e-living – Life in a Digital Europe
The e-Living project, running from January 2001 to the end of 2003, created a co-ordinated set of pan-European longitudinal household panels to generate quantitative data on the uptake and usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) over time. The emphasis on longitudinal study marks this project out from the increasing number of cross-sectional surveys carried out for commercial, academic and public policy reasons.
INNO-UTILITIES – Model Driven Architectures for Telecommunications System Development and Operation
Essential resources like telecommunications, electricity, water and gas that are taken for granted in 21st-century Europe are provided by utilities. In order to provide these life-goods continuously, utilities must innovate relentlessly.
However, in order to innovate, utilities must follow strict procurement procedures that have their origin in public procurement provisions.
At the same time new procurement models, for example electronic procurement and electronic auctions, are introducing a further complexity parameter into the already complex procurement environment.
In addition utilities must innovate not only to meet demand for better services but also increasingly to protect their infrastructure from malign attacks that become more and more frequent due to the omnipresence of information technology. There are two challenges: (i) how to make public procurement procedures more innovation friendly and (ii) how to protect utilities from modern technology attacks against their infrastructure. The combination of these two important points gave birth to the INNO-UTILITIES project.
The project is focused on telecommunications utilities, which are on the forefront of both challenges.
However, other utilities can benefit from the project results as well.
MODA-TEL – Model Driven Architectures for Telecommunications System Development and Operation
MODA-TEL is a joint effort of European stakeholders with business interest in component architectures, to develop a sound methodology and tools to support the application of model driven architectures (MDA) in the telecommunication domain.
MODA-TEL will develop technology that allows organisations to more efficiently model, construct, integrate, deploy, manage, operate and evolve software in telecommunications systems. This will be achieved be providing clear guidelines, methodologies and tools for the application of model driven architecture principles in telecommunications information management and telecommunication component based software construction.
The project will assess the foundations of MDA, identify the key technologies and assess the available MDA tools in the context of the telecommunication domain. It then will develop a methodology and guidelines for the application of MDA technologies and specify formalisation principles for model transformation techniques. Based on the gained insight an architecture for an MDA toolset will be defined and available tools will be extended according to telecommunication specific requirements. Finally the MDA-capable tools will be used to support the application of MDA onto selected use cases that are suitable for challenging the MDA approach. Necessary research will accompany the work and will provide solution proposals for areas not sufficiently addressed by the current state in MDA standardisation at OMG.
NGN-I – Next Generation Network Initiative
The NGN-I project had set up as a support action a consortium of representatives from leading industries, operators and academia to facilitate Global, Strategic and Innovative Next Generation Networks, Platforms and Solutions. It provided the first European open environment for strategic discussions on topics & issues of NGN.
The mission was to facilitate and support smooth evolution of and transition to next generation networks, to resolve issues that create barriers for NGN deployment, to encourage clustering of activities, to create open environment for discussions on trends of technology, and to create awareness among the actors.
The main objectives were to assess the technologies and their significance for NGN, to achieve interoperability for seamless services through harmonised standards, to achieve compatibility and essential commonality between solutions and products, and to identify new opportunities e.g. for convergence etc.
