EUROOPAN YHTEISÖJEN KOMISSIO 
Bryssel, 13.07.1995 
KOM(95) 342 lopull. 
KOMISSION TIEDONANTO 
NEUVOSTOLLE JA EUROOPAN PARLAMENTILLE 
Optisten verkkojen kautta Upahtuvan yhteistoiminnan esittely 
Yhteenveto tuloksista 

Optisten verkkojen kautta tapahtuvan yhteistoiminnan esittely 
Yhteenveto tuloksista 
Euroopan parlamentti teki vuonna 1992 aloitteen optisen viestinnän esittelyn edistämisestä 
yhteisössä tukemalla laajakaistatekniikan kokeilujen, esimerkiksi 'laajakaistayksiköiden' 
(Broadband Islands), ja tehokkaiden tietokoneiden keskusten yhdistämistä jäsenvaltioissa. 
Tämä aloite perustuu jo EU:n kolmannen tutkimus- ja kehityspuiteohjelman (1990-1994) 
yhteydessä tehtyyn tutkimustyöhön. 
Tämä aloite on valmistanut tietä Euroopan laajuisille verkoille ja yhdistetylle 
laajakaistaviestinnälle (TEN-IBC) täydentämällä jäsenvaltioissa ja unionin tutkimuksen ja 
teknologian kehittämisen ohjelmien avulla tehtyä merkittävää työtä. 
Laajakaistayksiköitä on perustettu kaikissa Euroopan maissa joko kansallisten aloitteiden 
tai RACE-ohjelman1 innoittamina, ja niiden avulla on luotu laaja eurooppalainen ympäristö 
yhdistettyä laajakaistaviestintää tavoittelevalle yhteistyölle. Laajakaistayksiköt ovat 
myötävaikuttaneet merkittävästi kehittyneiden televiestintälaitteistojen, -palvelujen ja 
-sovellusten, kuten nopeiden kytkentä- ja siirtojärjestelmien, kehittymiseen. Useimmat 
laajakaistayksiköt ovat syntyneet tutkijoiden, teollisuuden ja verkkopalvelujen tarjoajien 
yhteistyönä. 
Esittelyn edistämiseksi Euroopan komissio julkaisi kiinnostuksenilmaisupyynnön2, joka oli 
avoin kaikille tehokkaan tietojenkäsittelyn tai viestinnän keskuksille. Tämän pyynnön 
tuloksena syntyi neljä hanketta3, jotka kestivät pisimmillään 12 kuukautta. Hankkeet 
tarjosivat laajakaistapalveluita, mukaan lukien multimedia ja monen osapuolen 
yhteistoiminta. Unionin tarjoamaa taloudellista tukea käytettiin vain osaan 
yhteistoiminnan, lähinnä viestinnän ja erityislaitteiden, aiheuttamista kustannuksista 
jäsenvaltioissa sen mukaan, miten talousarviossa oli varattu määrärahoja (4 miljoonaa 
ecua). 
Nämä hankkeet olivat 
Isabel, jolla yhdistettiin laajakaistayksiköitä Espanjan ja Portugalin välillä; 
Tironet. jolla yhdistettiin laajakaistayksiköitä Pohjois-Irlannin ja Irlannin tasavallan välillä; 
BeteL jonka tavoitteena oli yhdistää toimipisteitä Ranskassa ja Sveitsissä; sekä 
HPC-Vision. jolla yhdistettiin toimipisteitä Ranskan ja Saksan välillä. 
Nämä hankkeet olivat meneillään vuonna 1993. Liitteenä olevassa teknisessä asiakirjassa 
esitetään yksityiskohtaisesti hankkeiden organisaatio. Riippumattomat tilintarkastajat 
Euroopan tietoliikenteen huipputeknologian tutkimusohjelma 
EYVL, N:oC219, 26.8J992, s. 11 
Komission päätös E/1848/92 ja E/2106/92, 22.12.1992 
arvioivat hankkeet niiden toiminnan päättyessä. Tilintarkastajien mukaan tulokset 
muodostivat "kiinnostavan ja merkittävän esittelyn erityisesti, kun otetaan huomioon 
käytettävissä olleet rajalliset määrärahat ja rajallinen aika". 
