SCROLL DOWN

ANNUAL REPORT 2014

EVOLVING INTERNET
TECHNOLOGIES TOWARDS A
GLOBAL COLLABORATORY

2014

For the first time in many years, Catalonia has a state strategy in the field of ICT. SMARTCAT is the government policy to turn Catalonia into a “smart” country, within the trail marked by its capital and taking advantage of the new generation of smart technologies. The i2Cat Foundation, as a reference instrument of the Catalonia Government regarding research and innovation in the Internet field, plays a key role in this new opportunity to make Catalonia the leading country in the knowledge society at a global scale.

Jordi Puigneró i ferrer - President of i2CAT Foundation +

JORDI PUIGNERÓ I FERRER
President of i2CAT Foundation

10TH ANNIVERSARY
10 YEARS FOSTERING YOUR INNOVATION
INTERNET IS BECOMING A NETWORK THAT LEADS EVERYONE THROUGH INNOVATION
+
OPEN INNOVATION
COOPERATING WITH
COMPANIES
INSTITUTIONS
RESEARCH AREAS
USERS
TESTIMONIALS:
VINT CERF Vice President at Google
KEN MORSE Former Managing Director of the MIT Entrepeneurship Centre
MARIO CAMPOLARGO Director of Networks at DG Connect
of the European Commission
FACTS & FIGURES
44 PUBLICATIONS
STAFF
FUNDING
14 ASSOCIATED
PERSONNEL
13% PUBLIC CORE
FUNDING
48 PHD, ENGINEERS,
GRADUATES
87% COMPETITIVE FUNDING,
SERVICES AND
CONTRIBUTIONS
19FINALIZED PROJECTS
32PROJECTS IN EXECUTION
INTERNATIONAL
R+D+I ACTIVITIES
H2020
6 PROJECTS FUNDED
BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION
ADVANCED CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURES
AND SERVICES
SMART CITIES
AND COMMUNITIES
ADVANCED
5G NETWORK
INFRASTRUCTURE
FOR THE FUTURE
INTERNET
231
INTERNATIONAL
TRAVELS
AWARDS
Hipermed MONACO
Future Internet
Assembly 2014 ATHENS
V Ibero-American
Prize for Education
and Museums BRAZILIA
NEW AGREEMENTS AND
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP
i2CAT joins the FLEX and T-NOVA
Consortiums
CATALONIA
R+D+I INITIATIVES
SMART
ECONOMY
SMART
CITIZEN
SMART
GOVERN-
MENT
SMARTCAT
Converting Catalonia into a
leading global smart region in a
SmartEurope,
fostering added-value economy
and innovative society.
MOVERIO COMPETENCE CENTRE
Epson and i2CAT create a reference centre
for developing augmented reality applications
for Moverio Smart Glasses.
Health Technologies
Cultural Industries
Advanced Manufacturing
Sustainable Mobility
RIS3CAT
In 2014 i2CAT has been involved in the
4 RIS3CAT communities:
RIS3CAT is the response of Catalan Government
to the requirement of the European Commission that
states and regions of the EU develop research and
innovation strategies for smart specialization.
INDUSTRIAL RING 4.0:
A large collaboratory to promote industrial innovation.
An advanced Internet platform of more than
70 companies, mainly in the automotive industry,
working together with research centres to
promote industrial innovation.
The next step is to advance in the research of an
Internet based on intelligent systems and Smart technologies.
THE INTERNET OF KNOWLEDGE
AND CREATIVITY IS THE NEW
CHALLENGE TO FACE
INTERNET ARCHITECTURES
AND SERVICES
Key player in the 5GPPP community
RESEARCH CHALLENGES:
Infrastructure Control and Management
Recursive Inter-Network Architecture (RINA)
Cloud technologies
MOBILE WIRELESS
INTERNET
Pioneers in the implementation of the standard of 802.15.7r1
(Visual Light Communications)
RESEARCH CHALLENGES:
Wireless Sensor Networks WSN
Software Defined Wireless Networks (SDWN)
MEDIA INTERNET
Cutting-edge media technologies
for new content & experiences
RESEARCH CHALLENGES:
Media Networks
Interactive Applications
Social Science
INNOVATION
BUSINESS UNITS
Strenghten know-how generation towards
market and society needs.
SMART CITIES AND REGIONS
+
Developing Smart Citizen technologies
and services.
TRESCIMO Testbeds for
Reliable Smart City
Machine-to-Machine
Communications
HEALTH AND INCLUSION
+
A new generation of smart health technologies is needed
to empower patients and health professionals.
Portal del
Pacient (eHealth Portal)
Success case of a B2C
platform for real-time
communication between
healthcare professionals
and patients.
CREATIVITY AND CULTURE
+
The democratization of new technologies allows users to
play an active role as consumers and producers.
Barcelona Lab, setting connections
between people and
communities to foster
ideas and creative
technological projects in
the field of creativity and
culture.
INDUSTRIAL INTERNET
+
Internet-enabled services and technologies
for the Factories of the Future.
Industrial Ring Pioneering innovation
and services platform to
foster the new Industry
4.0.creativity and
culture.
INTERNET IS BREAKING
THE TRADITIONAL TOP-DOWN
MODEL OF INNOVATION
New distributed co-creation and user-centred
processes are the results of an open distributed
network like Internet.
10 USERS TRIALS
3 HACKATHONS
7 WORKSHOPS
2 OPEN CALLS
AND MORE THAN 600 USERS INVOLVED
INTERNET IS BREAKING
THE TRADITIONAL TOP-DOWN
MODEL OF INNOVATION
i2CAT is prepared to become a
key international R+D+i partner in the field
of Internet Technologies helping companies to foster
their innovation and generating a new
digital society and economy

More than 80 partner companies and organisations collaborated
on R+D+i projects or dissemination activities with i2CAT in 2014.

SOME OF THEM ARE:
OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
JANUARY
23 The virtual Psychologist ARA · LA VANGUARDIA · 324.CAT
FEBRUARY
25 + Innovation awareness
24 27 i2CAT at the Mobile World Congress +
MARCH
18 20 + i2CAT and DANA experiences
at the FIA 2014 event
APRIL
8 OpenNaaS 0.28 released! +
25 8 new companies join the
Industrial Ring of i2CAT LA VANGUARDIA
MAY
8 Terrassa Augmented reality APP TERRASSA DIGITAL · NOTICIAS.COM
324.CAT International Demo at TNC2014+
of Internet Architectures and
Services Area
JUNE
30 Successful closure of AAL project Fearless AAL-EUROPE · YOUTUBE
JULY
30 International consolidation TECNONEWS.INFO
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
9 Exhibition at Palau Robert “Temps del
romànic: Art, vida i consciència” ROMANICOBERT.CAT
OCTOBER
1 Promotion events of the digital technology ELPUNTAVUI.CAT
8 The project CreatiFI supports innovative
projects using Future Internet technologies
in the creative industries LAMEVA.BARCELONA.CAT
21 A system of rehabilitation after stroke ELCORREO.COM
30 ASLAN 2014
“Authomatization of the SDN and NFV
Networks Management”, by Eduard Escalona ASLAN.ES
NOVEMBER
17 19 i2CAT Exhibitor at the Smart City Expo SMARTCITYEXPO.COM
19 Radio program “Preferències”:
interview to J.M. Martín and S. Figuerola RTVE.ES EPSON and i2CAT join forces to+
foster the professional
use of Smart Glasses
DECEMBER
6 Connected TV in Gurb:
TV3, i2CAT and Abertis Telecom start with
the Connected TV trials in Gurb CCMA.CAT · ITCIO.ES
HERE’S TO 2014…
READY TO FACE THE 2015
NEW CHALLENGES!
http://www.i2cat.net/en i2cat Twitter i2cat Linked In
Developed by Ondeuev

INTRODUCTION

For the first time in many years, Catalonia has a state strategy in the field of ICT. SMARTCAT is the government policy to turn Catalonia into a “smart” country, within the trail marked by its capital and taking advantage of the new generation of smart technologies. The i2CAT Foundation, as a reference instrument of the Catalonia Government regarding research and innovation in the Internet field, plays a key role in this new opportunity to make Catalonia the leading country in the knowledge society at a global scale.

The permanent emergence of new technologies, of new and innovative applications and the vision of new business models requires us to be “smart” and sensitive to change, to adapt and anticipate. There is no better way to adapt to this new environment that anticipating it, creating it.

The first Internet era has produced a glut of information and communication. The next step is to advance to “the Internet of knowledge.” If until now computers and networks have been integrated, the challenge now is to integrate the Internet with artificial intelligence and expert systems that help people to learn and develop knowledge and their creative skills.

This “Internet of knowledge” requires a new basic research for new architectures and services that massively interconnect people, objects and nature. It also needs new knowledge generation and management systems that turn information into new knowledge and manage it by creating smart environments.

In this regard, the i2CAT Foundation is an example to follow; not only for what it does, what it produces, but also for the vision of its nature and how integrates it into society.

An institution that is genetically creative and open, ready to cooperate in order to integrate, enrich, produce and contribute, one which is ready to apply its knowledge to the transformation of cities, territory, industry, health and culture.

i2CAT is a pioneer research institution in the adoption of the “quadruple helix” as a model of innovation, creating spaces for research with users, companies, universities and government, ensuring that technology transfer goes into the social network to improve quality of life. The leader in activities aligned with the SmartCat strategy defined by the Catalan Government, an active participant in several RIS3CAT communities promoting different industrial fields, the conversion of the Industrial Ring 4.0 as a major cooperative service platform for the business sector and the organization of multiple workshops, seminars and hackathons to boost the creativity of users and SMEs, are just some of the activities that i2CAT undertook in 2014.

In the research field, the present and future is mainly about Europe, with Horizon 2020 and the European Digital Agenda representing great opportunities. In 2014, i2CAT has continued to strengthen its excellent relations with Europe and attract new European funds for research. The six new i2CAT projects within the new H2020 program have been a total success on a general thanks to the great competitiveness there has been, as well as at a comparative level with other local and international institutions, provingthat i2CAT is a leading research center at a European level in the field of Internet technologies.

In this large network of knowledge and creativity called Internet, i2CAT will continue to provide research and innovation. Its mission and vision, to decisively and resolutely contribute to strengthening the social and business fabric of Catalonia, has placed it at the forefront of an increasingly globalized and interconnected world.

Jordi Puigneró i ferrer - President of i2CAT Foundation

JORDI PUIGNERÓ I FERRER
President of i2CAT Foundation

10TH ANNIVERSARY
10 YEARS FOSTERING

OUR 10TH ANNIVERSARY

On November 6th 2014 we celebrated the tenth anniversary of i2CAT in the Palau de la Generalitat, official site of the Catalan Government.

The event was chaired by the Director General of Telecommunications and Information Society Jordi Puigneró and attended by personalities of the ICT sector, the Public Administration, members of society and former members of i2CAT.

The tenth anniversary event was conceived with the aim to: take stock of the i2CAT evolution and present, as well as share its vision of the future of Internet either from research and impact in the society.

The event had three main parts where we presented the organization, its past, present and our future vision and strategy Internet i2CAT for next years.

And some competent authorities as Vint Cerf, Vice President at Google, Mario Campo Largo, Director of Networks at DG Connect of the European Commission, or Ken Morse from MIT contributed with their speeches and greeted i2CAT.

The event represented also an excellent occasion to share the success of the i2CAT project, which is the result of the collective effort of all the i2CAT people, the companies, and the universities research groups.

In this sense, i2CAT has operated as a large umbrella that has helped in forming and growing qualified people both scientifically and humanly. i2CAT has tried to do its best for research and innovation in Catalonia and the Internet world.

The great paradigm of this first age of the Internet has been the convergence of telecommunications and information technology. The Internet is the great platform of distributed, user-driven and open ICT, the bearer of all types of information. Internet has built a great open environment for communication, exchange of data and information circulated among people.

This great network of networks has expanded communicating things people and nature, combining the physical world with the virtual world.

Moreover Internet has exceeded its own communications framework, interlinking culture, health, productive and innovation environments ... simply merging all human activities, creating new fields or becoming a platform in new fields of research such as bio or nano.

Internet is the central catalyst for the new technological research and innovation. In fact, Internet is creating a new global innovation ecosystem where research and innovation are permanently unified, overcoming the old division between science and technology. A “permisionless environment” where everyone is welcome to innovate.

i2CAT has been a pioneer along with others, in the converging of media and the Internet with technologies like high quality of service. i2CAT has played a leader role in the design of innovative networks controlled by users and managed by software (SDN). It has also significantly contributed to the expansion and fusion of Internet in the fields of health, culture and industry.

i2CAT has also pioneered the early creation of living labs or open innovation environments in Europe. In 2006, it was recognized by EnoLL as the first Living Lab throughout Spain, generating a first regional network of Living labs.

Now the Internet enters in a new age, the age of smart technologies, a second digital age. Current economic crisis is offering new challenges to the ICT world. How new technologies can solve the “Great Decoupling”, where increases in productivity goes hand by hand with stagnant or even falling incomes.

This new stage is arriving at the moment where ICT are moving in three directions:

  1. a) the convergence of infrastructures and services
  2. b) the creation and management of knowledge and
  3. c) the interrelation between artificial intelligence and human knowledge with rest of the ecosystem.

A new global deal between man and machines is needed in order to generate positive synergies between the new Internet and the new generations of people, materials and natural environments. i2CAT endorses a new Internet conceived as an open collaboratory ready for fostering human and natural augmented capabilities.

10TH ANNIVERSARY
OPEN INNOVATION

INTERNET HAS TO BECOME A NETWORK THAT ENABLES AND FOSTERS THE INNOVATION OF EVERYONE.

