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31 December 2006 - Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.

It takes a consistently high transmission quality to convey phone calls, videos and information over the Internet all at the same time. Fraunhofer researchers are testing prototypes for the next-generation Internet in a project known as NGN-PlaNetS.

There can be no doubt about it: Our data highways are getting crowded. In addition to e-mails, images and music files, the Internet is increasingly being called upon to transport phone calls and video movies. "Triple play" is the magic word: the parallel transmission of information, voice and video images in real time. At present, though, network operators are finding it hard to cope with the rising data stream. Customers with a DSL connection expect high-speed delivery of data at all times despite the growing volume of information, but there is no guarantee that they will get it. At peak traffic times, the data stream slows down and data may even be lost on the way. This type of failure severely impairs Internet telephony, as the words get chopped up and are inclined to echo. When videos are played back in real time, a time delay causes the picture to jerk. It is therefore essential to have a guaranteed data transmission rate for future multimedia applications.

Scientists from the Munich-based Fraunhofer Institute for Communication Systems ESK and the University of Paderborn are among the participants in a collaborative project with Infineon Technologies dubbed "NGN PlaNetS", which has been set up to investigate the use of Ethernet on the Internet. This technology has been established in private and corporate networks for a long time, and it is cheaper than expanding network capacity, too. "Ethernet has the advantage of being used already in more than 95 percent of home and company networks. That makes it easier to combine it with the Internet," explains ESK scientist Dietmar Tölle. The researchers have meanwhile demonstrated in a laboratory that Ethernet is indeed able to handle triple-play services.

The Ethernet solution enables data streams to be delivered without difficulty at the same time as videos and telephone calls. The system is flexible enough to bypass overloaded sections of the data path via alternative routes. The ESK has developed procedures for monitoring all current data streams and re-routing them where there is a risk of congestion. The industrial partners in the NGN-PlaNetS project are testing these procedures in prototypes for the next generation of Internet.

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About: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft undertakes applied research of direct utility to private and public enterprise and of wide benefit to society. Its services are solicited by customers and contractual partners in industry, the service sector and public administration. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft maintains over 80 research units at more than 40 different locations throughout Germany. A staff of some 12,700, predominantly qualified scientists and engineers, works with an annual research budget of over one billion euros. Of this sum, more than € 900 million is generated through contract research. Two thirds of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s contract research revenue is derived from contracts with industry and from publicly financed research projects. The remaining one third is contributed by the German federal and Länder governments, as a means of enabling the institutes to pursue more fundamental research in areas that are likely to become relevant to industry and society in five or ten years’ time.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is also active on an international level: Affiliated research centers and representative offices in Europe, the USA and Asia provide contact with the regions of greatest importance to present and future scientific progress and economic development.

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