ALLIANCE – Architecting a knowLedge-defined 5G-enabLed network Infrastructure towArd the upcomiNg digital soCiEty
(TEC2017-90034-C2-2-R)
2018 – 2021
Role: Technical Co-Coordinator for UPC
Leaving the current 4th generation of mobile communications behind, 5G will represent a disruptive paradigm shift integrating 5G Radio Access Networks (RANs), ultra-high capacity access/metro/core optical networks and intra-datacenter network and computational resources into a single converged 5G network infrastructure. Thanks to an extensive deployment of network virtualization techniques leveraged by Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technologies, such a 5G network infrastructure will have to be capable of inter-connecting anything (people, things, processes, contents, etc.) anywhere, no matter the geographic location, and over a set of network services truly meeting their diverse communication requirements (e.g., in terms of bandwidth, latency, reliability, etc.). Furthermore, these network services will have to be orchestrated end-to-end over several network and IT resource segments with high scalability, dynamicity and reactivity upon unexpected traffic and resource state changes, all this in an energy-efficient fashion. The ALLIANCE project ambitiously aims at architecting, from top to bottom, a converged 5G-enabled network infrastructure satisfying those needs to effectively realize the envisioned upcoming Digital Society. In particular, ALLIANCE investigates the appropriateness of several networking solutions for 5G, such as SDN/NFV on top of an ultra-high capacity spatially and spectrally flexible all-optical network infrastructure. Evaluation activities will not only consist of theoretical and simulation-based results, but also experimental activities over representative network test-beds implementing the aforementioned networking solutions for 5G, as a way to completely assess their performance in real network scenarios. ALLIANCE relies on cognitive QoE-driven management and orchestration, which optimises level service quality without network resource over-provisioning. In particular, an ambitious goal of the ALLIANCE proposal is to design and implement a Knowledge-Defined Networking (KDN)-based orchestration layer, implementing Machine Learning (ML) techniques toward optimal end-to-end service provisioning.
ONFIRE – Future Optical Networks for Innovation, Research and Experimentation
(H2020-ICT-2016)
2017 – 2021
Role: ESRs University Tutor
The ONFIRE (Future Optical Networks for Innovation, Research and Experimentation) project is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action as an Innovative Training Network (ITN) European Industrial Doctorates (EID) offering two Early Stage Research (ESR) positions to be conducted in both Spain and Germany. ONFIRE participating organizations are CTTC Research Center located in Castelldefels (Spain), NOKIA Bell Labs company located at Stuttgart (Germany) and UPC University located at Barcelona (Spain). The ONFIRE project will focus on exploiting, from both a hardware and software solutions perspective, the flexibility and modularity provided by two key topics: disaggregated optical networks and cognitive optical networks. Thereby, the ultimate goal is to leverage open source software solutions running on inexpensive commodity hardware to reduce both CapEx and OpEx when automatizing network operations. Specifically, ONFIRE will target:
– Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) concepts to deploy a unified control scheme across heterogeneous transport network segments and distributed cloud infrastructures.
– Elastic interfaces and programmable white boxes.
– Cost-effective subsystems for non-intrusive in-band monitoring of advanced modulation formats.
– Data mining techniques to leverage massive physical layer monitoring data in coherent interfaces, white boxes and monitoring subsystems, to adjust and re-optimize network settings..
SLICENET – End-to-End Cognitive Network Slicing and Slice Management Framework in Virtualised Multi-Domain, Multi-Tenant 5G Network
(H2020-ICT-2016-2/761913)
2017 – 2020
Role: Technical Coordinator for UPC
5G use cases are so diverse and challenging that the 5G networks must be customisable for the broad range of individual scenarios. 5G network providers are keen to offer “networks as a service” where logical network slices are created and allocated to use cases flexibly and efficiently in a multi-operator environment. SliceNet will create and demonstrate the tools and mechanisms to achieve this ambition. Specifically, SliceNet will design, prototype and demonstrate an innovative, verticals-oriented, QoE-driven 5G network slicing framework. It will use cognitive network
management, control and orchestration techniques for the provision and operation of end-to-end slicing across multi-operator domains in 5G networks. SliceNet will systematically tackle a range of the involved outstanding issues and thus directly addresses the key challenges in Strand 3 “Software Network” in this call ICT-07-2017. The integrated SliceNet framework will be demonstrated in three representative vertical use cases: Smart Grid, eHealth and Smart City, to highlight the achievements, innovations, and impacts. SliceNet support the unique perspectives and requirements on 5G networks of different players: For 5G verticals businesses, SliceNet offers an innovative one-stop shop solution to meet diverging and demanding service requirements. SliceNet enables the verticals to plug and play their use cases with bespoke control to employ 5G slices in a scalable, cost-efficient way via novel mySlice and Scalable Slicing as a Service functions and a one-stop API. For 5G service providers and users, SliceNet provides unprecedented guaranteed service quality by agile cognitive QoE-optimisation of service creation and delivery. For 5G network operators, SliceNet presents an integrated FCAPS (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security) framework for truly endto-end management, control and orchestration of slices by secured, interoperable, and reliable operations across multi-operator domains.