In the last 10 years, i2CAT has participated in the development of more than 300 research and innovation projects, and has cooperated with more than 150 entities, universities, large companies and SMEs, both locally and internationally.

Boosting Internet research and innovation activities in a collaborative way was (and is) one of our founding objectives and this vision has enabled us to achieve several important goals.

  • We led several pioneering initiatives in technology, including the first live broadcast of an opera in Ultra High Definition
  • We achieved recognition and an international prestige, thanks to the participation in more than 35 European projects
  • We have been engaged with the Government in defining and promoting strategic projects in the country, as the TELEICTUS project, the Industrial Ring or the current SMARTCAT strategy, recently approved by the Government of Catalonia.
  • and we have trained a significant number of researchers and engineers, some of whom have moved to the industrial and ICT fabric in the country, bringing talent and innovation skills within companies.

In this new stage we begin, we will continue generating knowledge and Internet research, but with a commitment to generate business and impact.

We have the mission to consolidate i2CAT as the reference partner on the Internet field, with the goal, along with the market vision of companies and users, to be able to generate new innovative solutions that provide an added value not only at local but also at international level.

This is a challenge that we want to share with the whole business and social fabric of the country, with the aim of enhancing the ICT industry of Catalonia and create new job opportunities.

In this sense, the strategy for achieving this new challenge will be around two pillars: FOCUS and STRATEGIC ALLIANCES.

As we well know, the Internet is a transversal technology, which has application in all economic sectors. But if we want to increase its impact, we must FOCUS and apply research in a number of sectors that we consider strategic and priority for our country.

i2CAT has decided to specialize in 4 areas of application (Internet for Cities/Regions, eHealth, Advanced Industry and Culture/Creativity), which are aligned with industrial and social challenges defined by the European Commission within its strategic research program Horizon 2020, with the strategy of smart specialization of Catalonia (RIS3CAT) and with the Catalan strategy of industrial policy.

This focus will allow us:

  • To play an important role in the European and international research map, to participate actively in RIS3CAT communities that will be defined around these areas, and to have an important role in the development and implementation of ICT policies and strategies defined by the Government of Catalonia.
  • To align research and technological i2CAT lines (such as IoT, SDN/NFV, media, new architectures, Cloud, Big Data) with the 4 application areas, and thus, will facilitate us the access to competitive and business funds.
  • To improve the knowledge and expertise that we bring to companies and SMEs in the country.

In order to generate impact through technological innovation, it is required to have a thorough understanding of which are the current and future needs in each of the sectors we focus on, and companies and user communities are who have this knowledge. For this reason, strategic alliances with companies and institutions are the key to understand the needs and cooperate with business and users.

These alliances will help us:

  • To co-create and co-design with the industry and users, innovative solutions to meet real needs.
  • To jointly define new business models and operating programs, and to ensure the commercial viability of the developed solutions.
  • To collaborate with international organizations and with other technology centers and research institutions in Catalonia in those areas where we are able to complement our knowledge (examples of partnerships at local level are the BSC, the CIM Foundation, Universities, among others).

i2CAT is based on a model of open innovation, where collaboration with third parties must allow and facilitate the commercial exploitation of research results, and foster the innovation that comes from users and companies.

FACTS & FIGURES
PROJECTS

CONTENT

Type of funding: EU- FP7 / Duration: 2012 - 2015

Description: Define a novel convergent network architecture supporting technologies in wired and wireless network domains.

DOLFIN

Type of funding: EU - FP7 - SmartCities / Duration: 2013 - 2016

Description: Design and implement a control framework for the management of energy efficient data centres.

SODALES

Type of funding: EU- FP7 / Duration: 2012 - 2015

Description: Define and develop a converged optical/wireless accesnetwork architecture that increases the spectrum utilisationefficiency and supports carrier-grade Ethernet services.

XIFI

Type of funding: EU - FP7 - SmartCities / Duration: 2013 - 2015

Description: Establishment of a sustainable market for testing Future Internet infrastructures and services.

OFERTIE

Type of funding: EU - FP7 / Duration: 2012 - 2014

Description: Use SLA-based management of cloud hosting across multiple data-centres over OpenFlow networks for ROIA applications.

OFERTIE

Type of funding: EU - FP7 / Duration: 2012 - 2014

Description: Use SLA-based management of cloud hosting across multiple data-centres over OpenFlow networks for ROIA applications.

CHARISMA

Type of funding: EU – H2020 / Duration: -

Description: Intelligent hierarchical routing and paravirtualised architecture that unites two important concepts: devolved offload with shortest path nearest to end-users and an end-to-end security service chain via virtualized open access physical layer security (PLS).

ONOFRE

Type of funding: Proyectos I+D Mineco / Duration: 2014-2017

Description: A access/metro network convergent design, with special focus on the effects of NGPON2 and NGPON3 evolutions. ONOFRE endorses open-source software in key aspects of the project: uses Net2Plan, an open-source network planning tool and public repository developed by UPCT, for algorithm prototyping, network planning and techno-economic analysis support, and Mininet Emulator, an open-source network emulator, for OpenFlow experiments.

CYCLONE

Type of funding: EU - H2020 / Duration: 2014-2017

Description: Targets the ASPs, providing them with software and tools that 1) facilitate the deployment, management, and use of their complex, multicloud applications and 2) enhance the end-to-end security and network management of those applications.

T-NOVA

Type of funding: EU – FP7 / Duration: 2014-2016

Description: With the aim of promoting the NFV concept, T-NOVA introduces a novel enabling framework, allowing operators not only to deploy virtualized Network Functions (NFs) for their own needs, but also to offer them to their customers, as value-added services. Virtual network appliances (gateways, proxies, firewalls, transcoders, analyzers etc.) can be provided on-demand as-a-Service, eliminating the need to acquire, install and maintain specialized hardware at customers’ premises.

IRATI

Type of funding: EU – FP7 / Duration: 2013-2014

Description: Implementation of a clean-slate architecture for the Linux kernel, over two of the most currently used technologies: TCP/UDP/IP and Ethernet. Improvement and contribution to the RINA specifications, specially in the fields of routing, policies for the discovering of applications and interoperability with Ethernet.

IRINA

Type of funding: GEANT3+ Open call / Duration: 2012-2015

Description: IRINA shall compare RINA against current networking state of the art and relevant clean-slate architecture under research; perform a use-case study of how RINA could be better used in NREN scenarios; and showcase a laboratory trial of the study.

FED4FIRE

Type of funding: EU - FP7 / Duration: 2012 - 2016

Description: Provide a federation of FIRE experimentation facilities, developing and implementing a federation architecture

FELIX

Type of funding: EU - FP7 Europe and Japan / Duration: 2013 - 2016

Description: Create a common framework for Future Internet (FI) experimental research into networks and distributed applications, in the EU and Japan.

FIBRE-EU

Type of funding: EU - FP7 Europe and Brazil / Duration: 2011 - 2014

Description: Build and operate an EU-Brazil Future Internet testbed based on OpenFlow and Wireless technologies (www. fibre-eu.eu/).

MINERVA

Type of funding: EU - FP7 Open Call GN3+ / Duration: 2013 - 2015

Description: Deployment of a robust network coding architecture in the GÉANT OpenFlow facility, which provides a highly available backbone network infrastructure for Future Internet applications.

GN3+

Type of funding: EU - FP7 - Infrastructures / Duration: 2013 - 2015

Description: Pan-European multi-gigabit network and associated services.

AAPD

Type of funding: EU - FP7 / Duration: 2013 - 2014

Description: Apply a refined prototype of the available platform in order to meet the requirements of the predictive analysis of a specific domain.

Help4Mood

Type of funding: FP7- ICT / Duration: 2010 - 2014

Description: Support for the treatment of major depression by measuring daily activity and mood.

Cirugia Bariatrica

Type of funding: MINECO - INNPACTO / Duration: 2011 - 2015

Description: The goal of the project is to implement a Virtual Reality Platform in order to support physicians during the Bariatric Surgery process and predict the results of surgery.

GTRS

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2012 - 2014

Description: Physical rehabilitation exercises and decision support systems using Kinect.

CANAL DEL PACIENT

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2013 - 2015

Description: Development of an online tool for medical assistance and communication between health professionals and patients.

AtlantisCare

Type of funding: MED Program Project WIDER Open Call / Duration: 2014

Description: Intelligent system to support care of older adults during ageing process.

MORE

Type of funding: Ajuntament de Barcelona / Duration: 2014

Description: eHealth remote platfomr for users with reduced mobility

Fearless

Type of funding: EU - AAL / Duration: 2011 - 2014

Description: Design a system able to detect a wide range of risks with a single sensor unit, enhancing mobility and enabling the elderly to take an active part in the self-service society by reducing their fears.

COM’ON

Type of funding: EU - AAL / Duration: 2012 - 2014

Description: As a result of the ethnographic research, the COM’PANION concept has been developed which empowers older adults to take on journeys of their own, through motivational feedback about e.g. distance and frequency of journey, as well as appropriate and timely support from a personal or professional peer.

CarismaTIC

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2012 - 2014

Description: Tracking and monitoring of chronic patients using a tablet device.

GTRS

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2012 - 2014

Description: Physical rehabilitation exercises and decision support systems using Kinect.

i2Health Sant Pau

Type of funding: MINETUR - AVANZA / Duration: 2011 - 2016

Description: The project explores the great potential of next generation networks and mobile devices in the Connected TV market, which is a strong focus of interest for the media industry.

TV-Ring

Type of funding: EU-CIP - PILOT B / Duration: 2013- 2016

Description: The project explores the great potential of next generation networks and mobile devices in the Connected TV market, which is a strong focus of interest for the media industry.

MITSU

Type of funding: CELTIC PLUS - Private / Duration: 2013- 2014

Description: The MITSU project develops the next generation of multimedia streaming systems to be used over wireless networks.

NOTTS

Type of funding: CELTIC PLUS - Private / Duration: 2013- 2015

Description: NOTTS investigates the technical problems experienced by service providers of over-the-top multimedia services, proposes realistic solutions, and evaluates these solutions on testbeds and real networks.

Visionair

Type of funding: EU-FP7 Capacities / Duration: 2011- 2015

Description: The project’s aim is to create a European infrastructure that should be a unique, visible and attractive entry towards high level visualisation facilities. These facilities must be open to access by a wide set of research communities across Europe and around the world.

Networked Production

Type of funding: MINECOINNPACTO / Duration: 2011- 2014

Description: The project aims to evolve the networked production of the audiovisual chain of television and audiovisual content producers.

I AMn

Type of funding: ENPI-CBCMED / Duration: 2012- 2015

Description: The I AM project aims to cooperate in and develop applications to enhance the visitors’ experience of natural and cultural heritage sites. It focuses on the use of Augmented Reality (AR), multimedia and interactive techniques.

Terrassa +

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2013- 2014

Description: Terrassa Augmentada is aimed at delivering and enhancing an educative guide of the Modernism period in Terrassa, using mobile and mixed reality technologies to offer a new and engaging experience.

SPECIFI

Type of funding: EU -CIP Pilot Actions / Duration: 2013- 2015

Description: SPECIFI combines NGA and IoT infrastructures and platforms for setting up a European Creative Ring of Smart Cities and Regions facilitating the set-up, customisation, delivery and sharing of innovative, user co-designed arts, media and leisure services locally, regionally, and across Europe.

FI-Content 2

Type of funding: EU - FP7 Capacities2 / Duration: 2013- 2015

Description: The project is aimed at developing and experimenting cutting edge ICT platforms across Europe devoted to applications and services in the areas of social connected TV, smartcity services, and pervasive games. The project is offered to any European stakeholder, specifically aimed at developers and SMEs access to use these open platforms.

RICHES

Type of funding: EU - FP7 SSH / Duration: 2013- 2016

Description: The RICHES project researches the context of change in which European Cultural Heritage is transmitted, its implications for future CH practices, and the cultural, legal, financial, educational, and technical frameworks to be put in place for the benefit of all audiences and communities in the digital age.

AthenaPlus

Type of funding: EU- CIP / Duration: 2013- 2015

Description: Athena Plus is a project which aims to contribute large amounts of content to Europeana, to improve the search and use of Europeana content and to experiment on how enriched metadata can be used for tourism and educational tools and applications.

Expo Romànic

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2013- 2014

Description: The Department of Culture (“Generalitat de Catalunya”, the Catalan Government) and Obra Social “La Caixa” jointly promote an Exposition about Romanesque Heritage using advanced media contents and Internet-based innovations.

Romànic Cellers

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2010- 2014

Description: The Department of Culture (“Generalitat de Catalunya”, the Catalan Government) and Obra Social “La Caixa” jointly promote the “Romànic Obert” and “Cellers Cooperatius” - Cooperative Wineries programs. A presence on the Internet is crucial for the dissemination of strategies. For this reason, a digital platform has been developed for both programs.

EIEC

Type of funding: MINECO- FCC / Duration: 2010- 2015

Description: The goal of EIEC is to create the global Cultural Ring, as a new e-Infrastructure for Culture and the Arts. Partial steps have been launched such as the Cultural Ring in Catalonia, followed by the Latin America-Europe Cultural Ring and the Asia-Pacific Cultural Ring.

URBAN-T

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2012- 2014

Description: The project aims to design, develop and deploy a WSN management system for monitoring traffic density in a Smart City

Asia-Pacific Cultural Ring.

Open M2M Platform

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2013- 2014

Description: Integration of commercial 6lowPAN smart plug solution into MyKoots M2M platform.

Smart Gateway Evolution

Type of funding: Private / Duration: 2011- 2014

Description: Support in the design and development of the evolution of Urbiotica’s WSN Smart City Platform.

