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Innovative Research in Next Generation Networks
Since its inception in 1992, MMCI's innovaiton in communications have been fueled by a constant flow
of ideas. We have closely cooperated with the industry leading research institutes and braodband network
equipment suppliers. Our current research efforts focus on the development of intelligent control system
for the next generation distributed broadband network.
Immediate Goals
Our immediate goals are to further advance the existing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
technology and standards so that either small or large scale networks will provide:
- reliable and guaranteed mission critical
services
- cost-effective network services and management
Advanced Capabilities
To achieve these goals, we are developing an Intelligent Broadband Network Control (I-BNC)
system, which includes several advanced network control, service, and management functions.
Intelligent Broadband Network Control (I-BNC) System
- Priority Connection Admission Control (P-CAC) will accept incoming mission critical
(higher priority) calls even when the desired bandwidth exceeds the
available resources. The P-CAC will "steal" network resources from the
existing lower priority services based on certain intelligent rules such
that the impact will be minimized.
- Mulit-Level Self-Healing Control (M-SHC) will enable fast recovery of QoS and
bandwidth requirments from failures that occur at various network
levels. The M-SHC will be based on VP and VC restoration to provide a
cost-effective survivable network with reliable, flexible and global
self-healing capabilities.
- Adaptive Quality of Service (A-QoS) will take the commands from operators or network
(including P-CAC and M-SHC), and accordingly adjust the QoS requirements
on the dynamic and distributed basis. The A-QoS will incorporate
distributed and synchronized database directory systems for
geographically dispersed large-scale networks.
- On-Demand Dynamic Bandwidth Adjustment (O-DBA) will adjust the bandwidth allocation to
meet the dynamically changing QoS requirements, which are provided
through the A-QoS.
- Web-based Network Management System (W-NMS) will provide intuitive and user friendly
interfaces tailored to the experiences of the user community. The W-NMS will be based on the
state-of-the-art Web technology, HHTP protocol, and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
Extended Services
Our innovations will extend the benefits from the immediate goals into the following services:
- Simple Operator Support Services - Our W-NMS capability will reduct the level of training
required for the operator to control the network and simplify the
operations complexity to billing and customer care.
- Cost-Effective Service Restoration Services - Our M-SHC capability will provide reliable
premium service on a connection by connection basis according to the
actual usage rate, rather than the current service based on SONET path
or link rate.
- Cost-Effective Private Line Services - Our A-QoS and O-DBA capabilities will allow
customers to pay for only the bandwidth actually used, rather than a
flat rate based on its peak usage, and will result in a much lower
expense.
- Cost-Effective Wireless QoS Service - Our A-QoS and O-DBA capability will provide
"best effort" QoS as a premium service. Current wireless service does not offer QoS provisioning
due to unpredictable routing pattern during the roaming and handoff processes.
Status
Our innovative effort was funded through the Federal government under a Small Business Innovative
Research (SBIR) program. The key concepts were developed jointly with well known scholars in
BellCore, and the conceptual feasiblity has been demonstrated successfully during the Phase I of the
project from early 1996 to mid-1997. We are currently partnered with industry leading ATM suppliers
to realize these innovative concepts into state-of-the-art products.
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