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Acreo - Broadband Technologyspring 2012 Part of Swedish ICT
www.acreo.se
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Contents
Reseach in exciting times 3
Standardization development for 3DTV 4
Fiber – a good investment for society 5
Software Defined Networks – a new standards is evolving 6
Secure access - ICT and testbeds for health care applications 8
Android based monitoring of networked fire alarm 9
Acreo speeds up Optical Communication together with KTH 10
OFC/NFOEC March 2012 11
Smart ICT for sustainable living in Stockholm Royal Seaport 12
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Broadband technology is revolutionizing human communication. The phase of innovation is high and with increased bandwidth and new Internet services vast changes of our society is yet to come.
Acreo is active in this exciting field, our activities span core networks though access networks to home networks. We address network design, optical trans-mission and IP protocols, we measure how net-works used and how network performance influence quality of experience of important services such as video and IPTV. We perform technical research and development, we drive standardization and policy issues as well as analyze business models. This newsletter we present a selection of recent or ongo-ing activities at Acreo.
Acreo researchers are world leading experts their field. The services of Acreo’s experts are offered both in long-term research projects and shorter term consulvtancy projects to provide solutions to cus-tomers in the public sector, in business and indus-try. In testbeds Acreo offers evaluation of network equipment and services.
Reseach in exciting times
Contact informationPär Johanson Business Development, Acreo Broadband Technology
[email protected] phone:+46 8 632 7790
Tove Madsen, Marketing and Communication, Acreo Broadband Technology
[email protected] phone:+46 8 632 7786
Please visit www.acreo.se
Photo: Fredrik von Schmalensee
Anders Berntson, Department Manger Acreo Broadband Technology
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3D is now established at the movies and is more profitable than traditional 2D movies. The de-velopment for 3DTV has not been that success-ful yet. There could be several explanations to that. The current lack of content is probably one of them. Another is the lack of common agreed international standards. In this latter area Acreo has during 2011 been involved in projects that could make important progresses for 3DTV standards.
One of the 3D projects is from the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG). MPEG is an organization that standardized video codec or compression tech-niques and has had great success with standards both for digital standard TV and HDTV. They are now working towards the next generation 3D video codes.
Video quality tests
In the process MPEG has issued a call for pro-posal, which is a kind of competition to find the best performing compression algorithms for this purpose. In order to evaluate the performances of the submitted algorithm 3D video quality data was decided to be collected. Experiments with normal viewers were performed at laboratories all over the world. Acreo was one of 12 labs performing video quality tests. The test result indicates that a clear quality improvement was achieved by many pro-
posals, as compared to earlier coding standards. A new video codec standard could be expected earli-est in a couple of years.
Cooperation with TCO Development
One other project in this area that Acreo has been involved in during 2011 is in the development of the visual ergonomic requirements for a new display label from TCO Development, targeting 3DTV. These are new products for the custom-ers with new strength and weaknesses, for which the consumers do not yet have the experience to judge. One such parameter is crosstalk, which is the incomplete isolation between the left and right channels, with e.g. ghosting as a visible distortion. There are two competing technologies on the mar-ket for glasses based 3DTV i.e. passive polarized and active shutter glasses. A large effort has been put into evaluating their pros and cons. For exam-ple the passive technique may give lower experi-enced resolution whereas the active technique may cause visible flicker.
In addition to the above described projects Acreo has also been involved in 3DTV standardization work within the Video Quality Experts Group (VQEG) and the International Committee for Dis-play Metrology (ICDM).
Kjell Brunnström, [email protected]
Standardization development for 3DTV
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Acreo has carried out a pre-study to evaluate the socio-economic return of FTTH investment in Sweden, on behalf of the Swedish govern-ment’s Broadband Council (Bredbandsforum).
The study has investigated the effects of fiber-based broadband on economic growth, at a na-tional level, based on data from municipalities and regions. The result demonstrates that a fi-ber investment generates economic gain in three to four years.
30-50% lower costs for the public sector
The greatest impact is found for the public sector where telecommunications-related costs can be cut by 30-50% thanks to the availability of fiber. The study also shows that the municipalities that have invested in fiber are set to see a positive growth in the form of increased employment, as well im-proved population trend.
ROI is expected to be greater
The study first estimates the investment needed to connect the remaining households that do not have access to fiber. It then performs a statistical analy-
Fiber – a good investment for society
sis that links fiber penetration to specific socio-economic factors (data from Statistics Sweden, SCB, and the Swedish Post and Telecommunica-tions Authority, PTS). This is complemented with meta-analysis, as well as data collected by Acreo through surveys and in-depth interviews with lo-cal governments, telecom operators and network owners, to obtain a first estimate of the return of investment year by year, up to five years after the investment. The actual return is expected to be greater than what is calculated in the study, due to effects currently not quantifiable; and besides, indirect and induced economic effects are likely to increase over time.