GrowSmarter

Type of funding: EU – H2020 / Duration: 2015- 2016

Description: Sensing of electric vehicles on a system of micro-distribution macro-blocks in Barcelona.

SESAME

Type of funding: FP7- People / Duration: 2013- 2017

Description: Define a novel SDN architecture to manage heterogeneous wireless small cell backhaul technologies.

SoftWiBack

Type of funding: Proyectos I+D Mineco / Duration: 2014- 2016

Description: Software Defined Wireless Backhaul for Smart Cells. The projects studies how such a small cell wireless backhaul should be designed. In particular, proposes to apply software defined networking (SDN) techniques to the design of the wireless backhaul.

SESAME

Type of funding: EU-H2020 / Duration: 2015 - 2017

Description: SESAME targets innovations around three central elements in 5G: the placement of network intelligence and applications in the network edge through Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) and Edge Cloud Computing.

SONATA

Type of funding: EU-H2020 / Duration: 2015 - 2017

Description: Development of service patterns and description techniques for composed services and deployment of a novel service platform to manage service execution.

SODALITE

Type of funding: Open CAll FLEX / Duration: 2015

Description: Software Defined Wireless Backhauling for LTE.

FACTS & FIGURES
FUNDING


FACTS & FIGURES
PUBLICATIONS

OUTREACH ACTIVITY AT GLOBECOM 2014 (AUSTIN)

i2CAT was one of the research institutions to play an active part at IEEE GLOBECOM, which took place in Austin (USA) from 8 to 12 December, with the presentation of three research projects in network technologies in which it operates. This leading ICT event is a a point of reference for the IEEE Communications Society.

The Distributed Applications and Networks Area (DANA) of i2CAT demonstrated the “Inter-Virtualized Controller Routing Function”, in the Industry Panel related to Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). It consisted of a presentation of a prototype for virtualizing the routing function of several drivers for software defined networking (SDN Controllers) and dynamically managing and orchestrating the routing following the NFV paradigm, without any change in this virtualized function affecting the continuity of the service. The prototype was running throughout the opening day at the conference exhibition center.

The second presentation related to the article entitled “Software-Defined-Wired Wireless Convergence: the SODALES Approach”, held during the workshop Wireless Optical Convergence in support of Cloud Services. The article, written by members of the project SODALES of i2CAT, presents the SODALES management plan based on OpenNaaS, as a future solution to enable convergence between fixed and mobile network for communications in the Future Internet.

DANA also hosted a presentation of the RINA tutorial, which sought to provide the audience with an introduction to the concepts, motivation and current state of the Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA), one of the most promising alternatives to TCP/IP. This tutorial was split into two parts, with the first dedicated to the theory and concepts behind RINA and the second explaining real-world cases that motivate its deployment and introduce the RINA stack under development by the FP7 IRATI and PRISTINE projects. To conclude the session, there was a live demonstration of the IRATI prototype.

PROTOTYPING RECURSIVE INTERNET ARCHITECTURE:
THE IRATI PROJECT APPROACH

"In recent years, many new architectures are being proposed to solve shortcomings in the current internet. A lot of these merely extend current TCP/IP architecture and hence do not solve the fundamental cause of these problems. The Recursive Internet Architecture (RINA) is a true new network architecture, developed from scratch, building on lessons learned in the past. RINA prototyping efforts have been ongoing since 2010, but a prototype on which a commercial RINA implementation can be built has not been developed yet. The goal of the IRATI research project is to develop and evaluate such a prototype in Linux/OS. This article focuses on the software design required to implement a network stack in Linux/OS. We motivate the placement of, and communication between, the different software components in either the kernel or user space. The first open source prototype of the IRATI implementation of RINA will be available in June 2014 for researchers, developers, and early adopters."

Published in: Network, IEEE (Volume:28 , Issue: 2)
Page(s): 20 - 25
ISSN : 0890-8044
INSPEC Accession Number: 14221552
DOI: 10.1109/MNET.2014.6786609

CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS

  1. P. Garfias, S. Sallent, L. Gutiérrez, M. de Andrade, M. Tornatore, A. Buttaboni, “A novel traffic-aware mechanism for energy-saving at the OLT in WDM/TDM-PON,” European Conference on Network and Optical Communications and Conference on Optical Cabling and Infrastructure. pp. 225-232, July 2013. DOI: 10.1109/NOC-OCI.2013.6582894.
  2. A. Betzler, C. Gomez, I. Demirkol, and J. Paradells. 2013. Congestion control in reliable CoAP communication. In Proceedings of the 16th ACM international conference on Modeling, analysis & simulation of wireless and mobile systems (MSWiM ‘13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 365-372. DOI=10.1145/2507924.2507954.
  3. C. Carrascal, I. Demirkol, Josep Paradells , A Novel Wake-up Communication System using Solar Panel and Visible Light Communication, IEEE GLOBECOM, 2014.
  4. J. Paradells, C. Gomez, I. Demirkol, J. Oller, M. Catalan, “Infrastructureless smart cities. Use cases and performance”, in proc. Of The 5th International Confe rence on Smart Communications in Network Technologies (SaCoNet 2014), Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, June 2014.
  5. H. Kermajani, C. Gomez, “Modeling the network convergence time in RPL in error-prone, IEEE 802.15.4 chain topology multihop networks”, The EleventhIEEE International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems (ISWCS 2014), Barcelona (Spain), August 2014.
  6. A. Elmangosh, A. Corici, M. Catalan, T. Magedanz, R. Steinke, Interconnecting StandardM2M Platforms to Delay Tolerant Networks, FiCloud 2014 - 2nd International Conference on Future Internet of Things and Cloud, August 2014.
  7. A.Betzler; C.Gomez,; I. Demirkol, M. Kovatsch, “Congestion control for CoAP cloud services,” Emerging Technology and Factory Automation (ETFA), 2014 IEEE, vol., no., pp.1,6, 16-19 Sept. 2014 doi: 10.1109/ETFA.2014.7005340.
  8. M. Catalan, TRESCIMO Testbeds for Reliable Smart City Machine-to-Machine Communication, Smart City Expo World Congress , November 2014.
  9. Habibi Minelli, Sam; Natale, Maria Teresa; Dierickx, Barbara; Ongaro, Paolo; Ugoletti, Daniele; Saccoccio, Rubino; Santiago Aguilar, Marc, “MOVIO. A semantic content management and valorisation approach for archives and cultural institutions”, in: Proceedings of ICA 2nd Annual Conference on Archives and Cultural Industries, 234, October 2014, Girona, Spain.
  10. Markos Anastasopoulos, Anna Tzanakaki, Bijan Rofoee, Shuping Peng, Dimitra Simeonidou, Giada Landi, Giacomo Bernini, Nicola Ciulli, Jordi Ferrer Riera, Eduard Escalona, Joan A. García-Espín, Kostas Katsalis, Thanasis Korakis. “Planning of Dynamic Mobile Optical Virtual Network Infrastructures Supporting Cloud Services”, European Conference on Networks and Communications 2014 EUCNC 2014.
  11. Anna Tzanakaki, Markos Anastasopoulos, Giada Landi, Giacomo Bernini, Nicola Ciulli, Bijan Rofoee, Yan Yan, Dimitra Simeonidou, Jordi Ferrer Riera, Eduard Escalona, Joan A. García-Espín, Kostas Katsalis, Thanasis Korakis. “A Converged Network Architecture for Energy Efficient Mobile Cloud Computing”, 18th International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modeling ONDM2014.
  12. Josep Batallé, Jordi Ferrer Riera, Eduard Escalona, Joan A. García-Espín, “OpenNaaS: An Enabler to deploy Virtualized Network Functions into the NREN community”, Terena Networking Conference 2014.
  13. Jordi Ferrer Riera, Carlos Bock, Tiago Mendes, Michael Parker, Volker Jungnickel, David Levy, Victor Marques, Cláudio Rodrigues, Eduard Escalona, Joan A. García-Espín, Stuart D Walker. Techno Economics and Cost Analysis of Convergent Access Networks. European Conference on Networks and Communications 2014 EUCNC 2014 EUCNC 2014 (Poster).
  14. Riera, J. F., Escalona, E., Batalle, J., Grasa, E., & Garcia-Espin, J. A. (2014, June). Virtual network function scheduling: Concept and challenges. In Smart Communications in Network Technologies (SaCoNeT), 2014 International Conference on (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
  15. Riera, J. F., Hesselbach, X., Escalona, E., Garcia-Espin, J. A., & Grasa, E. (2014, July). On the complex scheduling formulation of virtual network functions over optical networks. In Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), 2014 16th International Conference on (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
  16. Tzanakaki, A., Anastasopoulos, M., Landi, G., Bernini, G., Ciulli, N., Peng, S., ... & Korakis, T. (2014, May). Wireless and wired network convergence in support of cloud and mobile cloud services: The CONTENT Approach. In European Wireless 2014; 20th European Wireless Conference; Proceedings of(pp. 1-7). VDE.
  17. Ferrer Riera, J., Tzanakaki, A. Antonescu, A.F., Anastasopoulos, M., Garcia-Espin, J.A., Peng, S., Landi, G., Bernini, G., Escalona, E., Hesselbach, X., Simeonidou, D., and Figuerola, S: Virtual Infrastructures as a Service enabling Optical Network and Data Centre Conver- gence. Optical Switching and Networking, Elsevier. Special Issue on Optimization and Ap- plication in Converged Optical and Data Center Networks. In press. To appear first quarter of 2015.
  18. Vrijders, S., Staessens, D., Colle, D., Salvestrini, F., Maffione, V., Bergesio, L., ... & Grasa, E. (2014, December). Experimental evaluation of a Recursive InterNetwork Architecture prototype. In Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), 2014 IEEE (pp. 2017-2022). IEEE.
  19. J. Day, L. Chitkushev, E. Grasa, F. Salvestrini, D. Staessens. “Alternatives to TCP/IP“, RINA tutorial at IEEE Globecom 2014, Austin, Texas.
  20. Jungnickel, V., Habel, K., Parker, M., Walker, S., Bock, C., Riera, J. F., ... & Levi, D. (2014, July). Software-defined open architecture for front-and backhaul in 5G mobile networks. In Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), 2014 16th International Conference on (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
  21. S. Vrijders, E. Trouva, J. Day, E. Grasa, D. Staessens, D. Colle, M. Pickavet, L. Chitkushev; “Unreliable Inter Process Communication in Ethernet: Migrating to RINA with the shim DIF“, Proceedings of 5th International Workshop on Reliable Networks Design and Modeling, RNDM 2013., pages 215-221. Available online.
  22. J. Ferrer et al, “Software-defined wired-wireless access network convergence: the SODALES approach”, Globecom 2014.

