GMD FOKUS and Hitachi, Ltd. today announce that they are
to develop a new Active Network Architecture.
Meeting in Berlin last month, the Hitachi and GMD FOKUS
Executive Committee agreed on a R&D project aimed at providing
a new network infrastructure based on the new Active Network
Architecture.
Recently, ATM/Router-based broadband telecommunications
and data communications infrastructure has increased rapidly
in both capability and flexibility. This is enabling a
variety of new telecommunications features and applications.
At the same time, deregulation and globalisation of the
telecommunications market are creating a large number of
new business sectors and players.
The versatility of higher level applications and the
heterogeneity and dynamically evolving requirements of
customers/users, demands a flexible and easily adaptable
and extensible network infrastructure.
Most importantly there is demand for a rapid, dynamic and
smooth creation and integration of new services and service
features.
The new architecture is based on a strict separation of
the switching/routing functions from the network service
or control functions. The traditional switch/router is a
ugmented towards an integrated active node that has
programmable switching or routing and data processing
functions. Using a CORBA (Common Object Request Broker
Architecture) based distributed processing environment (DPE)
as an inter-node open platform, the active node will allow
for remote programmability.
Local programmability of the active node functions and
management of resources are provided by means of a mobile
agent environment enabling asynchronous implementations
of network-wide services such as policy-based control and
management.
Legacy system integration such as TMN (Telecommunication
Management Network) and IN (Intelligent Network) is achieved
through CORBA-based wrappers that provide CORBA-interfaces
for CORBA-applications by hiding legacy system's proprietary
interfaces. A dedicated Object Request Broker (ORB) will
provide requirements such as scalability and reliability
(real-time, fault tolerance), QoS guarantees, and protocols
like an IP multicast.
The two year joint project, known as BANG (Broadband Active
Network Generation) will start this July and will provide the
necessary infrastructure for future intelligent/active
networks.
Mr. Toshiakira Ikeda, General Manager of the Strategic
Business Development Division of Hitachi's Information
Systems Group, said: "The active network architecture
proposed is very encouraging. We expect it to be a
technological trigger, boosting future network technology
and solution."
Prof. Dr. Radu Popescu-Zeletin, Director of GMD-FOKUS added,
"we are very pleased with the scientific and the development
results achieved so far within the Hitachi-GMD FOKUS co-
operation. The BANG project will provide the basis for new
network technology for the next century."
Notes to editors
GMD - The National Research Center for Information Technology conducts research in computer science, communication, and media. GMD heads eight institutes and is headquartered in Castle Birlinghoven, Sankt Augustin (near Bonn). The eight institutes have a total of approximately 1200 employees, and are located in Sankt Augustin, Darmstadt, and Berlin. GMD is funded primarily by the Federal Republic of Germany and the federal states of Berlin, Nordrhein-Westfalen, and Hessen. GMD is a member of the Hermann von Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers (HGF).
The Research Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) in Berlin is engaged in the development of multimedia, management, and mobility applications utilizing distributed object and mobile agent technology over global wired and wireless communication links. Properties to be achieved such as customizability, adaptability, scalability, reusability, and autonomy are
seen as the major goals for the development of advanced
telecommunication and information services. For more information about GMD FOKUS, please visit the following website: http://www.fokus.gmd.de/.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of
the world's leading global electronics companies, with
fiscal 1997 (ending March 31, 1998) consolidated sales
of 8,417 billion yen (63.8 billion dollars*).
The company manufactures and markets a wide range of
products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer
products and power and industrial equipment. For more
information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's
Web site at http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
* At an exchange rate of 132 yen to the dollar.
For further information please contact
Barbara Intelmann
GMD FOCUS
Tel;+49-30-34 63 73-09
e-mail; intelmann@fokus.gmd.de
Emi Takase
Hitachi,Ltd.
Tel;+81-3-3258-2055
e-mail; emi@cm.head.hitachi.co.jp
WRITTEN BY Secretary's Office
All Rights Reserved,
Copyright (C)
1998, Hitachi, Ltd.
