|
|
|
|
|
Muse Project General: Members: Contact:
Other Useful links: |
Press Release MUSE project: delivery of broadband
services to every European citizen May 3rd, 2004 – MUSE (MUlti Service access Everywhere) is a European Union research & development project that started its research activities in January 2004. The objective of MUSE is research and development of a future low-cost, multi-service access and edge network, enabling the delivery of broadband services to every European citizen. Innovative access architecture and functions will be investigated which will allow the European telecommunications industry to offer services such as e-learning, teleworking, videoconferencing, gaming, or video-on-demand in a scalable and cost-effective way (www.ist-muse.org). The international MUSE consortium groups 30 partners, encompassing major operators, system vendors, component vendors, research institutes and universities. Being an Integrated Project of the "Information Society Technologies" (IST) priority of the 6th Framework Program (FP6), MUSE is part of the "Broadband for All" IST Strategic Objective. With a 2-year duration first phase, it is valued at EURO 34 million, of which EURO 18.6 million is funded by the European Commission. "A diversity of complementary technologies for the delivery of broadband services is emerging. In order to succeed in the objective of "Broadband for All", an end-to-end solution needs to be elaborated", explains MUSE coordinator Peter Vetter, Alcatel. "With almost all major players in the consortium, MUSE is well positioned to create a consensus on the future access network for Europe". Consequently, research activities will focus on the end-to-end architecture, as well as on new concepts to embed multi-service capabilities in an open access platform. First mile solutions studied in MUSE will be both scalable in bandwidth and user density to anticipate the expected evolution in user requirements, services and coverage. As many new applications will be triggered from appliances in the home, MUSE will also address the interworking of the home gateway with the access network. An important objective is a low investment cost and operational cost to achieve ubiquitous broadband access in Europe. MUSE is organized in four subprojects: Alcatel coordinates the subproject "access architecture" aiming towards a common access network architecture. Innovative solutions and concepts will be demonstrated and evaluated in end-to-end lab trials in three implementation oriented sub-projects with various deployment scenarios: a "migration scenario" from ATM to packet (Ethernet, IPv4, IPv6) coordinated by Alcatel, a "non-legacy scenario" optimized for Ethernet and IPv6 coordinated by Ericsson, and a "high bandwidth scenario" integrating new access technologies (VDSL, optical fibre loop) coordinated by Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs. To achieve effective communication and consensus in different technical areas across the subprojects, four task forces will contribute to position papers, common specifications and comparison of different approaches. They will also extensively contribute to standardization, which is key to achieve low-cost and interoperable solutions. See participants list below About Information Society Technologies (IST) in EU's 6th Framework Programme (FP6) The focus of FP6's IST part is on the future generation of technologies in which computers and networks will be integrated into the everyday environment, rendering accessible a multitude of services and applications through easy-to-use human interfaces. This vision of "ambient intelligence" places the user at the center of future developments. The research effort aims to bring IST applications and services to everyone, every home and to all businesses. Contact person: Peter VETTER MUSE project coordinator Alcatel Bell Website: http://www.ist-muse.org
|
