Telecommunications Laboratory

Telecommunications Hardware

Active research programs

RACE R2016: STRATOSPHERIC The STRATOSPHERIC project aims at the specification, design and implementation of potential means of increasing the broadband network efficiency. It investigates the use of multilink protocols and high speed switching. The project designs and implements an ATM switch where parallelism and pipelining techniques are intentionally exploited. It also applies a string mode technique for increasing network utilization enabled through the integration of other hardware components such as choppers, routers and resequencers. The orientation of the project is rather in hardware however, techno-economic and performance evaluation studies are also provided to ensure that the project developments are the proper solutions for introducing ATM.

ESPRIT E7314: MANTIS-Metropolitan Area NeTwork for Integrated Services. The main objective of the project is the development of a communication system based on distributed nodes connected with a fiber-optic backbone with high bit-rate that is capable to support integrated services. The system is based on the IEEE 802.6 DQDB MAN exploiting also the advantages offered by ATM related technology. Apart from the MAN nodes the project addresses development of Network Access Modules undertaking the task of interoperability among the DQDB MAN and other network technologies and users such as ATM, FFDI, and Ethernet.

RACE R2064: FLASH TV-Flexible and Advanced Satellite System for High-Quality TV, with Interconnection to IBC. The project objective is to provide a flexible, cost effective and advanced means for setting up and operating high quality digital video transmission, and to offer interworking solutions with the forthcoming ATM based B- ISDN. Study items include optimal satellite transmission schemes for variable bit rate video users, interface with terrestrial networks, monitoring and control issues.