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

  1. P. Garfias, M. De Andrade, M. Tornatore, A. Buttaboni, S. Sallent and L. Gutiérrez, “Energy-Saving Mechanism in WDM/TDM-PON Based on Upstream Network Traffic,” Photonics, vol.1, no 3, pp. 235-250, 2014. DOI:10.3390/photonics1030235.
  2. A. Yazdany, D. Rincón, S. Sallent, “Efficient time gating in ultrafast optical TDM networks”, Photonic Network communications, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 218-224, June 2014. DOI 10.1007/s11107-014-0445-3.
  3. S. Sallent, D. Rincon, K. HAMZEH,”Towards an integrated SDN-NFV architecture for EPON networks”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 8846, pp. 74-84, August 2014. Brest, France.
  4. Ludovici, A.; Marco, P.D.; Calveras, A.; Johansson, K.H. Analytical Model of Large Data Transactions in CoAP Networks.Sensors 2014 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things), 14, 15610-15638.
  5. Deek, L.; Garcia-Villegas, E.; Belding, E.; Lee, S-J.; Almeroth, K. “Intelligent Channel Bonding in 802.11n WLANs,” IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 1242-1255, 2014.
  6. Oller, J.; Garcia-Villegas, E.; Lopez-Aguilera, E.; Demirkol, I.; Casademont, J.; Paradells, J.; Gamm, U.; Reindl, L. “IEEE 802.11-enabled wake-up radio system: design and performance evaluation,” Electronics Letters , vol.50, no.20, pp.1484,1486, 2014.
  7. Lopez-Aguilera, E.; Casademont, J. “Study on the influence of transmission errors on RSNA authentication mechanisms in IEEE 802.11 WLAN,” Computer Communications, vol. 41, pp.76-93, 2014.
  8. D. Camps-Mur; P. Loureiro, “E2D Wi-Fi: A Mechanism to Achieve Energy Efficient Discovery in Wi-Fi,” Mobile Computing, IEEE Transactions on, vol.13, no.6, pp.1186,1199, June 2014 doi: 10.1109/TMC.2013.149.
  9. Token-MAC: A Fair MAC Protocol for Passive RFID Systems, Li Chen, Ilker Demirkol and Wendi Heinzelman, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol.13, no.6, pp. 1352-1365, June 2014.
  10. Performance Evaluation and Comparative Analysis of SubCarrier Modulation Wake-up Radio Systems for Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks, J. Oller, I. Demirkol, J. Casademont, J. Paradells, U. Gamm, L. Reindl, Sensors, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 22-51, Jan. 2014.
  11. J. Oller, E. Garcia, E. Lopez, I. Demirkol, J. Casademont, J. Paradells, U. Gamm, L. Reindl, An IEEE 802.11-enabled Wake-up Radio System: Design and Performance Evaluation, IET Electronics Letters, (Accepted) 2014.
  12. BaNa: A Noise Resilient Fundamental Frequency Detection Algorithm for Speech and Music, N. Yang, H. Ba, W. Cai, I. Demirkol, and W. Heinzelman, IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing, (Accepted) 2014.
  13. A.Garcia-Saavedra; B. Rengarajan; P. Serrano; D. Camps-Mur; X Costa-Perez, “SOLOR: Self-Optimizing WLANs With Legacy-Compatible Opportunistic Relays,” Networking, IEEE/ACM Transactions on , vol.PP, no.99, pp.1,1, doi: 10.1109/TNET.2014.2321975.
  14. J. Nieminen, C. Gomez, T. Savolainen, M. Isomaki, B. Patil, Z. Shelby, M. Xi, J. Oller, “Networking Solutions for Connecting Bluetooth Low Energy Enabled Machines to the Internet of Things”, IEEE Network Magazine, Volume: 28 , Issue: 6, 2014, 83-90. DOI: 10.1109/MNET.2014.6963809.
  15. H. Kermajani, C. Gomez, “On the network convergence process in RPL over IEEE 802.15.4 multihop networks: improvement and trade-offs”, Sensors, 14(7), 11993-12022, 2014. doi:10.3390/s140711993.
  16. A. Betzler, C. Gomez, I. Demirkol, and J. Paradells. “A holistic approach to ZigBee performance enhancement for home automation networks.” Sensors 14, no. 8 (2014): 14932-14970.
  17. Aguilar, Marc; Garriga, Inés; Majó, Anna; Serra, Artur, “Can a city become a living lab? Emerging experiences in the city of Barcelona” (2014), in Springer Book on Living Labs (working title), Springer Publishing: New York (scheduled mid 2015).
  18. B. Belter, J. Rodriguez Martinez, J. I. Aznar, J. Ferrer Riera, L.M. Contreras, M. Antoniak-Lewandowska, M. Biancani, J. Buysse, C. Develder, Y. Demchenko, P. Donadio, D. Simeonidou, R. Nejabati, S. Peng, L. Drzewiecki, E. Escalona, J. A. Garcia-Espin, S. Gheorghiu, M. Ghijsen, J. Gutkowski, G.Landi, G. Carrozzo, D. Parniewicz, P. Robinson, S. Soudan, “The GEYSERS Optical Test-bed: a Platform for the Integration, Validation and Demonstration of Cloud-based Infrastructure Services”, Elsevier Computer Networks, Volume 61, 14 March 2014, Pages 197–216.
  19. Anna Tzanakaki, Markos P. Anastasopoulos, Konstantinos Georgakilas, Giada Landi, Giacomo Bernini, Nicola Ciulli, Jordi Ferrer Riera, Eduard Escalona, Joan A. Garcia-Espin, Xavier Hesselbach, Sergi Figuerola, Shuping Peng, Reza Nejabati, Dimitra Simeonidou, Damian Parniewicz, Bartosz Belter, and Juan Rodríguez Martinez. IEEE Communications Magazine 52(1):26-34 (2014).
  20. S. Vrijders, D. Staesses, D. Colle, F. Salvestrini, E. Grasa, M. Tarzan and L. Bergesio “Prototyping the Recursive Internetwork Architecture: The IRATI Project Approach“, IEEE Network, Vol. 28, no. 2, March 2014. Available online.
  21. Cimmino, A., Carapinha, J., Ramos, A., Lobillo, F., Pliakas, T., Pietrabissa, A., ... & Sidibe, M. (2014). Requirements and Use Cases System for Virtualized Network Functions Platforms. J Telecommun Syst Manage, 3(113), 2167-0919.

STANDARDIZATION CONTRIBUTIONS

  1. C. Bormann, A. Betzler, C. Gomez, I. Demirkol, “CoAP Simple Congestion Control/Advanced”, draft-bormann-core-cocoa-02”, July 2014 (Work in progress).

INTERNATIONAL R+D+I ACTIVITIES
H2020

CYCLONE, new project funded in the topic of Advanced
Cloud Infrastructures and Services

Cloud computing research is oriented towards new computational and data management models (at both infrastructure and services levels) that respond to the advent of faster and more efficient machines, rising heterogeneity of access modes and devices, demand for low energy solutions, widespread use of big data, federated clouds and secure multi-actor environments including public administrations.

In the call H2020-ICT-2014-1, under the topic ICT-07-2014, i2CAT has achieved funding for the development of the project CYCLONE (Complete Dynamic Multi-cloud Application Management), coordinated and leaded by INTEROUTE.

Application service providers (ASPs) now develop, deploy, and maintain complex computing platforms within multiple cloud infrastructures to improve resilience, responsiveness and elasticity of their applications. The CYCLONE project targets the ASPs, providing them with software and tools that 1) facilitate the deployment, management, and use of their complex, multicloud applications and 2) enhance the end-to-end security and network management of those applications.

CYCLONE allows ASPs to aggregate resources from multiple cloud providers (private and public) to improve the reliability of their applications through geographic redundancy, to enhance the user experience by placing services (and data) near their users, to lower barriers between cloud providers via a cloud deployment engine with appropriate resource abstractions, and to tailor intra- and inter-site networking resources. Coupled with application-level security features and trust bootstrapping mechanisms, CYCLONE allows ASPs to define their own innovative and secure cloud platform tailored to their needs and trusted by their users.

GROWSMARTER, the ‘lighthouse’ Smart City project of Barcelona

Lighthouse projects targets primarily large scale demonstration of replicable Smart Cities and Communities concepts in city context where existing technologies or very near to market technologies will be integrated in an innovative way.

GrowSmarter has been funded by the call H2020-SCC-2014, under the topic SCC-01-2014 Smart Cities and Communities. Leaded by the City of Stockholm, GrowSmarter will demonstrate at 3 lighthouse cities (Stockholm, Barcelona and Cologne) 12 smart, integrated solutions as a way of preparing for a wider market rollout. These solutions are integrated in specially chosen sites making demonstration easy to reach and take part of for the 5 follower cities and other European and international study groups. All the smart solutions are fit into the Lighthouse-cities strategic development plans and the follower cities replication plans.

i2CAT is participating in the development of the large scale pilot that will be deployed in the city of Barcelona, in cooperation with the Barcelona City Council and other local partners/entities.

The solutions solve common urban challenges such as:

  • Renewal of existing buildings. GrowSmarter demonstrates the cost efficient renewal or low energy districts reducing energy demand.
  • Integrated infrastructures for ICT, street lighting, smart grids district heating and smarter waste handling.
  • Sustainable urban mobility for both passenger and gods integrated in smart grids, biofuels from household waste thus reducing local air quality emissions.

i2CAT AS A KEY PARTNER IN THE EUROPEAN ADVANCED 5G
NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE FUTURE INTERNET

In the call H2020-ICT-2014-2, under the topic H2020 ICT-14-2014 (Advanced 5G Network Infrastructure for the Future Internet), i2CAT responded to the Call H2020 with a total of 9 proposals in collaboration with European partners, of which 4 were approved. This represents a success rate of almost 45%.

In addition, i2CAT will be leader of one of the four approved proposals: the CHARISMA project.

Overall, of the total of 83 projects submitted for this call only 16 were approved, That means that i2CAT will be participating in one out of four proposals (25%) approved by the European Commission, becoming a key center in Europe for research in the field of 5G.

This four projects means a EU grant for i2CAT of more than two million euros for executing these projects in the next 3 years.

Achieved projects details

CHARISMA (Converged Heterogeneous Advanced 5G Cloud-RAN Architecture for Intelligent and Secure Media Access).

Leader: i2CAT Foundation.

Abstract:

CHARISMA proposes an intelligent hierarchical routing and paravirtualised architecture that unites two important concepts: devolved offload with shortest path nearest to end-users and an end-to-end security service chain via virtualized open access physical layer security (PLS). The CHARISMA architecture meets the goals of low-latency (<1ms) and security required for future converged wireless/wireline advanced 5G networking. This provides a cloud infrastructure platform with increased spectral and energy efficiency and enhanced performance targeting the identified needs for 1000-fold increased mobile data volume, 10-100 times higher data rates, 10-100 times more connected devices and 5x reduced latency.

SONATA (Service Programing and Orchestration for Virtualized Software Networks).

Leader: ATOS

Abstract:

Virtualisation and software networks are a major disruptive technology for communications networks, enabling services to be deployed as software functions running directly in the network on commodity hardware. However, deploying the more complex user-facing applications and services envisioned for 5G networks presents significant technological challenges for development and deployment. SONATA addresses both issues.

SESAME (Small cEllS coordinAtion for Multi-tenancy and Edge services).

Leader: Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A.

Abstract:

SESAME targets innovations around three central elements in 5G: the placement of network intelligence and applications in the network edge through Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) and Edge Cloud Computing; the substantial evolution of the Small Cell concept, already mainstream in 4G but expected to deliver its full potential in the challenging high dense 5G scenarios; and the consolidation of multi-tenancy in communications infrastructures, allowing several operators/service providers to engage in new sharing models of both access capacity and edge computing capabilities.

5G-XHAUL (Dynamically Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless Backhaul/Fronthaul with Cognitive Control Plane for Small Cells and Cloud-RANs).

Leader: Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics/Leibniz‐Institut

Abstract:

Small Cells, Cloud-Radio Access Networks (C-RAN), Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are key enablers to address the demand for broadband connectivity with low cost and flexible implementations. Small Cells, in conjunction with C-RAN, SDN, NFV pose very stringent requirements on the transport network. Here flexible wireless solutions are required for dynamic backhaul and front haul architectures alongside very high capacity optical interconnects. However, there is no consensus on how both technologies can be most efficiently combined. 5G-XHaul proposes a converged optical and wireless network solution able to flexibly connect Small Cells to the core network. Exploiting user mobility, our solution allows the dynamic allocation of network resources to predicted and actual hotspots.

INTERNATIONAL R+D+I ACTIVITIES
FAIRS, CONGRESSES AND WORKSHOPS

FAIRS AND CONGRESSES

The participation in fairs and congresses is a key action in order to increase the international visibility of i2CAT and to set up strategic partnership with the main research groups and companies around the world.

The main international actions carried out in 2014 were the following:

Fair / CongressPlaceDate
Mobile World Congress. StandBarcelonaFebruary
Infoday Call 1 H2020: Future InternetBrusselsJanuary
Infoday H2020: ICT Research and Innovation for Creative Industries and Cultural Heritage LuxembourgJanuary
Infoday H2020: Research InfrastructuresBrusselsFebruary
Net!Works ans ISI-Experts Workshop Alcatel-LucentStuttgartFebruary
Organisational Committee for the RDI Conference in ICT HealthGironaFebruary
European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA B3) MeetingBrusselsApril
Future Internet Assembly 2014AthensMarch
Innovation Conference 2014BrusselsMarch
Terena Networking Conference (TNC2014) DublinMay
10th International Conference on Design of Reliable Communication Networks (DRCN)GhentApril
eHealth Forum 2014AthensMay
European Wireless Conference 2014BarcelonaMay
Celtic Event 2014MonacoApril
Techmatch 2014LondonJune
The 5th International Conference on Smart Communications in Network Technologies (SaCoNet 2014)Vilanova i la GeltrúJune
European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC 2014)BolognaJune
Second GENI/FIRE Collaboration WorkshopCambridge, USAMay
RedIris Technical Seminars 2014MadridJune
2nd Barcelona International Conference on Healthy AgeingBarcelonaJune
V ICT and Health Congress, Health and Wellbeing Innovation conferenceGironaJune
IEEE FI Cloud 2014BarcelonaAugust
1st International Event on Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and social Innovation (CAPS Conference)BrusselsJuly
Fed4FIRE-GENI Research Experiment Summit (FGRE 2014)GhentJuly
1st AthenaPlus International ConferenceRomeSeptember
TNA Hackaton IoTTrentoSeptember
5th Biomedical research management ConferenceMadridSeptember
CloudNet’14LuxembourgSeptember
Networked and Electronic Media Summit 2014BrusselsOctober
ICT Proposers’ Day 2014BrusselsOctober
OpenDaylight HackFest (Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit)DüsseldorfOctober
Networking day ICT30: Platforms for Connected Smart ObjectsBrusselsOctober
Smart City Expo World Congress. StandBarcelonaNovember
NextMED ConferenceRomeNovember
Congreso Nacional de Wearables y Big Data en saludMadridNovember
IEEE Globecom Conference 2014Austin, TexasDecember
Info day ICT 30: Low Power Computing, Internet of Things and platforms for smart objectsBrusselsDecember
Info day ICT 30: Low Power Computing, Internet of Things and platforms for smart objectsBrusselsDecember
FIWARE Workshop for developersParisDecember

INTERNATIONAL R+D+I ACTIVITIES
AWARDS

HIPERMED PROJECT RECEIVES THE CELTIC-PLUS SILVER
EXCELLENCE AWARD 2014

As a result of the outcomes and impact of the HIPERMED Project, in which i2CAT played a very significant role (Technical Coordinator), the industry-driven European research initiative Celtic-Plus, decided to give the Silver Excellence Award in the Celtic-Plus Event 2014, hosted in Monte-Carlo (Monaco).

The HIPERMED Project, which aimed to offer a high performance telemedicine platform based on a unified Service Oriented Architecture providing media services, SIP-based plane services and network services over the Internet Protocol, which supports remote consulting, tele-teaching and distributed consensus decision-making on treatment programs and with the possibility of implementing it in any sort of healthcare unit. The HIPERMED platform offers different high performance health-related services, tested and validated in both Professional-to-Professional and Professional-to-Patient scenarios, and is open to third parties’ eHealth solutions.

Celtic-Plus is an EUREKA ICT cluster and a part of the intergovernmental EUREKA network, whose aim is to define, perform and finance through public and private funding common research projects in the area of telecommunications, new media, future Internet, and applications & services focusing on a new “Smart Connected World” paradigm.