SUNSET – Sustainable Network Infrastructure Enabling the Future Digital Society
(TEC2014-59583-C2-1-R)
2015 – 2018
Role: Technical Co-Coordinator for UPC
The ICT eco-system has been rapidly and dramatically changing in the last several years.Emerging cloud services, mobile and social network technologies are creating new communication patterns, requiring architectural changes to the underlying networks in order to enable scalable growth in traffic volume, while supporting a high level of dynamic connectivity where applications and application components are frequently provisioned, released, and moved around. SUNSET project focuses on overcoming the existing bottlenecks of current architectural solutions to provide a successful support of the future Digital Society, paving the way to new-coming cloud ICT services as well as enhancing a sustainable use of these services by mature economic sectors, improving this way their competitiveness through cloud ICT technologies. More specifically, SUNSET proposes a novel architecture including all network segments (access, metro, core) and data centre network, empowered by advanced optical technologies and SDN, capable of sustaining the growing resource and operational demands of next generation networks.
COSIGN – Combining Optics and SDN in next generation data centre networks
(FP7-619572)
January 2014 – December 2016
Role: Technical Coordinator for UPC
The role of Data Centres (DCs) is vital for the Future Internet. However, DC infrastructures are already stressed by data volumes and service provisioning and consumption trends. Emerging demands cannot be addressed by today’s DCs and call for a massive redesign or even transformation of DC architectures. COSIGN proposes a new DC architecture empowered by advanced optical technologies and will demonstrate novel solutions capable of sustaining the growing resource and operational demands of next generation DC Networks. COSIGN aims to move away from today’s vendor specific, manually controlled,
performance and scale limited DCs towards scalable DC solutions able to support future-proof dynamic, ondemand,low-latency, energy efficient and ultra-high bandwidth DC solutions.
LIGHTNESS – Low latency and high throughput dynamic network infrastructures for high performance datacentre interconnects
(FP7-318606)
November 2012 – October 2015
Role: Technical Coordinator for UPC
The main objective of the LIGHTNESS project is the design, implementation and experimental evaluation of a high-performance network infrastructure for data centres, where innovative photonic switching and transmission solutions are deployed. Harnessing the power of optics will enable data centres to effectively cope with the unprecedented demand growth to be faced in the near future, which will be driven by the increasing popularity of computing and storage server-side applications in the society. Indeed, the deployment of optical transmission systems leveraging Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) allows the transmission of more than a hundred of wavelength channels operating at 10, 40, 100 Gb/s and beyond. This effectively results in “unlimited” bandwidth capacities of multiple Terabit/s per fibre link, which can be efficiently utilized through next-generation all-optical switching paradigms like Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) or Optical Packet Switching (OPS).
PRISTINE – Programmability In RINA for European supremacy of virTualised NEtworks
(FP7-619305)
January 2014 – June 2016
Role: Technical Contributor
PRISTINE intends to design, develop and implement the innovative internals of a clean-slate architecture that include the programmable functions for: security of content and application processes, supporting QoS and congestion control in aggregated levels, providing protection and resilience, facilitating more efficient topological routing,and multi-layer management for handling configuration, performance and security. Moreover, it intends to demonstrate the applicability and benefits of this approach and its built-in functions in use-cases driven by the end-users, service providers and equipment vendors in the consortium. This will ensure that the applications and tools we develop will be deployable by providers, and have a greater potential for future exploitation.