Marco Forzati and Crister Mattsson, [email protected] [email protected]
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Together with five other partners Acreo is work-ing on the emerging topic of Software Defined Networking (SDN), primarily within the frame-work of the EU project SPARC. Sprung from the US GENI project and Stanford University, SDN looks like a promising way forward when it comes to network control and management. Additionally, it should improve network flex-ibility as well as enabling faster innovation in network functionality.
In the traditional router model seen in figure 1) a router’s control plane communicates with the out-side world using various protocols and then au-tonomously decides what actions to take. Typically this involves a process running within a closed
operating system calling a proprietary API which in turn causes the operating system to program spe-cialized forwarding hardware, again using a pro-prietary API. Adding new functionality to a router usually involves standardizing a new protocol that (often) re-invents distribution-, signaling- and other mechanisms, and then waiting for vendors to implement the new protocol. Comparing this pro-cess to how it works in the PC world reveals why network development is moving so slow compared to other areas. In the PC world, where well defined and open APIs exists, anyone can quickly add functionality by simply writing a piece of software and installing it on their machine, often reusing existing functionality through software libraries.
SDN proposes to break apart the traditional model by creating open APIs between the hardware and
the operating system,and between operating system and network applications. In the SDN model (seen in figure 1) a Network Operating System (NOS) is responsible for maintaining an up-to-date view1 of the network and its current state, the NOS may be implemented as a distributed system running between several servers in order to increase its resiliency and scalability. The NOS does not only maintain a view of the network but is also respon-sible for accepting changes to the view and imple-menting the changes on the network hardware. Changes to the view come from network applica-tions running on top of the operating system, these are software modules that are able to access the network view maintained by the NOS as well as
modifying it. Adding new functionality be-comes much simpler; just write a software module utilizing the API provided by the NOS and the NOS is responsible for updat-ing the network and distributing the new state.
Most well known in the SDN world is OpenFlow, an open protocol designed to expose the internals of a router or switch and provide functional-ity to modify it. The protocol models a routers internals as a FlowTable, a table containing rules that can be used to match an incoming packet, for ex-ample destination IPv4 address 1.2.3.4 with TCP destination port 80, and a number of ac-tions, for example, modify the destination address and output
1 A graph of the nodes and links in the network, with all their attributes.
Software Defined Networks – a new standards is evolving
Figure 1. From traditional routers to SDN.
Figure 2. SPARC demo setup, a SDN MPLS access/aggregation network integrated with a legacy IP/MPLS core.
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the packet on interface 4. If an incoming packet does not match an existing rule in the router, the packet can be sent to the NOS where a network ap-plication can investigate further, and perhaps install a new rule that takes care of packets belonging to this particular flow of packets. The OpenFlow protocol is currently in heavy development and is by no means complete, it is not unlikely that up-dated protocols will appear in the future once it has become clearer how one should actually see and interact with the internals of a router.
While the field of SDN is still in its infancy, an of-ficial standardization body (the Open NetworkingFoundation2) was established just last year, shift-ing the control from academia to industry. Several products are already available, for example from NEC and IBM. These products typically focus on datacenter applications where complicated network setups are difficult to manage using existing pro-tocols. In the SPARC project we have chosen to focus on a different area, namely ISP access- and aggregation networks. In this project we are inves-tigating if it’s possible to apply the SDN approach to simplify carrier networks, with all the require-ments on reliability and resiliency that comes along with that.
2 www.opennetworking.org
In one of the SPARC demonstrations, can be seen in figure 2), we have integrated an SDN controlled OpenFlow-MPLS network with an existing legacy IP/MPLS controlled core network. The routers in the aggregation network only “speak” OpenFlow to the NOS. The NOS in turn is responsible for communicating through OSPF, LDP, RSVP-TE and BGP to the legacy network. Information reach-ing the NOS from the legacy network triggers it to calculate paths through the OpenFlow network and establish point-to-point and multipoint-to-point connections for services, for example Internet connectivity or IPTV transmissions. If links in the OpenFlow network fails, either the NOS quickly calculate new paths and re-establishes connectivity, or the switches themselves fail-over to pre-estab-lished protection paths.
While the SPARC project itself is ending in 2012, we are continuing with further research within the promising and fast moving area of SDN.
Pontus Sköldström, [email protected]
Figure 2. SPARC demo setup, a SDN MPLS access/aggregation network integrated with a legacy IP/MPLS core.
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Broadband networks are today primarily used for commercial services as Internet access, IP-telephony and IPTV. However, broadband based services are becoming increasingly im-portant for other areas such as health care and safety, real estate services for energy saving and control.
These services put new demands on the broadband network and communication. Most of these new requirements are linked to security in terms of ro-bustness, availability, confidentiality and privacy, whereas the solutions shall function in an open multi-service and multi-operator environment.