HIPERMED Partners: Spain – Merkum Energética (Coordinator), Fundació i2CAT (Technical Coordinator), Androme Ibérica, Other Side Mirror, IECISA, Planet Media. Sweden – Karolinska Institutet, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Borderlight. Poland – Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center. Turkey – Innova IT Solutions, Vestel Electronics. France – Université de Lorraine / Université Henri Poincaré Nancy, Vitec Multimedia.

BEST FIA SESSION AWARD IN THE FUTURE INTERNET ASSEMBLY

i2CAT participated in the Future Internet Assembly, which took place in Athens between the 17th and 20th of March. i2CAT participated in a number of workshops that tackled the most current future Internet topics and represented several Future Internet research projects through their presence in the project booths.

The workshop NFV: From hype towards actual implementation and deployment, organized jointly by i2CAT members and Telefónica I+D obtained the Best FIA session Award. The primary goal of the workshop was to provide an overview of the current status of NFV, and to identify and discuss what are the next major steps to be taken towards the adoption of NFV-compliant solutions within production environments.

THE APP TERRASSA AUGMENTADA HAS BEEN AWARDED

The App “Terrassa Augmenteda” developed by the Audiovisual Unit at i2CAT Foundation and launched by mNACTEC, has received an award from the Ibero-American Awards for Education and Museums 2014.

The Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia (mNACTEC) has been awarded with the V Ibero-American Prize for Education and Museums for its project “technological tools in science museums: education inside and outside the classroom” which combines territory – museum and city – with digital technologies through Internet and applications for smartphones. The winning project is based on four actions carried out by the museum, including the Terrassa Augmentada application, which was published in the markets last May available for both Android and iOS devices.

Terrassa Augmentada is an innovative and sustainable initiative that values the rich cultural and industrial heritage of the city. Amongst the many features offered in the application, stands out the Augmented Reality technology, allowing users to view the real and virtual worlds in real time, superimposing historic images of the most emblematic industrial and modernist buildings in Terrassa in their real environment.

This prize is awarded by the Ibermuseos program, a collaborative initiative of the Latin American countries to promote public policies in the field of museums and awards educational projects that promote personal development and social cohesion. More than 130 projects from 14 Latin American countries were submitted, which have been evaluated by a technical committee composed of experts from 10 Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Uruguay).

INTERNATIONAL R+D+I ACTIVITIES
NEW AGREEMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP

i2CAT’S SODALITE PROJECT FUNDED BY THE FLEX CONSORTIUM

Through an Open Call procedure, i2CAT has been selected to enter in the FLEX (FIRE LTE testbeds for Open Experimentation) consortium, led by the University of Thessaly, which is developing a truly open and operational LTE experimental facility that will allow researchers from academia and industry to test services and applications over real LTE infrastructure, or experiment with alternative algorithms and architectures of the core and access network.

The FLEX project was looking through this Open Call for experiments which would enhance and extend FLEX facilities or conduct cutting edge research experiments using LTE equipment and existing tools.

The i2CAT’s SODALITE project will evaluate and extend a generic SDN wireless backhauling technology that has been developed at i2CAT. In particular, this existing technology will be integrated with the LTE backhaul and will be optimized to transport LTE traffic, for example by defining mechanisms that allow the wireless transport nodes to match LTE bearers, or the SDN controller to interact with the EPC network. In addition, algorithms for load balancing and network-wide energy saving specific to the LTE Small Cell backhaul will be developed as SDN applications running on top of the SDN controller Among the available FLEX facilities the NITOS testbed is considered the most appropriate testbed to execute the planned research, since it gathers in a single testbed commercial LTE equipment and programmable wireless transport nodes that can emulate realistic backhaul topologies, and are essential to this work.

i2CAT JOINS THE T-NOVA PROJECT LEAD BY THE NATIONAL
CENTRE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH “DEMOKRITOS“

T-NOVA is an Integrated Project co-funded by the European Commission / 7th Framework Programme that will design and implement a management/orchestration platform for the automated provision, configuration, monitoring and optimization of Network Functions-as-a-Service (NFaaS) over virtualised Network/IT infrastructures. T-NOVA leverages and enhances cloud management architectures for the elastic provision and (re-) allocation of IT resources assigned to the hosting of Network Functions. It also exploits and extends Software Defined Networking platforms for efficient management of the network infrastructure.

Furthermore, in order to facilitate the involvement of diverse actors in the NFV scene and attract new market entrants, T-NOVA establishes a “NFV Marketplace”, in which network services and Functions by several developers can be published and brokered/traded. Via the Marketplace, customers can browse and select the services and virtual appliances which best match their needs, as well as negotiate the associated SLAs and be charged under various billing models. A novel business case for NFV is thus introduced and promoted.

The participation in this project has set-up a close collaboration with Demokritos that will enable future technological partnerships.

CATALONIA
R+D+I INITIATIVES

SMART TIC, THE BASIS OF SMARTCAT

In 2014, i2CAT worked together with the General Directorate of Telecommunications and Information Society in defining the SmartCat strategy, especially defining the importance of smart technologies as the new stage of digital research. Once the convergence of Internet and telecommunications has been completed, next comes a phase of integration of ICT in the structures of nature, economy and society: we move forward to the era of smart cities and regions, smart industries, smart health or smart culture.

The digital technologies framed within the so-called Smart Technologies, which combined are enabling new emerging activities, are the following:

  • Internet of Things: Internet interconnection of physical objects allow their monitoring and remote activation (M2M communications.).
  • Wearables: Devices and accessories designed to wear them (watches, bracelets, glasses, smart tissues etc.).
  • 3D printing and additive manufacturing: widely-used methods to produce small batches of customized products.
  • Virtual and augmented reality: the use of devices that allow viewing digital information about reality display.
  • Cloud computing and virtualization: centralization and better use of computing resources and data storage.
  • Big Data Architecture: real-time processing of large volumes of heterogeneous data with continuous flows allow new service generation.
  • Simulations and supercomputing: the advantage of real-time data to reflect the physical world on a virtual model, which may include machines, products and humans.
  • Semantic technologies: to manage large volumes of information ensuring interoperability between different systems.
  • Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining and Machine Learning: to establish standards, develop predictive models and self-learning systems.
  • Robotics, Cyberphisycal systems and Smart Machines: context understanding provides the preconditions for a world of intelligent machine
  • Drones: remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
  • 5G networks, sensors and satellites: to connect everything (cars, machines, electrical networks, etc.).
  • Software defined infrastructures: Cloud services are software configurable via APIs and also networks. They all include increasingly complex APIs to access to their functions and programming content.
  • Cybersecurity: Secure and reliable communications, as well as sophisticated identity management and access of machines and users are essential.
  • User driver innovation, open innovation and living labs: New models of innovation based on users and their social behavior, generating complex systems of collective interaction between people and/or objects. The emergence of collaboratories on a city, region or industry level.

CATALONIA
R+D+I INITIATIVES

EPSON AND i2CAT CREATE A EUROPEAN REFERENCE
CENTRE FOR DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL APPLICATIONS
FOR SMART GLASSES

EPSON, multinational leader in technological innovation, and i2CAT have signed a cooperation agreement to promote innovation in the area of Smart Glasses through the implementation of the MOVERIO Competence Centre. The agreement, which gives Epson a seat on the i2CAT board, seeks to encourage the development and innovation applied to Moverio Smart Glasses in order to promote the use of augmented reality in professional areas. Catalonia will therefore be consolidated as a centre of excellence at European level, a strategic meeting point for developers, customers and suppliers of applications for Smart Glasses.

The Moverio Competence Centre is seeking to develop innovative solutions in an area with a huge growth potential, representing a turning point in a number of sectors.

Moverio BT-200 Smart Glasses are equipped with advanced technology, which allows users to get the most out of new augmented reality applications or watch 3D content in HD. These Smart Glasses are also the only model available in the market that allows transparent and binocular vision, opening the door to a lot of potential uses for individuals and businesses.

The collaboration between Epson and i2CAT will allow the two to continue leading R+D+I activities in strategic sectors such as smart cities, ehealth, industry and culture. In these areas, a number of uses have been identified in which the technological capabilities offered by Smart Glasses Moverio, along with the knowledge that i2CAT has achieved through its research and market vision on behalf of companies, will foster the generation of new innovative solutions that provide a differential value, not only locally but also internationally.

In short, the aim is to exploit the advantages of a wearable technology such as Smart Glasses, which afford the user completely hands-free use while receiving the information to the lens.

The Competence Centre will therefore become a driving force for innovation which will be open to the participation and collaboration across the business fabric, sharing the spirit of smart, sustainable and integrative development, such as the Government of Catalonia’s recently approved SmartCat strategy.

i2CAT has over 10 years of experience in developing R+D+I collaborative projects based on Internet technologies, including a series of new augmented reality applications. For example, i2CAT has recently created the “Terrassa Augmentada” application, which enables users to view from a mobile device Terrassa’s industrial past, while walking through the town. The Foundation is also involved in international projects as the “International Augmented Med”, in which, along with other European organizations, augmented reality and interactive applications are being developed to improve the user experience in museums and cultural environments.

CATALONIA
R+D+I INITIATIVES

RIS3CAT AND THE NEW INNOVATION MODEL IN THE AGE
OF THE INTERNET

i2CAT has been invited in 2014 by the DGTSI, in the middle of discussions about the RIS3CAT strategy, to explain like never before the Internet innovation model that we defend and we have learned over the years of research and innovation in this field. The digital world, the world of “new technologies”, entails a “new model of innovation,” a new ecosystem of innovation.

Unlike pre digital models based on the theory of industrial clusters that give companies the leadership of innovation systems subordinating the public sector to activities of little value, i2CAT from the beginning was created on a model based on a project about American research universities and their connection with the federal agencies of the US government like DARPA. In the 90’s this project already warned the key role that the public sector had in the leadership of research and innovation in new technologies and his transfer to the private sector (“dual use technology”). Finally, there are authors who already recognize this role of the “Entrepeneurial state” (Mazzucatto).

This model is leading to an increasing opening of innovation systems, potentially reaching the whole population. The result is the generation of a widespread culture of entrepreneurship, a dramatic transformation of education and learning systems and a generalization of the co-creation and self-organization processes in a new collaborative global economy.

i2CAT has worked since its inception to develop itself as an institution in both research and innovation, inseparable functions in the field of ICT or “computer science and technology”, a science that is at the same time technology. And we have insisted every year that Catalonia needed a strong investment in science and technology but going beyond the separation of the research community in two organizations “CERCA” and “TECNIO”, a model that does not fit the world of new technologies.

All this has led us to work within the RIS3CAT during 2014 to create an area of cooperation between the so-called KET, Key Enabling Technologies (Eix3), where ICT and strategic industrial sectors are cataloged (Eix1). A recent visit to Germany as part of the Four Motors for Europe confirm that this convergence is the key in the German strategy called Industrie 4.0. Finally, DGTSI has adopted this recommendation and has submitted it to the Catalan government as an own contribution within RIS3CAT.

In this context i2CAT is actively participating in several RIS3CAT communities that in 2014 began to be defined in the areas of Sustainable Mobility, Advanced Manufacturing, Health Technologies, and Cultural Industries.

In some of these communities, i2CAT has a role within the steering committee, defining how ICT can help these communities and giving a perspective as to how new industries may appear as a result of the merger of ICT with certain sectors.

In all these communities, i2CAT is engaging and driving the definition of innovation projects that allow to generate a new SmartTIC industry oriented to meet the present and future needs of the different industrial sectors.

CATALONIA
R+D+I INITIATIVES

ANELLA INDUSTRIAL 4.0

In 2006, i2CAT launched in Catalonia the Industrial Ring project generating an advanced Internet platform to promote industrial innovation. A community inspired by the Quadruple Helix model where research centers, government, industry and users have helped to generate a first demonstrator of a collaboratory Industry.

Currently more than 70 companies, mainly in the automotive industry, together with research centers give life to the platform creating a new culture of industrial cooperation in Catalonia.

However, the Industrial Ring must adapt to the new demands of smart specialization strategy. Now this platform needs a redefinition and adopt a strategic role.

Industrial Ring 4.0 is the platform for this initiative. The aim is to group in the ring leaders of all industrial sectors in Catalonia and the leaders of the Kets, starting by ICT players to define the common elements and specific collaboration.

Now with the creation of the project RIS3CAT the country has an industrial specialization strategy that focuses attention on strategic industrial areas. They already have projects that include or may include advanced information and communication technologies (ICT). That is why during 2014 has been raised to develop an environment for innovation we call a Ring Industrial Ring 4.0 three fold purpose:

  • To be technology platform to support industrial policy focused with seven industrial areas and RIS3CAT, aligned with the international strategy Industry 4.0.
  • To generate both specific applications and services for each industrial sector or regional citizens depending on their specific demands.
  • To be technology platform to support the development of the Smart Region, Smartcat in industry, becoming one of platforms of the CyberPhysical Systems.
  • Systems.

The Industrial Ring 4.0 will be configured as a large collaboratory, a distributed virtual space that will be supported by the Industrial Internet, merged as a evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of the people applying artificial intelligence. Based on the infrastructure and existing services of the current Industrial Ring, the 4.0 platform will be based on:

  • To provide a collaborative environment based on Internet technology, the Industrial Internet, to support innovation with the aim of bringing the various stakeholders (industry, research, administration and users) to create, validate and accelerate sectorial innovation processes.
  • To be a constant evolving system according to the needs of users and the technological developments in architecture, protocols and standards of the new internet industry.
  • To create an open cloud, accessible access points, thus offering the possibility of creating communities that will trigger innovation processes. These services include training and information dissemination.
  • To be a user-centric environment, for the creation and distribution of new services, such as the use of all its facilities. The creation, definition and deployment of solutions, applications, services and infrastructure will be done following Living Labs methodologies.
  • The environment is built on a service architecture, network control, and open and scalable management based on standardized interfaces.
  • To provide a safe, trusted and reliable to ensure the privacy of information, processes and applications when required.
  • To provide functional duality, where collaboratory allows the creation, deployment and validation of innovative solutions pilots, and yet offers advanced services already developed and consolidated.

