ETSI, Testbed Botnia and Fraunhofer Fokus Visit TSSG to Formalise Strategic Relationships

On the 19th of January, the TSSG played host to a visit from
the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Testbed
Bothnia and Fraunhofer Fokus, with a view to formalising collaborations
between the TSSG and their organisations. Diarmuid McIntyre the Applied
Innovation and Research Manager of the TSSG hosed the visit attended by
Scott Moseley of ETSI, Thomas Magedanz of Fraunhofer Fokus, and Mats
Eriksson of CDT-Testbed Botnia Fraunhofer Fokus and ETSI have been very
active partners in the TSSG-led 5th Framework project OPIUM, and
together with Testbed Bothnia and TSSG have formed the board of the
Integrated Project on Federated beyond3G Testbeds for wireless research
CREATION which is co-ordinated by Diarmuid McIntyre. The TSSG CREATION
team of Diarmuid McIntyre and Miguel Ponce de Leon is currently
awaiting final word on the funding for the project. The group took
advantage of the visit to identify and address operational issues for
the CREATION project and to examine funding possibilities funding for
complementary projects. Mats and Scott also attend the National
Telecommunications Services Research Centre (NTSRC) SFI Site Visit
presentation which gave them a very strong overview of the future
research direction of the TSSG. Thomas is already a visiting professor
of the NTSRC. Fokus's 3Gb testbed, and CDT Testbed Bothnia focus on
end-user interaction are experiences TSSG is eager to learn from and is
working closely with ETSI on new models for its interoperability
service. Diarmuid McIntyre will be returning the visit to Nice, Berlin,
and Lulea in late February and March with a view to finalising formal
strategic relationships. The visit forms part of an active TSSG process
of formally establishing relationships with both key industry players
and complementary international research groups, in addition to its
more ad-hoc partnerships through large scale European funded projects.
Collaboration types planned include

• Targeted Exchange of researchers (especially Master and Phd
  candidates) with core partner sites, including their staffs
  participation in ARI 'sub-projects'
  
  
• The Applied Research & Innovation division's proposed
  beyond 3gb testbed to be initiated in parallel with CREATION will allow
  for the rapid prototyping, validation, and conformance testing in
  wireless research in applications and services
  
  
• Formal collaborations leading to joint result exploitation and swift commercialisation
  
  
• Joint development of 'touchable' demonstrations of the
  practical application of next generation technologies in order to
  address research challenges, deployment obstacles, advance take up,
  generate feedback, or spark market interest.