November 17, 2008 The World Wireless Research Forum predicts seven trillion devices for seven billion people by 2017. Anticipating a future in which individual consumers have hundreds, or even thousands of wireless devices, the EU-funded €16.3 million MAGNET Beyond project has designed a wireless network structure that will easily and securely link them all. The 4G “Network of Everything” would be a secure multi-network, multi-device, multi-user personal network that gives users constant access to all their devices, no matter what the distance is between them.
The MAGNET Beyond (My personal Adaptive Global NET and Beyond) project has 30 partners from 15 countries, and builds upon the findings of earlier projects PACWOMAN and MAGNET. The project names user-centricity, personalization and personal networking as the guiding design principles, promising that no user in the 4G era will have to wave their laptop around to get a wireless signal, or fiddle with the Bluetooth settings on their phone. The MAGNET Beyond proposal, called the Personal Network, will integrate the currently used Personal Area Networks with wireless wide area networks, delivering a far broader area of access for users.
The goals of the MAGNET Beyond project are to create roadmaps for the development and evolution of PNs, generate system specs for the first generation of PNs, design cost-effective platforms, gauge the market potential, and introduce a pilot program. By achieving this, it is hoped that companies will have a solid foundation to work with when designing future wireless devices.
“We have a user-centric approach,” reveals Professor Liljana Gavrilovska, Technical Manager of the MAGNET Beyond project. “With the overall objective to design, develop, demonstrate and validate the concept of a flexible PN that supports resource-efficient, robust, ubiquitous personal services in a secure, heterogeneous networking environment for mobile users.”
Via: ICT Results.
