Intune in successful EU R&D Award to design a Future Telecoms Metro Network

Dublin, 15th Feb 2010

Intune will provide its unique technology to the program to design a future Telecoms Network able to absorb increased traffic demands at a minimum cost. The consortium includes telecoms operators Telefónica I+D (R&D company of Telefonica Group) and PrimeTel (national operator in Cyprus). The consortium also includes Italian software company Nextworks, and the University of Essex and University Autonoma Madrid.

The consortium will explore, design and prototype new Metro Network Architectures based on two key technological pillars: the subwavelength optical switching technologies in the Data Plane (i.e. optical bursts and packets), and an enhanced GMPLS architecture in the Control Plane to extend network control to the subwavelengths, and ease the interworking of network and IT resources. The proposed architecture targets an increased flexibility, control and mobility to businesses and consumers alike, while significantly lowering costs, in order to allow the demanding next generation of ICT services to be rolled out, in a cost efficient way.

As an example of the kind of applications enabled by the network architecture proposed, project will demonstrate the virtualisation of the standard Personal Computer. This application would permit each user to utilise a low cost, low power device - whilst their data and compute power sits inside the network. Widespread deployment of this type of service could dramatically reduce the energy bills of users and operators, while also delivering social and economic benefits to the IT industry.


The EU Programme is entitled MAINS – Metro Architectures Enabling Sub- Wavelengths. The programme is part of a larger EU Framework which will research the Network of the Future. The MAINS project will design a programmable network to demonstrate a practical and cost effective way to implement network resident IT services (e.g Virtual PC). Future IT applications can use this programming interface to program liquid bandwidth on-demand to service their requirements.

Tim Fritzley, CEO of Intune Networks said, “It is a major vote of confidence in Intune’s technology to be part of such a high profile EU research grant. We are delighted to be working with such high calibre partners from both the commercial and academic communities. This places Intune Networks at the cutting edge of future telecoms network development in Europe.”

“The problem Intune has solved is how to evolve telecoms network architectures to cope with the massive increase in traffic demand while sustaining profitability and controlling costs,” Mr Fritzley went on to say. “Intune has packaged this breakthrough technology into a carrier-grade networking system with a modern software interface, which we will use to work with the consortium as a critical element in developing the Network of the Future.”