INDICATIVE INTERNAL ALLOCATION OF FUNDS
1.2 // // (Million ECU) // PART I: IBC DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES // 60 // I.1. IBC strategies // 14 // I.2. IBC realization (Systems analysis and functional specification) // 28 // I.3. IBC usage // 10 // I.4. Common operational environment // 8 // PART II: IBC TECHNOLOGIES // 332 // II.1. Techniques for IBC systems functions // 94 // II.2. IBC programming infrastructure // 49 // II.3. Usability engineering // 12 // II.4. Technologies enabling network evolution // 177 // PART III: PRENORMATIVE FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION // 113 // III.1. Verification tools // 63 // III.2. Development of IBC application pilot schemes // 50 // Personnel costs // 25 // Administrative costs // 20 // Total // 550
ANNEX II
RACE PROGRAMME SUMMARY AND OBJECTIVES (1)
The goal of RACE is to make a major contribution to the objective of the:
'Introduction of Integrated Broadband Communication (IBC) taking into account the evolving Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and national introduction strategies, progressing to Community-wide services by 1995'.
The general objectives of RACE are, in this light:
(a) to promote the Community's telecommunications industry so as to ensure that it maintains a strong position at European and world levels in a context of rapid technological change;
(b) to enable the European network operators to confront under the best possible conditions the technological and service challenges with which they will be faced;
(c) to enable a critical minimum number of the Member States of the Community to introduce commercially viable IBC services by 1996;
(d) to offer opportunities to service providers to improve cost-performance and introduce new or enhanced information services which will both earn revenue in their own right and give indispensable support to other productives sectors of the Community;
(e) to make available to the final users, at a cost and on a timescale at least as favourable as in other major western countries, the services which will sustain the competitiveness of the European economy over the next decades and contribute to maintaining and creating employment in the Community;
(f) to accompany the formation of a Community internal market for all IBC related telecommunications equipment and services based on agreed European or international standards as an indispensable basis for sustained strength on the world markets;
(g) to contribute to regional development within the Community with the support of the development of common functional specifications for equipment and services permitting the less-developed regions to benefit fully from the efforts of Member States piloting the telecommunications developments in the Community.
In order to achieve the objectives described, the RACE programme would be structured into three main parts with each project containing verifiable objectives to be met and reported on.
PART I: IBC DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
relating to the development of functional specifications, the systems and operations research towards the definition of proposals for IBC standards, concepts and conventions conforming to an open systems approach, and the analytical work serving the objective of establishing interoperability for IBC equipment and services.
PART II: IBC TECHNOLOGIES
covering the technological cooperation in precompetitive R&D addressing key requirements of new technology for the low-cost realization of IBC equipments and services.
PART III: PRENORMATIVE FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION
relating to prenormative cooperation in the realization of an 'open verification environment' designed to assess functions, operational concepts and experimental equipment and applications with respect to functional specifications and standardization proposals arising from the work in Part I.
The corresponding work areas, tasks and approaches are specified in detail in the RACE workplan which is under preparation and will be submitted separately.
This work is to be carried out by industry, academics and telecommunication operators. The latter are expected to finance independently the work falling within their domain.
The following sections provide a description of the scope and nature of the work to be undertaken.
PART I: IBC DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
Objectives
The main objectives of the work under Part I are to achieve, throughout the introduction and further enhancement of IBC:
- a common understanding of the evolution towards introduction of IBC and its implications including market research and promotion of the IBC concept and services in Europe and internationally,
- a common definition and understanding of the IBC system and subsystems, between all main actors concerned,
- guidelines for the functional specifications of the IBC system and the development of integrated services,
- a framework in which to identify the technology requirements and to assess the implications of technological advances and the evolution of service demands for the priorities in RD&E (Research, Development and Engineering),
- a tool for the evaluation of cost-effectiveness of various technological solutions, implementation schemes and evolutionary routes starting from the given situation,
- mechanisms for analysing and assessing, at an early stage, the requirements for standardization proposals and functional specifications in order to facilitate and accelerate the emergence of international standards.
Scope
To meet these objectives, Part I would comprise two major areas of activity:
- maintenance and further development of the European Reference Model for Integrated Broadband Communication, defined in its initial form during the RACE definition phase,
- systems analysis and engineering work to transform the concepts derived in the Reference Model into systems and subsystems and functional specifications.
