Partner und Internationale Organisationen
(Englisch)
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National Technical University of Athens, National Center for Scientific Research 'Demokritos', MARTEL GmbH, ITALTEL S.p.A, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Center for Informatics and Computer Technology, Business Communications Networks Ltd, Electrotechnical University
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Abstract
(Englisch)
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The main objectives of the W4ATT project were to support trials of network interoperability and multimedia service integration, by providing remote access to these trials and their hosting platforms through the WWW, and to disseminate the results through educational courses, and both live and off-line demonstrations.
W4ATT had both strong technical features and high strategic value. Innovative technical developments included a novel WWW-based system for the remote monitoring of broadband platforms and trials, and some limited remote-control functionalities were experimented. Special emphasis was placed on the definition and implementation of generic structures and interfaces, thereby allowing any platform or trial to be easily incorporated with minimum additional effort. Security and confidentiality issues were also taken into account for the control functions.
From the strategic viewpoint, a unique characteristic of the project was the substantial participation of East European partners. These members contributed mainly to the dissemination role of the project, through the production of training courses.
The consortium co-operated with key ACTS projects which were performing trials and demonstrations in the area of ATM network interoperability and multimedia service integration (especially, EXPERT, AMUSE and NICE). The database representation of the information relating to the project, the platform, and the trial was organised in a well-structured manner. An interface was created between the WWW system hosting the database and the Network Management of the involved platform, which allowed the automatic updating of the stored information in a dynamic fashion. A demonstration authoring tool was created to ease the presentation of the trials and their results.
Technical approach
W4ATT was organised in 3 Workpackages (WP0, WP1, WP2) with 5 Activities:
. WP0.1: Project Management
. WP1.1: Development of the WWW Database
. WP1.2: Database to Network & Service Management Interface
. WP2.1: Monitoring of Trials and Demonstrations on Network Interoperability and Service Integration
. WP2.2: Off-line Demonstrations and Courses
MARTEL contribution
MARTEL played a significant role in the project, since the platform used to validate all the procedures (and on which nearly all the public demonstrations were made), was the EXPERT ATM platform in Basel. (MARTEL manages the EXPERT project under a contract with Ascom).
MARTEL was the leader of workpackage 2.1: 'Monitoring of Trials and Demonstrations on Network Interoperability and Service Integration', with particular responsibility for enabling the co-operation with the EXPERT platform. This activity was performed very successfully, as indicated by the smooth flow of information regarding (for example) the configuration of the platform, and its control structures, so that the database representation could be built by WP1.1, and the appropriate characteristics monitored.
The regular participation of EXPERT in international trials provided several opportunities for W4ATT to monitor live traffic using their system.
MARTEL supplied a terminal in Basel for monitoring traffic through the W4ATT system. This terminal remains in Basel and is still occasionally used after the completion of the project.
In view of its experience of EU project management, MARTEL was also the only partner in the consortium (other than the Co-ordinating Partner) with manpower in the Project Management workpackage (WP0.1). MARTEL gave advice on the reporting procedures, and for the preparation of the kick-off and Plenary meetings.
MARTEL was also responsible for the production of the 'Viewer', which is the screen presentation, via which a remote user views a trial (over the Internet). The final version of the 'Viewer' allowed increasing levels of detail to be selected, ranging from a block-schematic overview of the environment, down to the precise number of ATM cells passing over a specific link. Several viewing scenarios were developed, and these were continually refined in line with feedback from users. This work was performed through a (Swiss) sub-contractor.
MARTEL was largely responsible for arranging the inclusion of demonstrations of the W4ATT facilities in the REFORM project 'Open Day' (Basel), the DOLPHIN conference, and the IDC'98 Conference (EXPO'98, Lisbon).
MARTEL provided comments on all the Deliverables produced in the project.
In the January '98 Technical Audit the project was awarded a MODIFY recommendation; the auditors recommended to extend the project by just one month (until the end of September '98) in order to enable the inclusion of a live demonstration during the IDC'98 / EXPO '98 Conference, and to hold a final workshop.
MARTEL made a presentation in the W4ATT final workshop in Cluj Napoca.
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