EULER – Experimental UpdateLess Evolutive Routing
(FP7-258307)
October 2010 – June 2014
Role: Technical Contributor
The main objective of the EULER exploratory research project is to investigate new routing paradigms so as to design, develop, and validate experimentally a distributed and dynamic routing scheme suitable for the future Internet and its evolution. The resulting routing scheme(s) is/are intended to address the fundamental limits of current stretch-1 shortest-path routing in terms of routing table scalability but also topology and policy dynamics (perform efficiently under dynamic network conditions). Therefore, this project will investigate trade-offs between routing table size (to enhance scalability), routing scheme stretch (to ensure routing quality) and communication cost (to efficiently and timely react to various failures). The project will develop appropriate tools to evaluate the performance of the proposed routing schemes on large-scale topologies (order of 10k nodes). Prototype of the routing protocols as well as their functional validation and performance benchmarking on the iLAB experimental facility and/or virtual experimental facilities such as PlanetLab/OneLab will allow validating under realistic conditions the overall behaviour of the proposed routing schemes.
FIBRE – Future Internet Testbeds Experimentation between Brazil and Europe
(FP7-288356)
November 2011 – March 2014
Role: Technical Coordinator for the Optical Communications group of UPC
FIBRE is about building and operating a federated large-scale experimental Future Internet facility distributed between Brazil and Europe, to foster the generation of new Brazilian-European partnerships that innovate in Future Internet infrastructure and applications. This overall goal can be broken down into the following objectives:
– Build a shared large-scale experimental facility that enables experimentation on network infrastructure and distributed applications, consisting in a new testbed in Brazil and an enhancement of the FP7 OFELIA facility – currently under development – and the basic wireless facility of FP7 OneLab, the UTH NITOS testbed, both in Europe.
– Federate the Brazilian and European facilities, to allow researchers to use resources of both testbeds in the same experiment.
– Showcase the potential of the facility by demonstrating experimental network-enabled applications deployed on top of the federated facilities resources.
– Enhance the collaboration and exchange of knowledge between European and Brazilian researchers in the field of Future Internet.
ELASTIC – Enhanced opticaL networks featuring Adaptable and highly Scalable multi-granular Transport servICes
(TEC2011-27310)
January 2012 – December 2014
Role: Technical Coordinator
In the years to come, network operators will unavoidably be faced with the challenge of designing highly flexible optical networks that efficiently transport a wide range of data-centric applications with diverse characteristics and requirements. It is therefore critical to start laying the foundations of advanced network architectures taking full advantage of cutting-edge optical switching and transmission technologies in order to seamlessly cope with today‘s and tomorrow‘s applications needs. In the light of the described scenario, the ELASTIC project will pursuit the design and assessment of novel network architectures offering multi-service provisioning features as well as to effectively respond to a variety of upper layer application requirements.
STRONGEST – Scalable, Tunable and Resilient Optical Networks Guaranteeing Extremely-high Speed Transport
(FP7-247674)
January 2010 – December 2012
Role: Technical Contributor
STRONGEST’s main goal is to design and demonstrate an evolutionary ultra-high capacity multilayer transport network, based on optimized integration of optical and packet nodes, and equipped with a multi-domain, multi-technology control plane, overcoming the problems of current networks that still provide limited scalability, are not cost-effective and do not properly guarantee end-to-end quality of service. STRONGEST is an industry led project; the consortium brings together major European industrial players, leading Telecom operators, Universities and Research Centres and as such, it enables the necessary synergies and creates an ideal environment for innovation and development. The European scale of the project is made necessary by the development of a new reality in which countries and federations are immensely and inextricably linked. To have a common view at European level is essential to apply the project’s outcomes. A major impact from STRONGEST will be to strengthen the position of European industry in the field of Future Internet and to reinforce European leadership in optical networks technologies. The design of a more efficient transport network with reduced cost per bit and the particular attention to energy efficiency will turn into benefit to the entire Community. Network Operators have a tough target to reduce CO2 emissions, whilst at the same time supporting significantly higher information bandwidth. They will use the results of STRONGEST, which will provide the optimum transport network architecture to achieve these targets. STRONGEST results will be exploited by Vendors to develop traffic engineering solutions running in multi-technologies and multi-domain context, and the related control plane in both legacy nodes and new optical/packet nodes. Academic Partners plan to use the STRONGEST results for further enhancement of knowledge transfer, and training and skills creation in the field of telecommunication networks, particularly in the field of optical networks.