Testbeds with end-user involvement
Acreo has together with 20 partners representing network owners and operators, equipment suppli-ers and service providers been granted VINNOVA financing for the project “Broadband Testbed for Secure Access of public services”. The project de-velops robust communication solutions for secure access of public services by establishing require-ments for the property and home networks, creat-ing a system environment for the home and to ver-ify the solutions in a testbed environment. Acreo has a long experience in developing and running
testbeds. The Acreo National Testbed is a meeting place for a wide spectrum of regional, national and international institutions and companies working with research and commercialization of products and services for broadband networks; A testbed with the end-user in focus.
Gateway functionality for e-health
The main application areas for the project are healthcare and safety. So far the project has devel-oped solutions for the Gateway functionality for e-health, Robust 3:rd party SW in OSGI environ-ment, Secure authorization of users and equipment and Dual Homing between Fixed and Mobile network. These solutions will be implemented in gateways and demonstrated in e-health use cases in Acreo`s testbed. The project will run until August 2013.
Örjan Mattsson, [email protected]
Internet
Home Network
Home Network
Medical Device
IP-Alarm
Telephone
TV
Real EstateServices
Home ServiceHome
Service
Alarm CenterAlarm Center
HospitalHospital
MultimediaMultimedia
Real Estae System
Real Estae System
Fastighets-nät
WAN
Fastighets-nät
WAN
PropertyNetwork
City Network
InternetInternet
Home Network
Home Network
Medical DeviceMedical Device
IP-AlarmIP-Alarm
TelephoneTelephone
TVTV
Real EstateServicesReal EstateServices
Home ServiceHome
Service
Alarm CenterAlarm Center
HospitalHospital
MultimediaMultimedia
Real Estae System
Real Estae System
Fastighets-nät
WAN
Fastighets-nät
WAN
PropertyNetwork
Fastighets-nät
WAN
Fastighets-nät
WAN
PropertyNetwork
City Network
Secure access - ICT and testbeds for health care applications
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Acreo has together with Mid-Sweden Univer-sity, Mittuniversitetet, enabled Internet con-nection of a fire detection system from Fiberson AB. The system can now be easily accessed and monitored remotely from the web browser or a smartphone using an Android app.
We are very satisfied with the results of the co-operation with Acreo. Flexible monitoring and management over the Internet opens new markets for our products and solutions, says Anders Larsson CEO of Fiberson.
Internet of things is an enabler
The number of sensors and devices connected to the Internet will increase dramatically the com-ing years. The Internet of Things is the vision of immense numbers of connected devices. Acreo performs research in the area of Internet of Things and future smart living. The research address e.g. questions on how should data be made available, organized and how access should be managed. The solution provided to Fiberson was specifically developed for a fire detection system but the archi-tecture is scalable and the solution is applicable to many other types of sensors and sensing elements.
Fire alarm on the network
Fiberson is an SME that has developed a family of fire and heat detection systems based on special fiber optic sensor cables. The systems are capable of detecting the heat of a fire over a total sensor cable length of 2000 meters and are suitable for monitoring of e.g. buildings, road tunnels, ventila-tion ducts, high voltage power cables etc.
The solution for remote monitoring was developed by Acreo for Fiberson as part of a student project at Mid-Sweden University. It consists in three main parts. First a TCP/IP interface of the sensor unit built on an Arduino open source PCB board. Sec-ondly a middleware server that continuously polls the status of the fire detecting system. Separating the middleware sever from the sensor unit makes, among other things, the architecture scalable to many sensors. Finally an Android app that runs in the background on the smartphone and that re-ceives status updates from the middleware server.
Olle Johansson, [email protected]
Android based monitoring of networked fire alarm
Figure 1. Fire detection system Figure 2. Android Client
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Gunnar Jacobsen, CTO Broadband Technology at Acreo, has received a 3 year prolongation of his previous appointment Adjunct Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in the area of ICT and Optical Communication Systems. This new appointment is a proof of a successful partnership between Acreo and KTH. Acreo is focusing on network implementations at 100 Gb to 100 Tb, specializing in system performance evaluation; a perfect complement to the re-search at KTH in advanced system components.
“This close partnership between Acreo and KTH strengthens the research community in Kista within ICT and specifically in the field of Optical Com-munication”, says the awarded Professor Gunnar Jacobsen at Acreo. “The cooperation, between Acreo and KTH, enables us to offer state-of-the-art research environments to Swedish and internation-al industry for their R&D efforts.”
“Value creation happens when individuals and organizations meet. KTH has set a strategy to increase knowledge transfer and exchange of com-petence between academia and industry. To appoint Adjunct Professors at Acreo is part of this strategy” says Margareta Norell-Bergendahl, Vice Presi-dent at KTH. “An increased movement of people between academia, industry and organizations, such as Acreo, is an excellent way of transferring research results and competence; and to create value.”
