European research on future Internet design

Future Internet has become the federating theme for European research on communication networks and services. At the core lies research on communication networks toward an efficient, scalable, and reliable future Internet coupled with research on the underlying technologies, in particular mobile and wireless access and optical networks. This article first presents the motivation for a bold initiative for future Internet research in Europe. In this context a changing business environment for telecommunications and the Internet, and the opportunities to provide future Internet services are discussed. From a technical perspective the limitations of the current Internet technology are outlined. The research activities that address the challenge of future Internet research are introduced under three main lines: future Internet architecture and network technologies, spectrum-efficient access to future networks, and converged infrastructures in support of future networks. Examples of the first promising approaches to significantly change the principles of the Internet architecture and protocols are presented.