ENGINE – Engineering Next Generation Optical Transport NEtworks
(TEC2008-02634)
January 2009 – December 2011
Role: Technical Coordinator
One of the objectives of the ENGINE (Engineering Next Generation optIcal traNsport nEtworks) project will be the upgrade of the ROADM nodes we developed in the framework of the “Red INteligente GMPLS/ASON con Integración de Nodos reconfiGurables (RINGING)” project (TEC-2005-08051-C03-02) to enable transmissions at 10 Gb/s and beyond (40-100 Gb/s). Nevertheless, the leap from 10 Gb/s to higher bit rates poses some technical problems which have to be properly investigated. Typically, when transmission speed is increased, marginal impairments such as polarization mode dispersion (PMD) become pronounced, limiting the transmission distance without signal regeneration. Therefore, another objective of the ENGINE project is also to develop and integrate in the ROADM node, modules for optical signal regeneration, chromatic (CD) and polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) compensation, in combination with wavelenght conversion (WC) techniques. On the other hand, most operators are seeing the control plane as the key factor to migrate from ring-based to meshed-based optical transport network. To migrate, thus, our experimental platform to a mesh topology, another objective of the ENGINE project will be the implementation, starting from the ROADMs, of Optical Cross Connect (OXC) nodes.In such high-capacity reconfigurable optical transport networks, the control plane must manage efficiently available wavelenghts as well as to react in case of degradation of the optical signals due to the physical impariments arisen from the propagation through the optical fibers. In the latter case, the control plane dynamically drops the degraded channels in order to regenerate the signal or to compensate the dispersion. To accomplish to this functionality, therefore, it is of critical value to efficiently monitor the accumulated physical impairments. In this context, another objective of the ENGINE project is to design and demonstrate monitoring techniques for CD and PMD. Moreover, if a 40 Gb/s (and beyond) signal has to travel through DWDM 50 GHz spaced channels, a lot of inter-symbol interference will raise. Multilevel modulation formats reduce the symbol rate and therefore alleviate the influence of impairments while advanced modulation formats together with digital signal processing-enhanced optics will make 40 Gb/s systems possible. In ENGINE, we will investigate on electronic digital signal processing as well as all-optical PMD compensation.The ENGINE project will also design and evaluate routing and wavelenght assignment algorithms which take into account the physical impairments to decide how to accomodate the connection requests triggered from the client networks (IP, SDH, Ethernet, etc.). Such algorithms will be tested over the experimental platform (arising from the RINGING project and completed accomplishing the previous objectives of ENGINE). Assuming that a network must be seen in its overall structure, which means to consider not just the transport layer but also the client networks. The ENGINE project will carry out interwoking studies aimed, firslty, to design efficient dynamic traffic grooming strategies to optimize the bandwidth utilization of the wavelenghts; and secondly, to design coordinated protection strategies between transport and client layers in order to cover a wide set of failures which can occur. In both cases, an MPLS over optical transport layer will be assumed and the designed startegies will be experimentally evaluated. Finally, the potentiality of GMPLS-based control plane to efficiently manage the network resources for hybrid Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) and Optical Burst Switching (OBS) network nodes will be investigated, since OBS networks, capable of switching smaller granularities than wavelenghts in the optical layer, are seen as the long-term solution for optical networks.
FIERRO – Future Internet: Eficiencia en las redes de altas prestaciones
(TEC2010-12250-E)
May 2011 – September 2012
Role: Technical Coordinator for Optical Communications group of UPC
The mismatches in the design objectives between the original and the future Internet avoid its widespread deployment at the expected scales. The challenges with regard to the high-performance IP (metro and core) network infrastructure involve all the layers: physical layer and switching technologies, traffic engineering, control and management, etc. The goal of this Thematic Network aims at building a platform to create synergies and close collaboration among the different Spanish groups with expertise in the Internet topic.