The collaboration also gives more dedicated re-search activities at Acreo through joint PhD and MSc projects between KTH and Acreo in the Opti-cal Communication System area; with special em-phasis on coherent optical communication systems and network implementation.
“We work closely with both industry and aca-demia, which is stimulating and rewarding; seeing your research results turn into business value” says Professor Gunnar Jacobsen at Acreo. “Examples of important future research questions to seek the answer to is how to implement high capacity and high constellation coherent systems; both cost and
energy effectively, in a situation where the Shanon limit* is approached”
*the Shanon limit is a fundamental signal-to-noise based specification which gives the upper limit for the total capacity of a transmission medium e.g. an optical fiber.
Professor Gunnar Jacobsen has had a close col-laboration with KTH since 2006. He was appointed adjunct professor at the department of Photonics and Microwave engineering in 2008. There is a possibility of prolongation for a total of 12 years and every 6th year there is a thorough scientific and business case evaluation and a final decision is made by the President of KTH
Gunnar Jacobsen, CTO Acreo Broadband [email protected]
Acreo speeds up Optical Communication together with KTH
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OFC/NFOEC March 2012
Latest advances in optical telecommunication were presented at OFC/NFOEC 2012 - the world’s leading event in the area.
As IP traffic continues to increase and the router interface rate extends beyond 100 gigabits-per-sec-ond (Gb/s), future optical networks achieve speeds of 1 terabit-per-second (Tb/s) will be required to support the rapid growth of data traffic.
By using coherent transmission technology paired with advanced new modulation formats it is now possible to construct transmission systems that approaches the fundamental capacity limit – the Shannon limit – of an optical fiber. At this year’s conference there were discussions on how to maxi-mize the capacity and what the Shannon limit re-ally implies for a single mode optical fiber.
A “hot” field for research is Space Division Multi-plexing (SDM) as a means of increasing the capac-ity beyond that of a single-mode optical fiber. This technology relies on simultaneously using multiple modes of and does not (of course) violate the Shan-non limit. Many argue that SDM will be essential in order to continue the dramatic reductions in cost per bit of optical long-haul systems. Skeptics worry
that the huge investment required to invent and commercialize critical cost-effective SDM-compat-ible network elements, such as optical amplifiers and ROADMs, will not be justified by a one-time increase in capacity.
Acreo reported research results in two presenta-tions at the conference. Marco Forzati demon-strated how the quality of a signal carrying 224 Gbit/s can be improved by a novel compensation scheme. Improved signal quality can be translated into longer reach. Mikhail Popov presented an integrated multiservice network demonstrator, in-cluding two home networks, two PON systems and one double-ring metro system. This research was performed within the IP ALPHA, a large project on in-building networks in the European 7 th Frame-work Programme coordinated by Acreo.
Anders Berntson, Department Manger Acreo Broadband [email protected]
Photo: Gunnar Hamber
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Swedish ICT is leading an initiative aiming to detail a generic information and communica-tion infrastructure for Stockholm Royal Seaport (Norra Djurgårdstaden), a much talked about new city district of Stockholm. The VINNOVA-funded project, Smart ICT for living and work-ing in Stockholm Royal Seaport, engages about a dozen small and large companies from the telecom sector, construction companies, and the City of Stockholm.
Acreo and SICS represents Swedish ICT in the project which in many aspects can be seen as a continuation of previous Acreo activities – but now in a bigger project with more partners than we usu-ally experience in a national project.
Generic ICT communication platform
The idea behind the project is to formulate a ge-neric ICT communication platform which can be utilized by all industry segments and stakeholders. Openness on all levels is important, and this in turn will enable third-party developers to contribute with innovative new services and products.
Today different industry sectors tend to focus on proprietary solutions in “vertical structures”. A consequence of this could be several parallel IT-
systems to the customers with almost the same basic functionality, but serving only specific sectors. Such multiple systems with many boxes at the consum-ers are of course undesirable from a sustainability point-of-view and should be avoided. In the consor-tium we want to achieve: One common, horizontal structure, open for all!
New business model opportunities
A common platform is a complex technical achieve-ment, but perhaps even more complex is how the business models should match such a scenario. As we have seen with the ICT industry this transition will lead to new business models and methods of organisation, and new players will appear while traditional players may radically change their opera-tions.
Acreo has previously worked with services and equipment close to the end user in strong collabora-tion with user organizations and industrial partners, most notably within the smart home and eHealth. Many of those partners have now been brought into the Smart ICT project where we together will de-velop and demonstrate new, innovative solutions.
Claus Popp Larsen, [email protected]
Smart ICT for sustainable living in Stockholm Royal Seaport
www.acreo.se
