The UNITE project aimed to encapsulate the common features of cellular, wireless (3G, WMAN, WLAN) and DVB broadcasting to provide a scalable, extendible, evaluation and co-existence Virtual Distributed Testbed (VDT) to investigate cross-layer and cross-system optimisation. The VDT platform was the enabler for a showcase tool for beyond3G systems.
Main Objectives
The beyond 3G scenario depicted a diverse wireless networking world of “network of wireless networks” accommodating a variety of radio technologies and mobile service requirements in a seamless manner. The achievement of this vision raised significant research challenges in view of system coexistence; system scale; network robustness requirements; and evaluation tool design and modelling. UNITE addressed the aforementioned research challenges by:
- Implementing an efficient, accurate and scalable Virtual Distributed Testbed (VDT) to support cross-system and cross-layer optimization of heterogeneous systems in a unified manner.
- Using VDT, to investigate, design and evaluate cross-layer and cross-system interactions among next generation radio protocols without neglecting important real-system details.
The Pan-European VDT (an important UNITE innovation) will offer the following key beneficial attributes on a European scale: - A platform for realization of existing and future radio standards.
- An end-user transparent framework with ‘plug and play’ features to support cross-system and cross-layer algorithmic testing in a beyond 3G heterogeneous environment.
- The enabler for cross-layer optimization to attain an optimized radio access network solution in view of E2E (End-to-End) performance.
UNITE encapsulated the common features of cellular, wireless (3G, WMAN, WLAN) and DVB broadcasting to provide a scalable, extendible, evaluation and co-existence optimization tool. Its intention, to push back the boundaries on simulation tool design by removing the constraints on abstract modelling of layers. UNITE made available a complete set of evaluation tools to model protocol behaviour within L1 to L3, so that a ‘richer’ set of cross-layer parameters could be made available for optimization, either coexisting within an organization, or geographically distributed.
The UNITE project was brought forward by a consortium including University of Surrey (UK), PDM&FC (PT), Instituto Telecomunicações (PT), France Telecom R&D (FR), Institut EURECOM (FR), Rohde & Schwarz (DE), NCSR Demokritos (GR), University of Aegean (GR), CEA LETI (FR) and Sigint Solutions Ltd. (CY)
*UNITE is a Specific Targeted Research Project (STREP) supported by the European 6th Framework Programme, Contract number IST-FP6-STREP-026906, Project duration 1st February 2006 to 31st January 2009 (36 months)