Koska hankkeet liittyivät suuressa määrin liittämistä koskeviin kysymyksiin, hankkeet 
sovitettiin yhteen RACE-hankkeiden kanssa ja niissä vaihdettiin teknisiä tietoja 
käsiteltäviksi tulleista kysymyksistä ja niiden ratkaisemiseen käytetyistä keinoista. Niissä 
osallistuttiin myös joidenkin RACE-hankkeisiin liittyvien yhteisten toiminnallisten 
määritysten laatimiseen. Koska niissä keskityttiin laajakaistayksiköiden yhdistämiseen 
suhteellisen lyhyessä ajassa, niiden avulla laajennettiin paljolti muiden ohjelmien tai 
aloitteiden tähänastisia saavutuksia. Erityisesti on mainittava: 
• laajakaistayksiköt, kuten RIA (Portugali) ja RECIBA (Espanja), jotka 
verkkopalvelujen tarjoajat kehittivät osittain joidenkin RACE-hankkeiden avulla; 
• laajakaistasovellukset, kuten ESPRIT-hanke VIMP; 
• kokeelliset pilottihankkeet, kuten RACE-hanke TIM ja DELTA-hanke EAST; 
• olemassaolevat verkot, kuten Dublinin kaupunkiverkko ja STAR-verkko4 
Belfastissa; sekä 
• olemassaolevat tuotteet ja prototyypit, kuten nopeat vaihteet (ATM ja reitittimet). 
Aloitteen avulla luotiin televiestintäpalvelun perusrakenteet ja perusta laajakaistaviestinnän 
edistämiselle ja laajentamiselle: verkkopalvelujen tarjoajat, käyttäjät ja valmistajat ovat 
käyttäneet laajakaistaympäristöä todellisissa olosuhteissa suoritettaviin testeihin. Hankkeet 
tarjosivat esimerkiksi ensimmäiset kansalliset rajat ylittävät ATM:ään perustuvat palvelut, 
joilla oli merkittävä vaikutus Euroopan tulevan perusrakenteen kehittymiseen. 
Hankkeissa on toteutettu kokeiluina joukko olemassaolevia tai mukautettuja 
laajakaistasovelluksia. Nämä laajakaistasovellukset saattaisivat muodostaa 
lähitulevaisuudessa perustan laajakaistaviestinnän tarjoamiseksi loppukäyttäjille. Näitä 
sovelluksia ovat: 
videokokoukset; 
audiovisuaalinen postitoiminto; 
sähköinen kirjoitustaulu; 
tehokkailla tietokonejärjestelmillä osituskäyttönä tehtävä tietojenkäsittely; 
supertietojenkäsittelytoimintojen etätarjonta; 
visuaalinen tuotantolinjalla tapahtuva valmistettavien osien tarkastus; 
yhteistyöskentely; 
Televiestinnän erityishanke alueellisen kehityksen edistämiseksi. STAR-ohjelman tarkoituksena 
oli parantaa televiestinnän perusrakennetta, jotta sen avulla voitaisiin käyttää kehittyneitä 
televiestintäpalvelulta. 
• robottisovellukset; 
• tietokoneavusteinen kokoustyöskentely, jossa hyödynnetään multimediaa; 
• etäopiskelu eri paikoissa pidettävien yhteisten oppituntien avulla. 
Aloitteen tuloksena laajakaistan käyttäjillä on ollut mahdollisuus kokeilla monia useiden 
järjestöjen laajakaistasovelluksia, joiden ansiosta käyttäjät ovat varhaisessa vaiheessa 
saaneet tilaisuuden nähdä, mitä etuja IBC-sovellukset heille tarjoavat. Tämä on luonut 
IBC:lle kysyntää tulevaisuudessa. 