  • To establish links with other European and international similar initiatives both to coordinate activities, exchange experiences, as to import or export knowledge and cooperate on competitive projects.

RESEARCH AREAS

Internet has produced a superabundance of data, information and networks. The next step is to move forward in the research and innovation of an Internet based on Artificial Intelligence and smart technologies. The Internet of knowledge and creativity is the new challenge.

i2CAT has a wide experience in multiple national and European R+D+I projects, leading research lines in new fixed & mobile network architectures, wireless sensor networks, and content-based multimedia technologies, with the aim to develop new products, services and applications in the fields of eHealth, Smart Cities & Smart Regions, Advanced Manufacturing and Culture/Creativity.

This work has provided successful results in the first calls of the new Horizon 2020, the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020).

Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness.

The challenges of the three i2CAT research areas, Media Internet, Mobile Wireless Internet and Internet Architectures and Services, are aligned with the following topics defined by European Commission within Horizon 2020:

TOPICS:

  • Reducing impacts and costs of freight and service trips in urban areas
  • Energy strategies and solutions for deep renovation of historic buildings
  • New ICT-based solutions for energy efficiency
  • Smart Cyber-Physical Systems
  • FIRE+ (Future Internet Research & Experimentation)
  • Smart System Integration
  • Advanced digital gaming/gamification technologies
  • Cybersecurity, Trustworthy ICT
  • Smart Networks and novel Internet Architectures
  • Smart optical and wireless network technologies
  • Advanced Cloud Infrastructures and Services
  • Advancing active and healthy ageing with ICT: service robotics within assisted living environments
  • Advancing active and healthy ageing with ICT: ICT solutions for independent living with cognitive impairment
  • Self management of health and disease: citizen engagement and mHealth
  • Establishing effectiveness of health care interventions in the paediatric population
  • Advanced 3D modelling for accessing and understanding European cultural assets
  • Smart Cities and Communities solutions integrating energy, transport, ICT sectors through lighthouse (large scale demonstration - first of the kind) projects
  • Open Call Project Flex

Thanks to the effort and joint accurate work developed in this fields, i2CAT has obtained 6 projects under the following topics:

  • ICT7.B Smart Optical and Wireless Network Technologies:

    Network traffic is expected to keep on showing two-digits annual growth rates in all network segments over the coming years and beyond. The limits of existing technological approaches for both optical and wireless technologies are about to be reached. As far as access networks are concerned, the cost of current solutions also represents a barrier to reaching a (quasi-) universal coverage with ultra-high speed, be it with optical or wireless access. New challenges imposed by major trends in the usage of communications networks are to be taken into account as well as the high projected increase of mobile and ubiquitous broadband access which requires further developments in backhaul networks, for which optical and wireless technologies constitute key enablers.

  • SCC-2014 Smart Cities and Communities

    The EU policy and regulatory framework in the sectors of energy, transport and ICT supports the development of sectoral solutions, i.e. solutions with a limited degree of integration. However, for successful and accelerated implementation in real environments such as urban ones - that also have to take into account local specificities the test of integrated measures will pave the way for faster market roll-out of technologies. The key challenges for Smart Cities and Communities are to significantly increase the overall energy efficiency of cities, to exploit better the local resource both in terms of energy supply as well as through the demand side measures. THis will ensure for citizens better life conditions: lower energy bills, swifter transport, job creation and as a consequence a higher degree of resilience to climate impacts (e.g. urban heat islands effects) etc.

  • ICT-14-2014 Advanced 5G Network Infrastructure for the Future Internet

    The communication network and service environment of 2020 will be infinitely richer and more complex than that of today. Our expectation is that in 2020 the network infrastructure will be capable of connecting everything according to a multiplicity of application specific requirements: People, things, processes, computing centres, content, knowledge, information, goods, in a flexible, truly mobile, and powerful way. The future will encompass connected sensors, connected vehicles, smart meters and smart home gadgets way beyond our current experience of tablet and smartphone connectivity.

    There is urgency to properly address the novel infrastructure that will be needed to cater for these challenging and unprecedented growth and performance characteristics. Manufacturers, service providers and also internet players, that are operating data centres, are involved in this evolution. This will lead to redefining the value chains, reinventing the roles and relationships between the players, whilst opening new innovation opportunities. In parallel, a turning point is coming in communications networks with the progressive introduction of virtualisation and of software based network functionalities to offer the required flexibility and reactivity.

    It is proposed a Public Private Partnership Programme that will deliver solutions, architectures, technologies and standards for the ubiquitous 5G communication infrastructures of the next decade.

    Under this last topic (Advanced 5G Network Infrastructure for the Future Internet), the European Commission has granted only 16 projects in its first call for funding of which i2CAT has obtained 4 projects and coordinates 1 projects.

RESEARCH AREAS
INTERNET ARCHITECTURES AND SERVICES

TEAM: Jose Ignacio Aznar, Josep Batallé, Leonardo Bergesio, Carlos Bermudo, Carolina Fernández, Jordi Ferrer, Bernat Gaston, Eduard Grasa, Daniel Guija, Amaia Legarrea, Oscar Moya, Miquel Tarzan. DIRECTOR: Eduard Escalona.

An Internet of knowledge requires new architectures and services that could interconnect people, objects and nature in more efficient and dynamic ways than the current Internet.

Also, novel systems and protocols are required to transform information into new knowledge allowing the creation of intelligent environments. Users will be empowered to design, reconfigure and manage the network and its services based on their own interests and needs thanks to an open innovation approach where open interfaces will give access to infrastructures.

Internet Architectures and Services Area is focused on exploring and defining new ways to manage the Future Internet networks, enabling new functionalities and business models by means of integrating technologies like Cloud, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and developing new pioneer Internet architectures based on new paradigms beyond TCP/IP such as Recursive Inter Network Architectures (RINA).

RESEARCH CHALLENGES

  1. Infrastructure Control and Management

  2. Recursive Inter-Network Architecture (RINA)

  3. Cloud technologies

RELEVANT PROJECTS

  • SODALES – EU FP7 – 2012-2015

    i2CAT is the coordinator of The SOftware-Defined Access using Low-Energy Subsystems (SODALES) project. It aims to develop a novel wireless access interconnection service that offers transparent transport services (syncE based) for fixed and mobile subscribers to support 10Gbps fixed access and LTE and beyond radio technologies on a convergent network architecture. It also implements an open Access control and management architecture based on SDN.

  • IRATI – EU FP7 – 2013-2014

    The main goal of IRATI is the implementation of a clean-slate architecture for the Linux kernel, over two of the most currently used technologies: TCP/UDP/IP and Ethernet. The Project aims at improving and contributing to the RINA specifications, specially in the fields of routing, policies for the discovering of applications and interoperability with Ethernet.

  • GN3+ - EU FP7 Infrastructures – 2013-2015

    GÉANT is the pan-European research and education network that interconnects Europe’s National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) connecting over 50 million users at 10,000 institutions across Europe, supporting research in areas such as energy, the environment, space and medicine. i2CAT is involved in several Project tasks and activities mainly devoted to network control and management.

  • T-NOVA – EU FP7 – 2014-2016

    With the aim of promoting the NFV concept, T-NOVA introduces a novel enabling framework, allowing operators not only to deploy virtualized Network Functions (NFs) for their own needs, but also to offer them to their customers, as value-added services.

More projects +

RELEVANT ACHIEVEMENTS

  • Development of a RINA prototype for the Linux Operating System, targeting both the kernel and user spaces and allowing RINA to be used directly over Ethernet. The final prototype has been the outcome of the IRATI project, the first EU project funding research on RINA technologies.
  • Release of a novel restructured version of OpenNaaS, an open source network service management platform developed mainly by i2CAT and adopting SDN and NFV philosophies and concepts.
  • Design of a service orchestrator system following the ETSI NFV specifications for the T-NOVA project.
  • Successful completion of the OFERTIE project, showcasing and demonstrating the implementation of SDN extensions for OpenNaaS.

MAIN PARTNERS

RESEARCH AREAS
Mobile Wireless Internet

TEAM: August Bletzer, Marisa Catalan, Laura Herrera. DIRECTORS: Daniel Camps, Josep Paradells.

The Mobile Wireless Internet Area is a tight partnership between i2CAT and UPC, Barcelona Tech, that has developed more than 30 projects in the area of wireless communications since 2003. Its main areas of expertise are Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and high capacity wireless access technologies that are key enablers for the future Internet of Things and 5G systems.

Its expertise spans from the physical design of embedded systems, to the design of scalable platforms for data collection, and algorithms for radio resource management. Among the main market sectors impacted by UITU’s technology we can find: Smart Cities, Smart Buildings, Smart factories and Mobile telecom networks.

RESEARCH CHALLENGES

  • Wireless Sensor Networks WSN

  • Software Defined Wireless Networks (SDWN)

RELEVANT PROJECTS

  • ENERGRID

    The ENERGRID project defined an energy management system that empowers the user to control the way energy is used, thus allowing to reduce its energy footprint.

    The ENERGRID technology was developed by i2CAT for ENDESA, who is now bringing it to the market.

  • TRESCIMO

    The FP7 Trescimo project enhances Future Internet Research Experimentation (FIRE) testbed capabilities in Europe and in South Africa, through the deployment of Smart City pilots, which will become enablers for technological and social innovation around green and smart city technologies.

    In Trescimo, i2CAT has deployed a pilot with 60 energy and cost efficient sensors in the municipality of Sant Vicenç dels Horts, which generate data recovered by moving gateways mounted on buses.

  • DINUBE

    Development of a novel technology that provides secure mobile payment mechanism based on proximity and visual light communications. This technology has been transferred to Dinube that provides a cloud based payment solution.

  • SOFT-WIBACK

    A dense deployment of Small Cells is one of the promising ways to increase the capacity of mobile networks, hence being able to cope with forecasted increased in demand for mobile bandwidth in the upcoming years.

    This project designe a non-intrusive system that performs real-time estimation of traffic flows in cities based on ultrasound sensors. Sensors are deployed in strategic points in the city center and networked using a Wireless Sensor Network. A pilot demonstrating the technology has been deployed in Sant Cugat del Valles.

More projects +

RELEVANT ACHIEVEMENTS

The following are the technological highlights of the UITU group during 2014:

  • Design and development of an indoor localization technology based on the ambient light sensor of commercial smartphones and on the use of Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology. This technology was successfully demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress 2014.
  • Development of a wake-up radio technology for ultra-low power sensors with coverage of up to 80 meters.
  • Development of Software Defined Networking (SDN) technology that allows to control the forwarding of traffic between wireless devices using an extended version of the Openflow protocol.

MAIN PARTNERS

RESEARCH AREAS
MEDIA INTERNET

TEAM: Pau Adelantado, Marc Aguilar, Xavier Artigas, Xavier Carol, David Cassany, Gerard Castillo, Victor Jimenez, Marc Palau, Pau Pamplona. DIRECTOR: Sergi Fernández.

Internet is already the global media network. Most of the current on-net traffic is user-generated entertainment video. The next step will be live interacting video merged with virtual/augmented realities for all kind of activities like gaming, education, performing arts, cultural heritage and industry. The Internet user will become media generator, producer and actor in the connected smart augmented world.

i2CAT was pioneer 10 years ago in merging the Internet and media technology. Now Media Internet Area wants to lead this interactive and mobile Smart media challenge.

RESEARCH CHALLENGES

  • Media Networks

  • Interactive Applications

  • Social Science

RELEVANT PROJECTS

  • TV-Ring

    The project explores the great potential of next generation networks and mobile devices in the Connected TV market, which is a strong focus of interest for the media industry.

  • Specifi

    SPECIFI combines NGA and IoT infrastructures and platforms for setting up a European Creative Ring of Smart Cities and Regions facilitating the set-up, customisation, delivery and sharing of innovative, user co-designed arts, media and leisure services locally, regionally, and across Europe.

  • FIContent/CreatifI

    The project is aimed at developing and experimenting cutting edge ICT platforms across Europe devoted to applications and services in the areas of social connected TV, smartcity services, and pervasive games. The project is offered to any European stakeholder, specifically aimed at developers and SMEs access to use these open platforms.

  • I AM

    The I AM project aims to cooperate in and develop applications to enhance the visitors’ experience of natural and cultural heritage sites. It focuses on the use of Augmented Reality (AR), multimedia and interactive techniques

More projects +

RELEVANT ACHIEVEMENTS

In 2014 the Media Internet Area has achieved relevant goals in terms of project execution and technical development.

