EU – Carmen
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SUMMARY
The EU project CARMEN addresses one of the fundamental challenges of the Future Internet, which is that of providing backhaul solutions for radio access networks. While previous solutions are very costly and have significant limitations, CARMEN has proposed a new paradigm based on mesh networks that enables lower cost solutions with greater flexibility, and is capable of delivering carrier grade services by using a heterogeneous radio technology multi-hop backhaul. This represents a high benefit for the end-users, providing them with new and higher quality services at a lower cost. The project has been consistently evaluated with the highest rating in all technical audits, and has been qualified by the reviewers as a ”high-achieving project” with ”an impressive contribution advancing the state-of-the-art”. The CARMEN project has been successfully demonstrated in operators’ testbeds and has led to successful technology transfer performed by manufacturers. Furthermore, its results have been standardized and are being applied to developing countries.
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KEY OUTPUTS/RESULTS
*Scientific results: The results of the CARMEN project have been published in the most prestigious venues in the field, including 30 leading conferences and 24 top journals, among them IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. CARMEN results have also been shown in three project workshops (co-located with ICT Mobile Summit, IEEE INFOCOM and IEEE WoWMoM) and in two special issues organized by the project (in the journals IEEE Wireless Communications and Elsevier Computer Networks).
* Results in technology transfer: CARMEN has resulted in very successful technology transfer. A total of 12 patent applications have been issued by the two manufacturers of the consortium (Alcatel-Lucent and NEC) to protect the key ideas resulting from the project. The project results have also been adopted by several standardization bodies (the recently approved IEEE 802.21b standard is largely based on CARMEN results, as well as several RFCs and Working Group drafts of the IETF). Additionally, the technology developed by the project is being transferred into developing countries by Fraunhofer under the umbrella of Networks for Developing Countries, contributing thus to reduce the digital divide.
* Demonstration and implementation results: The CARMEN architecture has been implemented and exhaustively evaluated. This has resulted in 4 demonstrators shown at international conferences (ICT Future Network & Mobile Summit 2010 and 2011, ACM SIGCOMM 2010 and AFRICOMM 2010) and in two testbeds deployed by the operators of the consortium (Deutsche Telekom and British Telecom). These testbeds have validated the CARMEN architecture and shown the value and usefulness of the technology for the citizens and the society.
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