how and expertise.

Project Goals

The target of the project is to set up, in contrast to vendor specific or operator specific technology test beds, an open and independent 3Gbeyond test and development environment, which is  open for the use by 3rd parties. This means that content providers and application developers obtain an one stop shopping interface for gaining access to the state of the art in mobile telecommunications technologies to validate their ideas and developments. Furthermore, the test and development infrastructure provides the technology foundation for performing 3Gb related R&D work, e.g. by integrating available components, extending specific components, and/or developing add on components and APIs.

The target is to set up a testbed environment, which provides to potential users:

  • short term to market testing and validation based on current state of the art technologies (GSM/GPRS/WLAN/Bluetooth networks, OSA/Parlay service platforms, hybrid services)
  • medium term to market testing and validation based on emerging technologies (UMTS FDD, UMTS TDD, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS/SIP/AAA), multimedia services)
  • optionally (but not mainly targeted) mid to long term testing and validation based on dedicated infrastructures.

3Gb testbed enables 3rd parties (academia and industry) and R&D projects to test and validate (the integration of):

  • new wireless network technologies
  • new 3Gb infrastructure components
  • new middleware and 3Gb service platforms, and
  • innovative hybrid and mobile applications according with different business models on national and in the future on an internationally interconnected testbed level.

In regard to the last aspect, it is considered key to provide also access toward other European and international 3Gb testbeds, namely the establishment of a federation of national 3Gb testbeds.

Technology

FOKUS research and develops the building blocks needed both for end-to-end seamless integration and of technologies and end devices and for the deployment of open flexible communication services and applications.

The core elements of the 3G beyond Testbed comprise of play grounds for Multimedia Value-added Service Plattforms covering the whole range of relevant telecommunication service platforms for converging networks, including:

  • OSA/Parlay
  • Web-Services
  • 3GPP IP
  • Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) and
  • SIP AS.

PartnersDeutsches Forschungsnetz e.V. (DFN)