  • Finalization of the Visionair project with excellent results, executing more than 10 collaborations that have resulted in small research action and software integrations with our key international partners, and different SMEs have been trained in the usage of our transmission and distribution technologies. Through the Visionair project, it have been explored new interaction and collaboration concepts, for instance, integrating videoconferencing services between CAVEs, enabling high quality distributed performances across oceans or setting up massive videoconferencing environments among distributed hackathon teams.
  • Closure of the Networked Production project obtaining a prototype that will be improved during 2015 and it is expected to be launched as a product of automatic realization in 2016.
  • Consolidation of the social sciences research team and cration of the first Hybrid TV collaboratory in Spain, though the user panel in Gurb, in the framework of the TV-Ring project, coordinated by the Media Area staff. Different second screen apps for connected TVs are being developed and tested and it is expected to deliver in 2016, in cooperation with the core partners TVC and Cellnext, great second screen applications and distribution infrastructures that will significate a giant step towards the construction of a single content narrative across devices.
  • Start of the CREATIFI project, complementing the i2CAT overall strategy of support to the local ICT ecosystem, bringing new opportunities and funding to the local SMEs and Startups, and also providing technical support to accelerate the adoption of the FI-WARE technologies, developed in the framework of the FI-PPP initiative. In addition to that, a hackathon on augmented reality has been organized.
  • Coordination and organization of several relevant capacitation and knowledge transfer workshops related to different media sectors like augmented reality and distributed performances.
  • At development level, the integration and development of different prototypes, resulting from previous projects, into one integrated system, the LMS (Live Media Streamer). LMS is a complete platform that enables to send, receive and manipulate video flows in real time, as well as stream them through internet using the most novel segmentation and distribution paradigms and incorporates a set of basic video manipulation features. In addition, it has been developed the first version of Terrassa+, an augmented reality application that guide the user through the industrial modernism of Terrassa.
  • Advances in the collaboration with CESNET in the development of UltraGRid, adding new RTSP features like IP camera capture or standard encapsulation for H.264 and A-law/u-law/OPUS audio.

MAIN PARTNERS

INNOVATION BUSINESS UNITS

TEAM: Jordi Figueras, Yolanda Lupiáñez, Andrea Cervera, David Delgado, Soraya Estévez.

i2CAT’S NEW ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

i2CAT has changed its internal organization and evolved into a matrix structure. This matrix structure aims at strengthening the know-how generation while focusing i2CAT activities towards the market/society needs. This organization structure is composed by Research Areas (know-how generators) and Innovation Business Units (Business generators). The convergence of booth, areas and units, is the i2CAT innovation engine.

The main objective behind this structure is to strengthen the focus of i2CAT activities in order to boost innovation capabilities and increase its impact.

i2CAT has three horizontal research areas led by PhD researchers with a strong background in the topics in question. These research areas, composed of different research lines, are the Internet Architectures and Services, the Mobile Wireless Internet and the Media Internet Areas. The Internet Architectures and Services Area focuses its activities on the design of new recursive Internetwork architectures, frameworks for resource federation and Network and IT service orchestration systems for the delivery of Network Virtual Functions (NVF) over generic purpose hardware. The Mobile Wireless Internet Area has two main research focus – one in Software Defined Wireless Networks (SDWN) and another in sensors. The latter deals with all the aspects of M2M and wireless, also VLC, communication protocols to support Smart city deployment strategies and services. The third area, Media Internet Area, is centred on augmented reality and services and protocols for the delivery of a media network layer. Mobile Wireless Internet also provides solutions such as media high-definition mixers and transcoders.

All these three areas are aligned with the 5G convergence and ICT strategy defined by the European Commission within the H2020 research program. These areas are complementary and can provide e2e solutions, from the service down to the infrastructure. This complementarity bring synergies and differentiation value on the completed research, and is therefore easier to cover user demands.

The organization also comprises four vertical Innovation Business Units. These Business Units are transversal to the different research units and are the bridge between market needs and the i2CAT capabilities. The aim of these is to identify the needs that different organizations from different sectors have, mapping our expertise, know-how and capabilities to provide new, innovative solutions to those organizational needs, which may come from the market or social challenges.

The four i2CAT Business Units focus on four different sectors: Smart Cities/Regions and SDN/NFV, Industrial Internet, e-Health, and Culture and Creativity. The first is devoted to identify needs within the Smart City ecosystems and IoT implementations and deployments, while also strongly supporting the SMARTCAT region strategy of the Catalan Government. The Industrial Internet identifies the needs of the Industry 4.0 roadmap, and how ICT will become the driver of the ICT revolution within the legacy industry. The focus of the e-Health unit is on foreseeable socio-health needs in the near future, and how ICT will reduce current barriers. Telemedicine and remote monitoring are examples here, with a direct impact on how the e-health and social system improves the quality of life citizens, while putting them at the center of the health system and optimizing the e-Health services. Finally, the Culture and Creativity unit deals with museums, artists and the new creative ecosystem. It is focused on identifying how ICT will help those new communities to emerge as a new economy sector. This unit also has expertise in Living Labs and user-driven methodologies.

In addition to the organization matrix depicted in Fig. 1, there are three further departments that provide global services to the whole organization. These departments are the Administrative & Project Management Office (A&PMO), the Infrastructure and Services Support Area (ASIS), and the Software Engineering Group (SEG). The A&PMO is in charge of providing support in all administration issues related to i2CAT and the projects being developed within the organization. The ASIS is in charge of setting up all the experimental infrastructure and operational services needed for the R&D activities (testbeds, international network set-ups and IT). And last but not least, the SEG, seeks to improve the methodologies and professional behavior of project software developments, especially the pre-commercial solutions that are ready to be transferred to the industry.

INNOVATION BUSINESS UNIT
SMART CITIES AND REGIONS

Internet has appeared in our cities mainly through their residents. The amount of information and communications handled by the internet in every city is phenomenal. This data, however, is not open and accessible.

An open, ubiquitous and intelligent internet can facilitate all this information collection, processing and valorization, transforming it into added-value knowledge which is mainly for the benefit of the citizens.

Intelligent cities will be based on a series of new technologies like open big data, software-defined networks, crowdsourcing, augmented reality and wireless sensors networks, organized finally around a city operating system. We understand the city as a software-defined territory based on user-controlled and reconfigurable networks, based on the collective intelligence of their citizens.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

  • DGTSI

    SmartCat. In 2014, i2CAT worked together with the DGTSI in defining the Smartcat strategy, especially defining the importance of smart technologies as the new stage of digital research. Once the convergence of Internet and telecommunications has been completed, next comes a phase of integration of ICT in the structures of nature, economy and society: we move forward to the era of smart cities and regions, smart industries, smart health or smart culture.

  • Barcelona City Council

    Participation in the technical evaluation of the City Operative System proposals presented for the bidders to the Barcelona City Council.

    The CityOS project will be able to aggregate open data coming from the sensors and citizens, and by means of Big Data and prediction techniques, capable to extract actionable knowledge from the generated data to enhance its public services or to provide value added services. i2CAT has been member of the competitive dialogue committee.

  • Sant Cugat City Council

    URBAN-T. Wireless Sensor network management System for monitoring traffic density in a Smart City. In conjunction with SUMMA, i2CAT has developed a solution to obtain real-time estimations of traffic flow using Ultrasound sensors.

OUTSTANDING PROJECT

TRESCIMO (Testbeds for Reliable Smart City Machine to Machine Communication)
EU FP7 Project

TRESCIMO is a Future Internet Research Experimentation (FIRE) project, for EU-South Africa cooperation on future internet experimental research and testbed interconnection. FIRE addresses the emerging expectations placed on the internet by providing a research environment for investigating and experimentally validating highly innovative and revolutionary ideas.

M2M platforms enable sensor data gathering, forwarding and remote control by networked embedded intelligence. i2CAT is developing in the TRESCIMO project an enhanced architecture to interconnect M2M platforms to opportunistic networks in order to get data from sensor devices with strong energy restrictions. In terms of performance, the proposed approach is expected to reduce energy consumption of the sensors in listening mode by a factor of four orders of magnitude thanks to the wake-up mechanisms. Note that the overall system performance gain will depend on how frequent sensors will be woken up to transmit data.

This architecture is being implemented within the EU TRESCIMO project framework and evaluated with the deployment of a pilot in the city of Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona, which consists of the following elements:

  • Four enhanced gateways (with M2M, DTN and wake-up capability) installed on vehicles. They will have WLAN and IEEE 802.15.4 interfaces for the communication with several sensors devices.
  • More than 60 sensors, built on wake-up enabled IEEE 802.15.4 devices, to measure temperature, humidity, light, noise or trash container occupancy.
  • 6 WLAN mini air quality monitoring stations with advanced Nano-Tech sensor technology to measure Ozone, NO2, Total VOC, TSP (Total Suspended Particles)

MAIN PARTNERS

INNOVATION BUSINESS UNIT
HEALTH AND INCLUSION

The Internet is helping users to play a more active role in healthcare systems.

In a knowledge society, patients are getting increasingly more information about their own health conditions.

The future of healthcare systems depends upon the co-creation process between health professionals and users by defining the new smart and networked healthcare system with more responsibility by both sides in their sustainability.

The first step was the digitalization of current practices (patient health records, etc.). The next step is the design of personalized health programs, integrating these records and defining new systems of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure adapted to the conditions of each person and their environment. A new generation of smart health technologies is needed to empower users and health professionals.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

  • FEARLESS.European Project.

    Ambient assisted living System.

    The overall aim of the FEARLESS project is the reduction of barriers, which impedes the mobility of elderly people, often suffering from dementia or light loss of cognitive activities. FEARLESS is not perceived as a surveillance system, but as an emergency aid that enables theelderly to keep self-confidence when it comes to dealing with every day challenges.

  • HELP4MOOD. European Project.

    Virtual Assistance for supporting the treatment of major depression by measuring daily activity and mood. The project Help4Mood seeks to significantly advance computerized support for people with serious depression by monitoring mood, thoughts, physical activity and voice characteristics, prompting adherence and promoting behavior in response to monitored inputs. These advances are delivered through a Virtual Agent (VA) which can interact with the patient through a combination of enriched prompts, dialog, body movements and facial expressions. Monitoring combines existing (movement sensor, psychological ratings) and novel (voice analysis) technologies, as inputs to a pattern recognition-based decision support system for treatment management.

  • Barcelona City Council.

    In collaboration with the ‘Area de Qualitat de Vida, Igualtat i Esports’ of the Barcelona City Council, i2CAT has developed a pilot Project, called Barcelona City Council, to facilitate, through a technological platform, the videoconference between a doctor from a Primary Health center and a patient without the need for any trip. The initiative aims to provide medical monitoring for people with mobility problems.

OUTSTANDING PROJECT

PORTAL DEL PACIENT (eHealth Portal)

Currently more than 1200 doctors and patients are using the eHealth Platform, an online platform for medical care and communication between health professionals and patients, providing personalized health services, created from a close collaboration between the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu de Barcelona and i2CAT Foundation.

The eHealth Portal seeks to extend patient care beyond the physical boundaries of the hospital and to promote the exchange of knowledge between professionals and patients. Through Internet-based tools, such as videoconferencing, private e-mail, access to Hospital Information Systems, and mobile apps, the platform provides accurate and reliable information and tools for patient empowerment and increased knowledge about their disease, thus improving their quality of life.

The main benefits of the eHealth Portal is that the communication channel between patients and professionals is unified and standardized, ensuring adequate, safe and personalized health information in accordance with the rules and regulations on the protection of personal data.

The developed platform aims to change the current paradigm of healthcare, in which the patient plays a “passive” role, embracing a new vision that views the patient as the main “active” component of their health by providing reliable tools for the telemonitoring of patients both during the healing process and during healthy periods, enhancing its functionalities by adopting or integrating modules from third parties.

MAIN PARTNERS

INNOVATION BUSINESS UNIT
CREATIVITY AND CULTURE

A world of distributed creativity, open to everyone, is possible. Internet is allowing an explosion of amateur activities in fields like photography, video, music, literature and journalism. Users are also producers. Internet is beyond the world of broadcasters. The democratization of new technologies like augmented and virtual reality will increase this trend.

Playable cities, gamification and smart crowds are all emerging fields that will change the traditional models of culture and creation. The new scenario is a smart and creative city, an augmented open public space. Simulation games in cultural heritage places can change the experience of a new generation of young tourists.

Barcelona and Catalonia can be transformed in a global living lab of creativity and culture.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

  • Terrassa+

    Augmented Reality (AR) application that allows people to discover Terrassa’s industrial past by reproducing some of the city’s most important buildings.

  • Empúries+

    Augmented Reality (AR) application that allows experience the old Greek and Roman cities through the ruins at Empuries.nt.

  • FI-Content

    FIcontent is an initiative inside the FI-PPP EU program that provides FI-WARE enablers to SMEs and developers, empowering them with great Media & Content technologies, in order to foster the creation of innovative applications in the areas of Social Connected TV, Smart City Services, and Pervasive Games.

  • CreatiFi

    CreatiFI is an acceleration within the FI-PPP EU program, with four creative hubs spread around Europe (Barcelona, Trento, Helsinki and Brussels) which offers web entrepreneurs and individuals working in the Creative Industry sector to shift innovative ideas into new applications and services through competitive open calls, opportunities (funding, support services, available advance technology in FI-WARE) to SME’s.

    i2CAT and the Institute of Culture of the Municipality of Barcelona are coordinating the Barcelona hub.

OUTSTANDING PROJECT

BARCELONA LABORATORY (BarcelonaLab)

BarcelonaLab is an initiative of the Institute of Culture of Barcelona (ICUB), supported by the i2CAT Foundation, designed to promote and establish connections between people or communities with ideas and creative projects applied to the world of technology, science, knowledge and culture in the city of Barcelona.

BarcelonaLab receives support from public institutions, companies, research centers, universities, associations and communities, based on the quadruple helix, where creativity, knowledge and culture are the key elements for social and economic development.

This innovation ecosystem allows and catalyses the necessary synergies between the different agents to develop and advance their research and innovation projects. BarcelonaLab is at the same time the space for co-creation in which to solve the challenges that its community agents propose.

In 2014, BarcelonaLab encouraged the use of traditional technologies from the world of ICT for cultural and creative new uses. i2CAT enabled creative communities and organizations with ICT research expertise and organizations with cultural knowledge work collaboratively to seek out synergies, finding new uses and applications in the field of culture and creativity knowledge.

Within BarcelonaLab, five projects have been coordinated which are mainly related to the music technology community: BcnSoundscapes, Bandeed, ScreenLy, Exhibit and Concert Binaural.

