Intune 2 Design Telco Cloud Network

MAINS Project and Examplar Smart Network Give Ireland A Key Position in Designing The Future Internet

Irish telecoms equipment designers Intune Networks is part of a consortium of companies and universities that has won a major R&D contract under the EU 7th R&D Award Framework to design a future Telecoms Network for Cloud Computing.

Intune will provide its unique technology to the consortium, which includes national telecoms operators Telefónica in Spain and PrimeTel of Cyprus. Other partners include Italian software company Nextworks; the University of Essex and University Autonoma Madrid.

The Telefónica-led  consortium  will design and demonstrate a network that will allow next generation  ICT services to be rolled out giving businesses and consumers more flexibility, control and mobility  while significantly lowering costs.

A key application  supported by the new network will be the virtualisation of the standard Personal Computer, pushing it into  the Cloud. The Cloud  will enable consumers  to log on with low cost, low power devices,  while their data and compute power sits inside the network.

Widespread deployment of this type of Cloud Computing could dramatically reduce the energy bills of users and operators, while also delivering social and economic benefits to the IT industry.

The EU Programme has been dubbed MAINS  for Metro Architectures Enabling Sub-Wavelengths. The programme is part of a larger EU Framework which is researching the Network of the Future.

The MAINS project will design a programmable network to demonstrate a practical way to implement cloud computing in future telecoms networks. Future IT applications can use this programming interface to program liquid bandwidth on-demand to service their requirements.

Intune Networks CEO Tim Fritzley  (Pictured) said, "It is a major vote of confidence in Intune's technology to be part of such a high profile EU research grant. We are delighted to be working with such high calibre partners from both the commercial and academic communities. This places Intune Networks at the cutting edge of future telecoms network development in Europe."

"The problem Intune has solved is how to evolve telecoms network architectures to cope with the massive increase in traffic demand while sustaining profitability and controlling costs,"  Fritzley went on to say.

"Intune has packaged this breakthrough technology into a carrier-grade networking system with a modern software interface, which we will use to work with the consortium as a critical element in developing the Network of the Future."

Intune's Development of the first  fibre optic packet switch has the potential to position Ireland for a wave of opportunities based on the future of the Internet, that until now were  consideredthe preserve of regions like Silicon Valley in the US and far eastern countries like Singapore, that are already pushing the boundaries of consumer broadband networks.

In July 2009,the  Irish Government announced that Intune Networks would  lead  its  programme to build Ireland's Exemplar Smart Network, after the company  developed  the world's first programmable fibre optical packet switching platform.  Fibre optical packet switching  is a  critical factor in building a Smart Network.

The Exemplar Smart Network will be Ireland's first step in creating a next generation smart and green communications infrastructure. Lab trials are due to satart in late Spring, with the rollout of the first phase of the Exemplar Smart Network planned before the end of the year.

The decision to develop it using  Intune Network's technological approach was announced by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan at the publication of ‘Technology Actions to Support the Smart Economy' strategy document.

PrimeTel Chief Technology Officer Vladimir Ivashchenko commented: "We are proud to  participate in a European research project like MAINS. As an alternative operator working in a highly competitive environment, it is of essence to us to stay in touch with the latest technological developments and be ready to offer next generation services. MAINS provides a unique opportunity to trial a cutting-edge networking technology which will help PrimeTel to stay ahead of competition in future."

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