GMD and Hitachi to develop new Active Network Architecture
by Stefan Covaci
A new Active Network Architecture will be developed by GMD Institute
for Open Communication Systems and Hitachi, Ltd. During a meeting
in Berlin the Hitachi and GMD Executive Committee agreed in July
1998 on a R&D project aimed at providing a new network infrastructure
based on the new Active Network Architecture.
Recently, ATM/Router-based broadband telecommunications and data
communications infrastructure has increased rapidly in both capability
and flexibility. This is enabling a variety of new telecommunications
features and applications. At the same time, deregulation and
globalisation of the telecommunications market are creating a
large number of new business sectors and players.
The versatility of higher level applications and the heterogeneity
and dynamically evolving requirements of customers and users,
demands a flexible and easily adaptable and extensible network
infrastructure. Most importantly there is demand for a rapid,
dynamic and smooth creation and integration of new services and
service features.
The new architecture is based on a strict separation of the switching
and routing functions from the network service or control functions.
The traditional switch and router is augmented towards an integrated
active node that has programmable switching or routing and data
processing functions. Using a CORBA (Common Object Request Broker
Architecture) based distributed processing environment (DPE) as
an inter-node open platform, the active node will allow for remote
programmability.
Local programmability of the active node functions and management
of resources are provided by means of a mobile agent environment
enabling asynchronous implementations of network-wide services
such as policy-based control and management. Legacy system integration
such as TMN (Telecommunication Management Network) and IN (Intelligent
Network) is achieved through CORBA-based wrappers that provide
CORBA-interfaces for CORBA-applications by hiding legacy system’s
proprietary interfaces. A dedicated Object Request Broker (ORB)
will provide requirements such as scalability and reliability
(real-time, fault tolerance), Quality of Service guarantees, and
protocols like an Internet Protocol multicast.
The two year joint project, known as BANG (Broadband Active Network
Generation) was started in July 1998 and will provide the necessary
infrastructure for future intelligent and active networks.
Mr. Toshiakira Ikeda, General Manager of the Strategic Business
Development Division of Hitachi’s Information Systems Group, said:
“The active network architecture proposed is very encouraging.
We expect it to be a technological trigger, boosting future network
technology and solution.” Prof. Dr. Radu Popescu-Zeletin, Director
of GMD Institute for Open Communication Systems, added, “we are
very pleased with the scientific and the development results achieved
so far within the Hitachi-GMD co-operation. The BANG project will
provide the basis for new network technology for the next century.”
More information is available at http://www.fokus.gmd.de/news/hitachi/
Please contact:
Stefan Covaci - GMD
Tel: +49 30 3463 7171
E-mail: stefan.covaci@gmd.de
