NICTA to design global Internet testbed

Called OneLab2, the project runs over 27 months from September 1 and is the largest of 14 projects inside the European Commission’s (EC) initiative for Future Internet Research and Experimentation (FIRE).

“At the moment, each research group builds its own, often small, facilities,” explained Max Ott, NICTA’s Networked Systems Research Group Manager.

“That not only costs money but also takes time and effort away from the actual research,” he said. “So what about independently building these testbeds in a way that they can easily be combined and re-used by all researchers?”

OneLab2 will attempt to find the best way to design these testbeds. “It will lay the groundwork, and help us decide what should be built,” Ott said.

In addition, NICTA is involved in a wireless work package inside OneLab2 which will address the challenges the Internet faces in connecting to a growing number of wireless devices.

It is envisaged that NICTA’s participation in the project will lead to increased opportunities for experimental research in Australia, educational programs, and an Internet that is well-understood, more secure, and future-proof.

“We want to make sure that issues that arise, for instance, due to our remote location, are as important as any other requirement,” Ott said. “Our knowledge economy needs to be connected to the rest of the world.”

OneLab2 involves a consortium of 26 networking research teams from around the world and is funded through the EC’s 7th Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (FP7).

NICTA’s inclusion in OneLab2 follows the recent announcement of NICTA’s participation in a €3.01m FP7 project called Nano Data Centres, which addresses the way information is delivered over the Internet.

Other OneLab2 participants include British Telecommunications, Alcatel Lucent France SA, and universities such as Tel Aviv University and the University of Basel.

NICTA plans to employ five people full-time on OneLab2 next year.