Politecnico di Torino collaborates with Telecom Infra Project

Founded in February 2016, the Telecom Infra Project is an engineering-focused initiative driven by operators, suppliers, developers, integrators, and startups to disaggregate the traditional network deployment approach. The collective aim of our community is to collaborate on new technologies, examine new business approaches and spur new investments into the telecom space. The founding members – Facebook, Deutsche Telekom, Intel, Nokia and SK Telecom – have since been joined by over 500 carriers, equipment vendors and systems integrators.

The need to innovate telecommunications networks is triggered by the increasing of Internet traffic demand, driven by the ever-enlarging number of high-quality services, such as high definition video and augmented reality.

Politecnico di Torino is part of the Open Optical Packet Transport (OOPT) working group. PoliTo delivers scientific advise in developing new open and common standards for modern optical fiber networks. It is aligned with a key goal of TIP that is simplifying the architecture of communications networks . Such a final objective will be pursued through the disaggregation of equipment, enabling multi-vendor networks based on open source design and control software. So, wide bandwidths flexible networks will be more easily implemented and managed starting from data centers up to back-bone transport networks. For open multi-vendor networks, costs will decrease with respect the present closed implementations. Moreover, network will become flexible and more energy efficient.

"We are excited that Politecnico di Torino is collaborating with operators and technology providers in the Open Optical Transport Project Group. We welcome their contributions and unique point-of-view as an academic institution researching ways to improve optical fiber networks,”  said Hans-Juergen Schmidtke of Facebook, co-chair of TIP’s Open Optical Transport Project Group.

“Participation TIP is a great opportunity for us: it allows to literally see our scientific advances applied in the field, by implementing technological transfer. And so, giving a direct measure of their effectiveness and benefits”, explains Vittorio Curri, faculty at the Dipartimento di Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni of Politecnico and coordinator of the academic del team operating in TIP.

“This high-level collaboration confirms the ability of our Academic Institution to network with large business players to help reaching global strategic goals, and also confirms how PoliTo is internationally recognized for its scientific and technological capabilities”, comments Emilio Paolucci,Vice Rettore for Technological Tranfer.

The original model to measure the Quality of Transmission in optical fiber link has passed several tests carried out in multi-vendor testbeds, and results will be presented at the incoming TIP Summit that will take place in Santa Clara, California on 8-9 November.

The modular multi-vendor approach to network equipment enables higher energy efficiency and larger capacity flexible networks. Furthermore, it may  trigger a relevant cost reduction that will reflect on operators and then to final users. So, a possible positive outcome will be the expansion of the access to the Internet also in the least developed areas of our Planet.