I.1. IBC strategies
IBC is a broad field of activities which requires the dedicated work of many independent participants. They all need to be able to situate their respective work in the context of evolving objectives, conditions and rapid technological change and demand.
I.2. IBC realization
The Reference Model work of point I.1 represents a major concertation exercise to produce consensus views on the evolution towards IBC and its broad functional specifications for IBC systems, subsystems and services, and to provide a two-way link between the Reference Model and other RACE activities. The required systems analysis will be carried out under this point.
I.3. IBC usage
The economic impact of IBC will depend heavily on the nature of the applications supported by IBC networks, the modes of presentation to the users, the facilities available to users and other important parameters related to the ergonomy of telecommunications usage. This work area will concern these elements to the extent that they are related to work under I.1 and I.2.
I.4. Common operational environment
The convergence and transition to IBC represents a major problem in managing the complexity of the technical issues. This does require a specific effort which is the objective of the work under this heading.
PART II: IBC TECHNOLOGIES
Objective
The objective of this part is to carry out cooperative R&D on the key technologies required for low-cost-real- izations of IBC equipment and services. In particular, success for the IBC depends critically on the cost of the local loop optical components being within affordable limits of domestic subscribers. This presents RACE with a key objective of providing the technology which in association with standization will reduce the costs in mass production by a factor of 100 over today's typical costs of comparable components. Part II will be system-driven and specifically related to the functional specifications derived by Part I. Scope
The scope of the work will include the research, test and experimentation needed to explore the techno-economic characteristics of the new technologies relevant to IBC.
II.1. Techniques for IBC system functions
Objective
The use of advanced technology for cost-efficient implementation of IBC. The work will focus on functions which, due to their generalized use, form a key cost factor.
II.2. IBC programming infrastructure
Objective
Based on advances in software technology in general, as they result from fundamental work done elsewhere, the objective here is to realize major advance in telecommunication software infrastructure so as to master the complexity of systems integration and the associated requirements of network reliability and efficiency.
II.3. Usability engineering
Objective
The objective is to advance the technological aspects of man-machine interface and human factors so as to facilitate IBC user acceptance linked to ergonomy and cognitive facilities of IBC equipment.
II.4. Technologies enabling network evolution
Objective
The objective of the R&D is to exploit key enabling technologies to realize advanced evolutionary subsystems, systems and networks.
PART III: PRENORMATIVE FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION
Objective
The work is aimed at the validation of standardization concepts and prenormative work as deriving from work done in other parts of RACE. The parts of the IBC system or subsystems will be tested by means of simulation of research-experimentation with particular reference to the needs of technological work in preparation of standardization proposals.
Prenormative functional integration serves several important functions. It will:
- permit the verification of concepts, standardization options, reliability, security, as well as other key functional characteristics by simulation and testing at the research stage,
- contribute to the reduction of risks for development and implementation by permitting the evaluation of the functional features by operators, industry and, where applicable, service providers and users,
- provide a mechanism for demonstrating interoperability features and compliance to standards and specifications.
Scope (1)
The scope of the work is to:
- test new technology, and devices from projects in Part II RACE, Esprit, relevant national programmes, international projects as an integral part of an IBC system to evaluate its functionalities and techno-economic performance characteristics,
- explore relevant performance parameters and confirm the feasibility of meeting the relevant requirements of the functional entities and applications as defined within Part I activities.
III.1. Verification tools
Objective
Work here is intended to develop verification tools related to make up operational IBC components or subsystems in order to verify design concepts, functional groups or protocols. The goal is to contribute to refinement of functional specification and/or verify standard proposals.
III.2. Development of IBC application pilot schemes
Objective
Early introduction of IBC services will require the diminution of the uncertainties and risks associated with new services. A key element to this is the early development of experimental situations where service providers, network operators and users are placed in conditions where IBC experimental products can be tested by users and service providers. The objective of the work in this area is to contribute to the development of such experimental situations and the exploitation of the results so as to speed up Community-wide understanding of the characteristics of IBC commercial exploitation.
(1) The full RACE workplan is a detailed technical document which evolves with technological progress and Introduction of Integrated Broadband Communication (IBC) taking into account the evolving ISDN improved perception of the demand characteristics. Each year it is to be submitted for approval by the Management Committee.
(1) The work envisaged within this part of the RACE programme is not expected to have the nature of demonstration projects or field trials. Such trials or prototype installations will be required before operational implementation of a harmonized set of IBC services can be undertaken but are beyond the scope and scale of effort under consideration for the RACE programme.