Julkisten verkkopalvelujen tarjoajien kokemus, jota ne ovat saaneet toimimalla yhdessä 
käyttäjäkohtaisten sovellusten luomiseksi, on vahvistanut niiden tietämystä 
samankaltaisten laajakaistasovellusten tarjoamista mahdollisuuksista. Ne pystyvät myös 
paremmin ymmärtämään teknisiä kysymyksiä, jotka liittyvät leveitä kaistayhteyksiä 
käyttäviin hajautettuihin laajakaistasovelluksiin, esimerkiksi ATM-palvelujen 
laskutussääntöjen määrittämiseen. Käyttäjiltä tulleesta palautteesta oli suoranaista hyötyä 
julkisten verkkojen tarjoajien tulevan kehityksen kannalta, ja Euroopan markkinat 
hyötyivät välillisesti julkisten verkkojen tarjoajien omassa kehitystyössään hankkimien 
kokemusten yhdistämisen ansiosta. Jos hankkeiden tuloksia käytetään oikein, ne voivat 
suuressa määrin myötävaikuttaa Euroopan yhteenkuuluvuuteen ja kilpailukykyyn. 
Ristikytkentälaitteiden, reititinten ja muiden päätelaitteiden valmistajat ovat pystyneet 
testaamaan laitteitaan todellisessa käyttötilanteessa. Lisäksi ne ovat tehneet yhteistyötä 
palvelujen tarjoajien kanssa määrittääkseen laajakaistatoimintoihin liittyvien 
palveluparametrien laadun. 
Näiden saavutusten pohjalta useimmissa hankkeissa on päätetty jatkaa toimintaa siten, että 
hankkeen perusrakenteita tarjotaan RACE-ohjelman tutkimushankkeiden ja TEN-IBC 
-aloitteen käyttöön. Täten hankkeet tarjoavat mahdollisuuden laajentaa kokemusta, joka 
kertyi, kun kokeiltiin Euroopan kattavaa laajakaistaviestintää. Lisäksi ne tarjoavat 
ympäristön todellisissa olosuhteissa tehtäville kokeiluille, jotka ovat keskeisiä 
laajakaistasovellusten käyttämiseen liittyvien kysymysten ymmärtämiseksi. Hankkeissa 
tutkitaan edelleen mahdollisuutta osallistua siihen suureen tehtävään, jonka kansallisten 
ACTS5-yhteyskeskusten yhdistäminen muodostaa. 
Tutkimuksen ja teknologian kehittämisen erityisohjelma viestintäteknologian ja -palvelujen 
alalla 

Tekninen Liite 
r 

Executive Summary 
Acknowledgment 
the Fiber Interconnection Initiative 
The Context 
Key Results 
Achievements 
Who Benefited? 
What Did We Learn? 
Detailed Infrastructure and Achievements 
Physical Coverage of the Projects 
Projects Achievements 
12001 - Isabel 
12002 - Tironet 
12003 - Betel 
12004 - HPC Vision 
Press References, Demonstrations, and Publications 
Participating Organizations 
List of Major Deliverables 
} 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
In the last few years, there has been a high growth in the installation of optical fiber cables 
all over Europe, providing a large transmission capacity. This will lead to a great 
improvement of services offered to users as this capacity will allow networks to carry 
multimedia applications. 
The RACE Programme (Research and Technology Development in Advanced 
Communications in Europe) has been developing the technology that would made this 
possible. Before this technology is made available for deployment, it is required to test if 
the applications and equipment from different sources (Network operators, vendors, and 
users) interwork. 
The European Parliament took in 1992 the initiative to stimulate this demonstration. The 
European Commission launched a call for proposal that resulted in four trans-European 
projects offering broadband services, including multimedia and multi-party cooperative 
working. 
