Projects

In UNIQUE, we aspire to evolve, implement and experiment with a unified utility-based framework based on both QoS (network-centric) and QoE (user-centric) features and parameters, which allows to enhance, formulate and improve various advanced network operations in mobile broadband (MBB) infrastructures (network selection, offloading, resource allocation, etc.). The proposed methodology and intended MONROE software extensions are expected to be provided as services to future experimenters that desire to investigate their own mechanisms and protocols. UNIQUE targets at two key runs of experiments and respective software extensions, depicting the operation and benefit of the proposed utility-based framework, i.e., a) utility-based access network selection, and b) utility-based concurrent multipath routing and traffic control. They aim at demonstrating the power of the proposed framework for key user-desired and bandwidth intensive network services and applications, such as multimedia downloading. 

Funding Agency: Information Society Technologies, EU, H2020
Duration: 01/06/2016-28/02/2018

GN4-2 is the proposed project for the second Specific Grant Agreement under the 68-month Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) established between the GÉANT Consortium and the European Commission in April 2015.This second phase of implementing the FPA will raise European research to the next level by promoting scientific excellence, access and re-use of research data. It will also drive European-wide cost efficiencies in scientific infrastructure by promoting interoperability with other e-infrastructures on an unprecedented scale.
The FPA objective for the GÉANT Partnership is to contribute to effective European research by making Europe the best-connected region in the world. GÉANT must offer European researchers the network, communications facilities and application access that ensure the digital continuum necessary to conduct world-class research in collaboration with their peers, regardless of geographical location.

Funding Agency: H2020-EU – EXCELLENT SCIENCE – Research Infrastructures
Duration: 01/05/2016-31/01/2020

The overall objective is to provide a stable environment for the implementation of GÉANT as the European Communications Commons for the European Research Area, which will provide the best possible digital infrastructure to ensure that Europe remains in the forefront of research. GÉANT’s extensive and long-standing contacts with large data disciplines such as biology, radioastronomy and high-energy physics help shape the evolution of the networking facilities required. This is complemented by partner contacts with research domains that are new users of high-performance networks and services, such as: digital preservation, real-time art and humanities. The vision is to position the GÉANT partnership optimally to achieve the strategic objectives of the FPA while ensuring the continuity and improvement of the services successfully offered under the GN3plus FP7 project. The extensive experience of the GÉANT partnership in providing high-quality and innovative services has been applied to the preparation phase of this proposal.

Funding Agency: H2020-EU – EXCELLENT SCIENCE – Research Infrastructures
Duration: 01/05/2015-31/08/2016

The objective of MECANEX project is to devise innovative tools for automatic annotation and editorial support of multimedia content, extraction of personalized information and adaption of enriched multimedia content in multi-screen environments. The major novelty of MECANEX is the creation of SaaS (REST based) toolkit that provides the aforementioned functionalities by bringing together complementary expertise and technology of different European companies and research institutes, in order to provide a cost effective multi-screen video metadata enrichment solution for SMEs. Such tools will be adopted by production and post-production companies, as well as by content providers or relevant service oriented companies and will be adapted into the creation process. Furthermore, a social and personalization tool is envisioned, which will collect consumers’ preferences and will provide feedback to the aforementioned tools. In a nutshell, automatic annotation, editorial, multi-screen and social and personalization tools will be integrated into a working MECANEX toolkit ready for the production of multimedia content, as well as the advertising agencies.

Funding Agency: Information Society Technologies, EU, H2020
Duration: 01/01/2015-30/06/2016

This project investigates the feasibility and implementation of Delay Tolerant networking paradigm for end-to-end space-to-ground reliable communications. In particular we attempt to address the end-to-end implementation details: from the Simulated Space Component to the Ground Segment and vice-versa which will be enhanced with appropriate encapsulation, decapsulation, routing and bundle dissemination strategy. The results of this project will be (i) a DTN-based ground segment consisting of heterogeneous hardware devices having different capabilities (ii) an ION-based Flight Simulated Component for the end-to-end validation of DTN space, (iii) An ION-based router both as a hardware component and software that will be deployed in the ground segment of The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC). 