BONE – Building the Future Optical Network in Europe
(FP7-216863)
January 2008 – December 2010
Role: Technical Contributor and WP22 coordinator
The BONE-proposal builds on the foundations laid out by the e-Photon/ONe projects in the previous Framework Programme. This Network of Excellence has successfully brought together over several years the research activities within Europe in the field of Optical Networks. The BONE-project intends to validate this effort by stimulating a more intensified collaboration, exchange of researchers and building on Virtual Centres of Excellence that can serve to European industry with education & training, research tools & testlabs and pave the way to new technologies & architectures.
DICONET – Dynamic Impairment Constraint Networking for Transparent Mesh Optical Networks
(FP7-216338)
January 2008 – June 2010
Role: Technical Contributor
The DICONET project is targeting a novel approach to optical networking providing a disruptive solution for the development of the core network of the future. It is the vision and goal of our consortium to provide ultra high speed end-to-end connectivity with quality of service and high reliability through the use of optimised protocols and routing algorithms that will complement a flexible control and management plane offering flexibility for the future network infrastructure. We plan to investigate, design, implement and test new routing and wavelength assignment algorithms considering as constraints physical impairments that arise in transparent core networks. These algorithms will be incorporated into a novel dynamic network planning tool that would consider dynamic traffic characteristics, varying physical impairment and component characteristics and a reconfigurable optical layer. The use of this novel planning tool in conjunction with proper extensions to the control plane of core optical networks that will be designed, implemented and tested by our consortium will make possible to realize the vision of transparency, while offering efficient resource utilization and strict quality of service guarantees based on certain service level agreements. The combinations of the tools, algorithms and protocols that will developed by the uniquely qualified DICONET consortium together with new technologies and architectures that will be considered as enablers for the network of the future will assist in overcoming the expected long term limitations of current core network capabilities. The DICONET scope and objectives, address dynamic cross-layer network planning and optimization while considering the development of a future transport network infrastructure which ensures fail-safe network configuration and operation. Our approach will greatly contribute as a basic element in achieving resilience and transparency of the Future Internet.
RINGING – Red inteligente GMPLS/ASON con integración de nodos reconfigurables
(TEC2005-08051-C03-02)
January 2006 – December 2008
Role: Technical Contributor
The RINGING subproject concerns the design and building of a reconfigurable optical node with an advanced design, and its further integration into a real network to develop a field trial. The main objective of this subproject is the integration of reconfigurable optical nodes in the GMPL/ASON network, which has been obtained as a result of the CARISMA project. Thanks to the participation in TRIPODE, CARISMA, and FIRM (Field trial with Integrated ROADMs and GMPLS compliance, the CELTIC-EUREKA-2004 project, www.celtic-iniciative.org) projects, the know-how necessary for the implementation of the reconfigurable optical nodes is ready. The subproject is divided in two main blocks. The first one will be dedicated to building reconfigurable optical nodes, while in the other, the aspects of the integration of these nodes in an optical network which was constructed during the CARISMA project, will be treated. Introduction of the traffic engineering (TE) techniques into GMPLS/ASON networks, which will result in a network able to provide optical virtual private networks (OVPN) as well as suitable for working in a GRID environment of great importance in the next future, should be highlighted among the most important general objectives of this subproject. For the development of these last objectives also the participation in PROMISE (Provisioning and monitoring of optical services, CELTIC-EUREKA-2004 project) project will be useful.
NOBEL II – Next generation Optical networks for Broadband European Leadership (NOBEL) – phase 2
(FP6-027305)
March 2006 – February 2008
Role: Technical Contributor
To achieve the strategic goal of broadband for all, an appropriate core/metro network is required to provide cost-effective transport of end-user traffic with the required level of QoS.Based on the results of the NOBEL project, the main goal of the Integrated Project NOBEL phase 2 is to carry out analysis, feasibility studies and experimental validations of innovative network solutions and technologies for flexible, scalable and reliable optical networks, thus enabling broadband services for all. Specifically, the main objectives are:- to define network architectures for core and metro networks, providing both packet and circuit switched connections in an integrated network scenario and supporting both fixed and mobile services- to assess and demonstrate these architectures in term of scalability and end-to-end interoperability through network emulations and experiments- to study and evaluate multi-layer traffic engineering and resilience schemes in different service and business scenarios- to perform techno- and socio-economic analysis of network solutions to demonstrate their cost-effectiveness and impact on improving the penetration of broadband services- to identify and develop enhanced solutions for the Control and Management Planes and their collaboration for provisioning of end-to-end broadband services, with focus on GMPLS networks- to investigate advanced architectures for burst/packet based optical networks;- to evaluate robust transport technologies and node architectures through theoretical studies, technology assessments, and experiments- to define an end-to-end vision of the future network providing innovative broadband services through joint activities with projects focusing on complementary aspects such as the access network segment and the interaction with applications (e.g. MUSE and MUPBED).Specific contributions will be submitted to ITU-T, TMF, OIF and IETF thus reinforcing European position in standardization bodies and fora.