The initiative helped develop a telecommunications service infrastructure and form a basis 
for the promotion and the expansion of broadband communications: operators, users and 
manufacturers have used the broadband platforms for real life testing, and the initiative has 
implemented on a trial basis a wide array of broadband applications. For example, the 
projects offered the first trans-European ATM based services with a relevant impact on the 
development of the future European Information Infrastructure. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
This report has been prepared with the help of the four projects involved in the Fiber 
Interconnection initiative. Further technical information is available from the project 
managers: 
Project Project Manager 
12001 Mr. Pedro Luis Chas Alonso 
Telefonica I+D 
Emilio Vargas, 6 
Madrid, 28043 
Spain 
Email: plchas@tid.es 
12002 Mr. Fred Rix 
British Telecom Northern Ireland 
Churchill House, 20-30 Victoria Street 
Belfast, BT14BA 
United Kingdom 
Email: Fred.Rix@btplc.bsb56.gold400.gb 
12003 M. Jalal Samain 
France Télécom Expertel 
25 rue des jeûneurs 
Paris, 75002 
France 
Email: Europe@altem.com 
12004 Prof. Ernest Hirsch 
Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg-1 
Boulevard Sebastien Brant 
nikirch Graffenstaden, 67400 
France 
Email: hirsch@andromede.u-strasbg.fr 
l€> 
THE FIBER INTERCONNECTION INITIATIVE 
* Demonstrate a pilot action to show the potential for effective 
broadband communications based on optical Fiber 
•Provide a «olid foundation of European collaborative 
research experience 
• Address the issues of interoperability and teterworldng of 
networks 
•Capture the attention of major sector actors 
In a specific action, the European Parliament took the initiative to stimulate the 
demonstration of optical fiber-based communications for illustrating the interworking 
between centres of excellence. This action was to be seen in the context of preparing for 
the Trans-European Broadband Networks. 
The scope of the action was to financially participate in interconnection costs among IBC 
Islands and High Performance Computer Centers to advance the capability of interworking 
of these sites and to contribute to common functional specification for trans-European 
network operation following international standards. 
The Commission prepared and launched a call for proposal for interested parties willing to 
participate12. Participation was open to any center of excellence in high performance 
computing or communications. Contracts were awarded, for a period up to 12 months, on 
the basis of competitive bidding of consortia of at least two centers, independent of each 
other and established in different Member States, wishing to demonstrate interworking via 
optical fibre networks. The financial support provided by the Union was applied only to 
part of operational costs of interworking incurred within the Member States, i.e. 
communications charges and specialized equipment within the provisions of the budget 
available (4 MEcus) to this action. 
Four projects participated: 
12001 Isabel 
12002 Tironet 
12003 Betel 
12004 HPC-Vision 
Interworking and interoperability of networks and services are a prerequisite for the pan-
European telecommunications infrastructure. This initiative intended to prepare for the 
Trans-European Broadband Networks by complementing the already significant work done 
^J.. No C219,26708/92 
2 Commission Decisions: C(92) 2910.30/11/92 and C(92) 3309,22/12/92 
^i 
within the Member States and through the framework of Community Programmes. 
Testbeds for Integrated Broadband Communications (IBC) and High Performance 
Computing (HPC) will benefit from interworking on a Community level. "Broadband 
Islands'* have emerged in all European countries, stimulated either by national initiatives, or 
through the RACE Programme. RACE has created an extended European platform for 
cooperation towards IBC and has significantly contributed to the development of advanced 
telecommunications equipment, services, and applications, such as ATM systems, 
transmission systems, etc. Practically all islands are the results of joint efforts of 
researchers, industry and public network operators. 
This action has improved the conditions for testing and analyzing the impact of the new 
services, applications or end-systems in the networks, and has contributed to the 
development of fibre connectivity and produced an organizational structure to promote and 
expand the use of broadband communications. 
THE CONTEXT 
The projects were operating during the year 1993. By focusing on interconnecting 
Broadband Islands during this relatively short time period, the projects built extensively on 
already existing achievements stemming from other programmes or initiatives. In 
particular, one must mention: 
• Broadband Islands, such as RIA and RECIBA, developed by the Network Operators 
in part with the help of some RACE projects. 
• Broadband applications, such as ESPRIT Project P2091-VIMP. 
• Experimental Pilot Projects, such as RACE Project R2078-TIM and DELTA Project 
D2016-EAST. 
• Existing networks, such a MAN in Dublin and the STAR3 network in Belfast 
• Existing products and prototypes, such as ATM cross-connects and Routers. 
Due to their high involvement in addressing interconnection issues, the projects participated 
heavily in the RACE concertation process where projects contribute by exchanging 
technical information on the issues they are facing and the means they use to overcome 
them. They exchanged valuable information within the RACE Project Line 8, Test 
Infrastructure and Interworking. Through this concertation process, they also provided 
inputs to some RACE Common Functional Specifications. 
