Opportunistic networks and Cognitive Management Systems for Efficient Application Provision in the Future Internet

Due to the need of supporting diversified services with vastly expanded use of wireless access, the Future Internet will set the networks under stress for resources. This motivates the quest for efficiency, through technologies that achieve:

• higher utilization of resources;
•  lower transmission powers and energy consumption (decisions with “green” footprint);
• reductions in the total cost of ownership. OneFIT proposes a solution that achieves these targets, and thus, creates important value-adding opportunities for the user and the wireless industry.

The solution comprises:

• opportunistic networks, which are operator-governed (through the provision of spectrum, policies, information and knowledge, exploited for their creation), temporary, coordinated extensions of the infrastructure that may include network elements, and devices potentially organized in an infrastructure-less manner;
• cognitive systems for managing the opportunistic networks (CMONs) and for coordinating the infrastructure (CSCIs); 
•  control channels for the cooperation of the cognitive management systems (C4MS).

Scenarios in which efficient business and service offerings are enabled have been defined. These are cases requiring the resolution of congestion situations or the expansion of the coverage of the infrastructure, or involving localized application/service provision. CMON/CSCI functionality and the C4MS will provide the means for determining the suitability, creating, maintaining and releasing opportunistic networks. The SOTA will be progressed in the areas: node/infrastructure discovery, candidate node determination, spectrum opportunity identification/generation, spectrum allocation,routing, QoS control, forced termination handling. Validation will rely on simulation, and on experiments with a powerful hardware platform and social networking and prosumer applications. C4MS standardization and regulation, and overall dissemination/training, activities will be done.

Project Website: http://www.ict-onefit.eu/