Funding Agency: European Space Agency (ESA) – Ελληνική Αεροπορική Βιομηχανία
Duration: 01/11/2012-31/05/2014

SAViNE aims at establishing, assessing, evolving and prototyping a novel Social-aware Virtual Network Embedding framework for realizing a large-scale Wireless Content Delivery Network (CDN) scenario. Specifically, the proposed experiment explores how social-aware virtual network embedding can be adopted and enhanced for fostering wireless content delivery within the evolving Cloud environment. To achieve that, SAViNE envisions the advanced use and experimentation of FIRE infrastructures and in particular OpenLab that offers an open, general purpose, large scale experimental facility providing advances to the early and successful prototypes serving the demands of Future Internet Research and Experimentation. The evaluation of the efficiency of the proposed solution and prototype will be based on: i) CDN performance, ii) metrics related to the wireless medium, iii) efficiency of the proposed embedding approach and iv) social aware related metrics, providing a fruitful feedback on the use of the infrastructures to the OpenLab community. 

Funding Agency: Information Society Technologies, EU, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
Duration: 01/06/2012-31/05/2013

Fed4FIRE will deliver open and easily accessible facilities to the FIRE experimentation communities, which focus on fixed and wireless infrastructures, services and applications, and combinations thereof. The project will develop a demand-driven common federation framework, based on an open architecture and specification. This framework will provide simple, efficient, and cost effective experimental processes built around experimenters’ and facility owners’ requirements. Tools and services supporting dynamic federated identities, access control, and SLA management will increase the trustworthiness of the federation and its facilities. A FIRE portal will offer brokering, user access management and measurements. The project will use open calls to support innovative experiments from academia and industry and to adapt additional experimentation facilities for compliance with Fed4FIRE specifications.

Funding Agency: Information Society Technologies, EU, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
Duration: 01/10/2012-30/09/2016

The heterogeneity and complexity of future networks call for a solid framework that allows the treatment of network/node features/limitations, resources and Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms in a uniform and efficient way. To achieve such goal, FAN-of-NUM aims at a common network engineering formalism (“mathematical language”), based on advanced network utility maximization (NUM) theory, for building modularized and distributed network control, and suitable resource allocation mechanisms. The proposed framework will define principles and methodologies for designing proper utilities (i.e. by reflecting various network goals, different type of resources, etc.), setting the corresponding NUMs and solving them. NUM theory will serve as a modeling tool to study and devise network architectural alternatives and principles through decomposition theory. We will exploit and create unified and advanced NUM approaches to address various network problems, study stochastic stability in NUM and examine NUM application in large scale networks. The potential outcomes will be investigated on several key areas, including autonomic integrated architectures over heterogeneous multi-service networks and network-/user-centric oriented tradeoffs. 

Funding Agency: Γενική Γραμματεία Έρευνας και Τεχνολογίας – ΑΡΙΣΤΕΙΑ
Duration: 01/09/2012-30/09/2015

QUEENS (Dynamic Quality User Experience ENabling Mobile Multimedia Services) aims at exploiting and leveraging on the benefits and flexibility provided by a novel dynamic real-time QoE provisioning framework in order to assess and establish a new era of user-centric mobile multimedia applications. To achieve that, QUEENS envisions the advanced use and experimentation of FIRE infrastructures and in particular TEFIS, that provides a unique integrated platform for supporting efficient Future Internet service experiment and development, involving different actors and heterogeneous testbeds. Among the key features of the proposed framework is the joint consideration of user-centric QoE preferences and network-centric mechanisms to enable a novel cross-layering approach that allows the operation optimization and the resource utilization maximization of: a) mobile application’s server and b) underlying wireless network radio resource management processes. This allows to realize content-aware networking and enhanced media delivery, and more importantly brings the benefits and principles of flexibility, autonomicity and effectiveness closer to the end-user. 

Funding Agency: Information Society Technologies, EU, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
Duration: 01/12/2011-28/02/2013

NOVI research concentrates on efficient approaches to compose virtualized e-Infrastructures towards a holistic Future Internet (FI) cloud service. Resources belonging to various levels, i.e. networking, storage and processing are in principle managed by separate yet interworking providers. NOVI will concentrate on methods, information systems and algorithms that will enable users with composite isolated slices, baskets of resources and services provided by federated infrastructures. NOVI will investigate federation at the data, control, monitoring and Provisioning Planes of constituent FI infrastructures. Within this context, NOVI will propose and test resource description data models and abstraction algorithms, incorporating semantic Web concepts. Predictable and accountable service delivery will be further addressed by investigating monitoring and resource brokerage methods in multi-domain virtualized infrastructures. Secure, authenticated access is a key requirement for a service cloud. NOVI will assess mature options of federated AAI schemas as they pertain to multi-domain FI environments.

Funding Agency: Information Society Technologies, EU, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
Duration: 01/09/2010-28/02/2013