e-Photon/ONe+ – Optical Networks: Towards Bandwidth Manageability and Cost Efficiency – phase 2
(FP6-027497)
March 2006 – February 2008
Role: Technical Contributor
The Network of Excellence e-Photon/ONe+ aims at integrating and focusing the rich know-how available in Europe on optical communication and networks, both in universities and in research centres of major telecom manufacturers and operators. This project built upon the experience gained within the previous NoE e-Photon/ONe, funded within the 1st IST call of FP6. The set of expertises available in the NoE ranges from optical technologies to networking devices, network architectures and protocols, new services fostered by photonic technologies. The NoE contributes to the Strategic Objective ‘Broadband for All’, with specific focus on low cost access and edge network equipment, for a range of technologies, including optical fiber, on new concepts for network management, control and protocols, and on increased bandwidth capacity, in the access network as well in the underlying optical core/metro network, including in particular optical burst and packet switching.
COST 291 – Towards Digital Optical Networks
July 2004 – June 2008
Role: Technical Contributor
The COST 291 Action Towards digital optical networks belongs to the COST Domain: Telecommunications Information Science and Technology. The primary objective of this action is to focus on novel network concepts and architectures exploiting the features of photonic technologies, to enable future broadband telecommunications networks (access, metro and core). It is aiming to propose a new generation of systems and networks that will accommodate the unpredictable growth of data traffic. The action was initiated by the High-speed networks and optical communications group of AIT and Prof. Ioannis Tomkos acts as Action Chairman. More than 28 partners contribute to the activities of the project (including several from new member states).
FIRM – Field trial with Integrated ROADMs and GMPLS compliance
(Celtic Project CP1-028)
July 2004 – June 2006
Role: Technical Contributor
Nowadays optical networks need flexible low cost optical equipment and embedded intelligence to provide lower complexity in the management systems and more flexibility in an all-optical dynamic reliable network deployment. Currently, there are emerging companies that are developing new optical components and subs-systems (Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP), XFP, transceiver multi-source, tunable lasers, optical amplifiers, external modulators, OADMs (Add and Drop Multiplexer), O/O/O switching, network monitoring among others) with embedded intelligence. Next generation low-cost optical networking equipment will need this new optical components and sub-systems with easily intregrated interfaces for their inter-operability. The FIRM project aims to improve a strong collaboration among optical components manufacturer and optical networking developers, to provide the industry and the research community with a cost effective solution and a field trial. FIRM will turn current static OADM into Reconfigurable-OADM, with widely tunable transceivers up to 2,5Gbps or 10 Gbps. An easy and basic management system will be achieved to provide basic services: QoS, Network Monitoring and set-up or tear-down connections. This management system will be responsible to set-up or tear down channels and perform monitoring. It will give to the GMPLS control plane an IP destination, and the GMPLS will manage to provide the channel. Moreover, the NMS will monitor all the variables described in a MIB, and actuate over them if needed. The ROADMs prototypes will be integrated in a field trial based on an ASON model and dynamically controlled by an IP-based GMPLS control plane already provided by the partners Hence, to easily integrate the ROADMs and the GMPLS control plane, the FIRM project will also develop an open CCI (Connection Controller Interface) to manage optical equipments in compliance with the GSMPv3 standard being under development. Collaborations with ITU-T, IETF or OIF in the definition of new standards will be achieved. In order to evaluate the integrated system solution in a real scenario with real end-users, the i2cat project will provide its contents and services. From the telco operators point of view and taking into account investment needs, a study of an implementation strategy of the business model and an analysis of the techno-economic viability of next generation networks will be also provided.