MAIN PARTNERS

INNOVATION BUSINESS UNIT
INDUSTRIAL INTERNET

Fablabs are bringing 3D printing and other tools to people. The Internet is democratizing the digital fabrication even before the network has been introduced on the production lines of the traditional industries.

Now, programs like Cyber-Physical Systems or Industrial Internet in the US or Industry 4.0 in Germany are trying to transform factories into smart systems, where high qualified employees can manage them by using augmented reality systems, dramatically increasing productivity and the value of the industrial sectors.

i2CAT started in 2006 the Industrial Ring, an advanced Internet platform for collaboration between all the actors in the automotive sector in Catalonia. More than 80 companies, research centres and public organizations are paving the way for this Industrial Internet.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

  • EPSON MOVERIO Competence Centre

    The EPSON MOVERIO Competence Centre aims to encourage the development and innovation applied to Moverio Smart Glasses in order to promote the use of augmented reality in professional areas, becoming a strategic meeting point for developers, customers and suppliers of applications for Smart Glasses.

    Matching i2CAT research knowledge and the companies’ market vision, the Competence fosters the generation of new innovative solutions that provide differential value, both locally and internationally.

  • RIS3CAT

    The industrial areas of expertise defined within the RIS3CAT strategy need advanced ICTs and other KETs, such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. i2CAT Foundation, through its Industrial Ring project and its new strategy Industrial Ring 4.0, is actively participating here in several RIS3CAT communities that in 2014 began to be defined in the areas of sustainable mobility, Industrial Systems, Healthcare, Energy and Creative Industries.

    In some of these communities, i2CAT has a role within the steering committee, defining how ICT can help these communities and giving a perspective as to how new industries may appear as a result of the merger of ICT with certain sectors.

    In all these communities, i2CAT is engaging and driving the definition of innovation projects that allow to generate a new SmartTIC industry oriented to meet the present and future needs of the different industrial sectors.

NOTABLE PROJECT

INDUSTRIAL RING

The Industrial Ring is a project that seeks to deploy leading telecommunications infrastructure and services for the interconnection of business sectors and high-tech resources, in order to increase the competitiveness of industrial sectors Catalan keys enhance collaborative R & D, facilitating real company and industrial access to the highest level of ICT infrastructure and services with high added value such as supercomputing.

Currently more than 70 companies mainly from the automotive industry, together with research centres give life to a platform that has generated a new culture of industrial cooperation in Catalonia. The Industrial Ring allows the Industry to develop advanced distributed manufacturing and controlling processes, sharing virtualized resources as a means to improving efficiency and competitiveness, and specially, enables new R+D+I initiatives and opportunities between companies in the same value chain, creating innovation platforms, leveraging knowledge and technologies from international research communities and defining high value-added intercompany services.

MAIN PARTNERS

USER DRIVEN
INNOVATION

EMPOWERING EVERYONE TO INNOVATE:
USER DRIVEN INNOVATION

The Internet is still based on a distributed, end-to-end open-network architecture. This favors co-creation and user-centric processes which offer a pathway for radical new innovation models.

From the outset, i2CAT has been a collaboration between a large number of people, private and public, following a distinctive trait of Catalonia civil tradition which has fostered successful citizen initiatives in areas like education, health and sports.

In 2006, i2CAT was recognized by the European Network of Living Labs as the first “open living lab” in Spain and one of the first in Europe. Since then, i2CAT has promoted the creation of living labs in Catalonia.

i2CAT embodies some of the new principles that the internet is bringing into innovation systems. The Quadruple Helix is theoretically now the reference model for deploying the new Regional Specialization Strategies that the European Union is proposing for all regions for the new period 2014-2020.

i2CAT has based the new methods for user engagement on a combination of traditional applied anthropological techniques and new approaches based in user-centreed design and techno-anthropological theories.

During 2014 i2CAT has facilitated the accreditation of new Living labs in Catalonia, such as the UAB Smart Campus, Orbital 40 LL and Barcelona Lab. During the summer of 2014 i2CAT took part in the definition of the new vision of ENoLL: “Empowering everyone to innovate”. If “the internet is for everyone” was the motto of the Internet Society during last decade, ENoLL is setting a new horizon for the years to come.

In this sense, along the 2014, i2CAT has involved more than 600 users in different activities designed and aimed at making the users active actors in co-creation processes as hackathons, workshops and end-users trials.

WORKSHOPSPROJECTUSERSNUMBER
OF USERS
Demo workshop of augmented reality
I AM		FI CONTENT 2ICT Professionals24
Demo workshop augmented reality in BCNLab Day FI CONTENT 2Cultural environment & ICT Professionals25
AR-xperiment – augmented reality demo workshopFI CONTENT 2ICT Professionals20
User-centreed design methodology workshop in BucharestATHENA PLUSCultural environment & ICT Professionals40
User-centreed design methodology workshop in RomaATHENA PLUSCultural environment & ICT Professionals40
i2CAT Open Innovation DayATHENA PLUSi2CAT staff65
Barcelona Distributed Performances WorkshopSPECIFI / RICHESCultural environment & ICT Professional25


HACKATHONSPROJECTPROFILE
OF USERS		NUMBER
OF USERS
Augmented Reality Games HackathonFI CONTENT 2ICT Professionals24
MUSE Internet of Things HackathonSPECIFIICT Professionals35
Interviews fot the research project RICHESRICHESCultural environment & ICT Professionals9


USERS TRIALSPROJECTPROFILE
OF USERS		NUMBER
OF USERS
User trials of the APP Smart City Guide of OrangeFI CONTENT 2End users26
Field test of the web Smart City Guide of FraunhoferFI CONTENT 2End users7
FOKUSFI CONTENT 2Cultural environment Professionals5
Field test of the web application Smart City Guide of Fraunhofer FOKUSRICHESEnd users60
Field test Empúries applicationTVRINGEnd users10
Usability tests of the HbbTV of TVC application prototypesTVRINGEnd users80
End users Pilot of HbbTV of TVC applicationCOM’ONEnd users20
Check and validation of the Technology developedFEARLESSEnd users12
Check and validation of the Technology developedHELP4MOODEnd users27
Clinical trials of the Technology with patientsBcnLabEnd users100


OPEN CALLSPROJECTPROFILE
OF USERS		NUMBER
OF USERS
Open CallCreatiFICompanies10
Open CallI AMCompanies12


i2CAT AT A GLANCE

i2CAT Foundation is a non-profit research and innovation centre which promotes mission-oriented R+D+i activities on advanced Internet architectures, applications and services. The centre stands up for a new open innovation framework, fostering the collaboration between companies, public administration, the academic environment and end-users.

Internet has produced a superabundance of data, information and networks. The next step is to advance in the research and innovation of an Internet based on intelligent systems and smart technologies.

The Internet of knowledge and creativity is the new challenge to face.

The i2CAT vision for the next 10 years is a networked smart world, a collaboratory based in a new generation of networked intelligent technologies and systems, a co-creating platform between machines, people and the environment for a sustainable and smart future.

i2CAT is prepared to become a key international R+D+i partner in the field of Internet Technologies helping companies to foster their innovation and generating a new digital society and economy.

i2CAT is a mission-oriented research center. Our goal is to develop advanced Internet technologies to the benefit of government, companies and citizens of Catalonia and the rest of the world.

In cooperation with these partners, our research and innovation units want to produce technologies and solutions with the aim of converting Catalonia into a leading global smart region in a Smart Europe, with a flourishing added-value economy and an innovative society.

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

The Board of Trustees is i2CATs highest governing body.

  • Mr. Jordi Puigneró i Ferrer, President, General Manager of Telecommunications and Information Society (DGTSI), Government of Catalonia.
  • Mr. Enric Fossas Colet, Vice-President I, Rector of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).
  • Mrs. Núria Betriu Sànchez, Vice-President II, CEO at ACCIÓ.
  • Mr. Josep Maria Martorell i Rodon, General Manager of Research, Government of Catalonia.
  • Mr. Carles Salvadó Usach, Secretary of the Board, Head of Telecommunications Service at DGTSI.
  • Mr. Gonçal Bonhomme i Altable, Deputy Secretary of the Board, Manager of Innovation at Orange.
  • Mrs. Esther Real Saladrigas, Vice-Rector for Knowledge transfer at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).
  • Mr. Fernando Orejas, Research Vice-Chancellor at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).
  • Mr. Javier Ruiz Fernandez, R+D+i Manager at Alcatel-Lucent.
  • Mr. Jordi Escalé i Castelló, Managing Director at Centre de Telecomunicacions i Tecnologies de la Informació (CTiTI).
  • Mr. Jordi Troté Escribano, Head of Institutional Relations at ACCIÓ.
  • Mr. Antoni Elias Fusté, Professor at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
  • Mrs. Joana Sánchez Morillo, Sales Manager of Government and Public Services at Vodafone.
  • Mr. Xavier Buxeda Lladó, General Manager at Fujitsu Technology Solutions in Catalonia.
  • Mr. Francesc Bert i Llosa, Head of Key Account, Public Sector & Utilities at Cisco Systems.
  • Mr. Amadeu Gassó Gimeno, Technical Manager at CCMA.
  • Mr. Francisco Javier Marcos, R+D+i Manager at Abertis Telecom.
  • Mr. Francesc García Cuyàs, Director at TICSalut Foundation.
  • Mr. Joan Bennassar, Technical Manager at Media Pro.
  • Mr. Ángel Lozano, Research Vice-Chancellor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
  • Mr. Lluís Comellas i Riera, Research Vice-Chancellor at Universitat Ramon Llull.
  • Mr. Diego Matas Morillo, General Manager at Interoute Iberia.
  • Mr. Eduard Martin, Innovation Director at IMI (Barcelona City Council).
  • Mr. David Noguer i Bau, Regional Manager at Juniper Networks.
  • Mr. Mateo Valero, Director at Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
  • Mr. Felip Fenollosa, General Manager at Fundació CIM.
  • Mr. Ernest Quingles, Managing Director at Epson Ibérica.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

In 2014, as of 28th February, the members representatives were:

  • Mr. Antoni Elias Fuster, President, Professor at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
  • Mr. Carles Salvadó Usach, Vice-President of Delegate Committee, Head of Telecommunications Service at DGTSI
  • Mr. Gonçal Bonhomme i Altable, Deputy Secretary of the Board, Manager of Innovation at Orange
  • Mr. Jordi Escalé i Castelló, Managing Director at Centre de Telecomunicacions i Tecnologies de la Informació (CTiTI)
  • Mr. Jordi Troté Escribano, Head of Institutional Relations at Acció
  • Mr. Lluís Comellas i Riera, Research Vice-Rector at Universitat Ramon Llull
  • Mr. Javier Ruiz Fernández, R&D Coordinator at Alcatel-Lucent
  • Mr. Ángel Lozano, Research Vice-Rector at Universitat Pompeu Fabra
  • Mr. Amadeu Gassó Gimeno, vocal, Technical Manager of CCMA
  • Mr. Joan Bennassar, Technical Manager at Media Pro
  • Mr. Francisco Javier Marcos, R+D+i Manager at Abertis Telecom
  • Mr. Jordi Martínez, Innovation Director at TICSalut Foundation
  • Mrs. Joana Sánchez i Morillo, Sales Manager of Government and Public Services at Vodafone
  • Mr. Xavier Buxeda Lladó, General Manager at Fujitsu Technology Solutions in Catalonia
  • Mr. Francesc Bert, Head of Key Account, Public Sector & Utilities at Cisco Systems
  • Mr. Diego Matas Morillo, General Manager at Interoute Iberia, S.A.U
  • Mr. Eduard Martin, Innovation Director at IMI (Barcelona City Council)
  • Mr. David Noguer i Bau, Regional Director at Juniper Networks
  • Mrs. Esther Real, Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
  • Mr. Francesc Subirada, Deputy Director at Barcelona Supercomputing Center
  • Mr. Felip Fenollosa, Director at Fundació CIM
  • Mr. David Moure, Business Manager at Epson Ibérica
  • Mr. Sebastià Sallent i Ribes, Director at Fundació i2CAT
  • Mr. Joan Manel Martín Almansa, Managing Director at Fundació i2CAT

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

The Board, created in 2012, is composed of the following members:

  • Prof. Dimitra Simeonidou. University of Bristol, United Kingdom.
    Head of the University of Bristol’s High Performance Networks Group. BSc and MSc in Physics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), PhD from the University of Essex.
  • Prof. Dae-Young Kim, Chungman National University, South Korea.
    Professor of the Department of Information Communications Engineering at Chungnam National University.
  • Bill St Arnaud, Independent R&E Network and Green IT consultant, Canada.
    Independent Consultant specialising in advanced networks and Green IT
  • Prof. Carsten Bormann, Universität Bremen (University of Bremen), Germany.
    Professor of Internet Technology at the University of Bremen and member of the board of directors of the Centre for Computing and Communications Technology (TZI).

MANAGEMENT

Mr. Sebastià Sallent i Ribes, Director.

Mr. Artur Serra, Deputy Director.

Mr. Joan Manel Martín Almansa, Managing Director.

Mr. Sergi Figuerola, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer.

SUPPORT STAFF

Project Management Office:
Flaminio Minerva, Vanessa Llobet Raúl Pertierra, Susana Otero, Sandrine Schwartz.

Administration:
Rocío Segura, Sonia Beltrán.

Infrastructures and Services
Josep Paredes, Júlia Ferràndiz.

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING GROUP

Javier Fernández, Josep Pons, Adrián Rosselló, David Roldan, Isart Canyameres, Julio Carlos Barrera.

ASSOCIATIONS, NETWORKS AND PLATFORMS