Research focus

The focus of CREATE-NET’s research is on the Internet of the Future, both in terms of infrastructure and services.

Network of the future

The Internet of the Future is characterized by a massive proliferation of intelligent devices, where billions or even trillions of small electronic devices will be embedded in everyday objects to support us in our daily activities. This in turn will entail a massive increase in the complexity and heterogeneity of the network infrastructure characterized by convergence (fixed and mobile), and support for sensors, mobility and a variety of new highly-dynamic services.

To handle this change requires moving beyond the principle which is at the basis of conventional engineering, namely predictability. Going forward we need to design for uncertainties and autonomicity. This underpins a fundamental shift in design focus, from performance-oriented design to design for robustness and resilience. To cope with the dynamism intrinsically present in such systems will require evolve-ability, defined as the ability to dynamically adapt and evolve in an unsupervised manner. New bottom-up paradigms (including bio-inspired approaches) will be required to address issues of scalability, reliability/resilience, interoperability, security, and limitations of power, mobility and spectrum

Services centered on User and Community

ICT has been going through fundamental change, moving from a technology-centric vision to a user/community-centric one. As technology becomes more pervasive and omnipresent, it plays a greater role in shaping the daily lives of people in society and the way they carry out their day to day activities. It also represents a fundamental factor in future economic growth. The combination of technological innovation and socio-economic change is eliciting a growing demand on the part of the consumers to obtain solutions better suited to their needs and mentality. New mechanisms are required which enable users to interact with each other and the environment without specific knowledge of the technology, anywhere, anytime, in a natural way

The ICT market is witnessing the huge success of start-ups (MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Second Life, etc.) predicated on the concept that users are creators of services and content rather than passive consumers, a new sociological phenomenon considered the “next big thing”. Also major companies (Apple, Google, Nokia, Sony, SAP, etc.) are remodeling their vision to embrace the user-centered, ecosystem paradigm, which focuses on social interactions and community growth. Of particular importance in the future is the creation of mechanisms which enable SME, the backbone of the European economy, to compete on equal footing with larger companies.

In an environment with tremendous quantities of potentially accessible personal information, including those collected by trillions of pervasive devices, security and privacy are paramount: Who owns the data and who should be able to access it? Which policies and regulations apply?

CREATE-NET’s Vision

Using a multi-disciplinary approach we create a bridge between researchers, communities and industry in order to address these ICT and societal challenges. Our focus is on creating the technologies that enable “building the global networked society of the future”

Scientific Program

Our main objectives are:

• To participate in the scientific community by doing research at the highest level of quality. This entails publishing in the most important scientific journals such as Journal of Optical Networking, Computer Networks etc. and participating and chairing the most prestigious conferences such as ICUWB, OFC, Pervasive Health, CHINA-COM, BROADNETS, CROWN-COM and SECURE-COM.
• To leverage the innovations arising from our research to license our technology and create startups. We focus on creating market-based plans to exploit technologies and in particular to develop demos, prototypes and proofs of concept tested on our Test-bed, and to apply for patents for the most promising of these technologies.
• To continue to focus on obtaining additional public funding from European (FP7), Italian and local sources, and especially from industry sources.