The Commission Services monitored the projects' progress through Monthly Management 
Reports and ad-hoc contacts as needed. At the end of their work projects were evaluated 
by independent Auditors. Auditors noted in their report that results were viewed as an 
"interesting and significant demonstration, especially in view of the limited budget and 
limited time span under which that had to be managed " 
KEY RESULTS 
Achievements 
The Initiative helped develop a telecommunications service infrastructure and form a basis 
for the promotion and the expansion of broadband communications: operators, users and 
3 Special Telecommunication Action for Regional Development: the objective of the STAR programme was to improve 
the telecommunication infrastructure capable of hosting advanced telecommunication services. 
— _ 
manufacturers have used the broadband platforms for real life testing, and the initiative has 
implemented on a triai basis a wide array of applications. These are: 
• Video conferencing. 
• Audio-video mail facility. 
• Electronic white board. 
• Shared data processing performed by High Performance Computing systems. 
• Remote provision of super computing facilities. 
• Vision based on line inspection of manufactured parts. 
• Cooperative working. 
• Robotics applications. 
• Demonstration and transfer of technology. 
• Multimedia desktop conferencing. 
• Distance learning by sharing classes in remote locations. 
Who Benefited? 
Users have had the opportunity to experiment various networking arrangements leading to 
a greater network efficiency. A key element of the Initiative was the large number of 
applications from various organizations. Users have had an early opportunity to understand 
the benefits they will draw from IBC applications, thus creating a future demand pull for 
IBC. 
Public Network Operators have drawn lessons on the usage of the new infrastructure. 
The traffic patterns have been analyzed and studied to understand the behavior of 
broadband traffic. Improvements, enhancements, adaptations and administrations of a 
broadband trans-European service are results of the Initiative. 
Manufacturers of cross-connects, routers and other terminal equipment have been able to 
test their equipment in real life usage conditions. In addition, they have collaborated with 
operators to define the quality of service parameters relevant to broadband facilities. 
What Did We Learn? 
The experience gained in distributed applications over high bandwidth links can be used by 
the Public Network Operators, for example to define invoicing rules for ATM services. 
Thus, feedback to the public network operators is of value for their future developments. 
Impact on the European market is however only indirect, through integration of the 
experience gained by the Public Network Operators in their own developments. The 
projects output, if correctly exploited by the public network operators, can thus strongly 
contribute to European cohesion and competitiveness. 
Also, the experience gained through interworking with the concerned Operators for solving 
user specified applications can strengthen their cooperation with respect to similar end-user 
defined applications. Since most projects included public network operators as participants, 
their experience was readily applicable. However as pointed out by a project, one of the 
major difficulties appeared to be the linkage between the PNOs, and the user specific 
requirements. This was particularly true with respect to services and tarification. Technical 
problems, as experienced within the project, were fortunately marginal. 
a 
DETAILED INFRASTRUCTURE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 
Physical Coverage of the Projects 
"Î5 
Vision 
Figure 2: Geographical Coverage 
12001 Isabel 
Isabel has interconnected two existing IBC islands, RIA in Aveiro (Portugal) and RECIBA 
in Madrid (Spain) in two successive steps. 
• The first step made available two 2 Mbit/s links from the beginning of the project. 
* The second step consisted in the introduction of ATM in the two islands, 
transporting the ATM cells through a plesiochronous link working at 34 Mbit/s. 
12002 - Tironet 
Tironet has implemented a broadband service connection between a Metropolitan Area 
Network in Dublin and an SDH network in Northern Ireland, based on the existing optical 
infrastructure, with enhancements to existing nodes to ensure a minimum throughput of 4 
Mbit/s. British Telecom Northern Ireland owns the optical link to the South and was 
responsible for the transnational link. The link had a minimum capacity of 4 Mbit/s with a 
further increase to 34 Mbit/s. 
12003-Betel 
Betel has established a 34 Mbit/s cross-connect platform over trans-European borders. This 
platform has interconnected FDDI LANs in Geneva, Lyon and Sophia-Antipolis. A 
Connectionless Broadband Data Service was provided and each end terminal connected to 
BETEL using a E.164 addressing scheme. 
12004 -HPC-Vision 
HPC-Vision has set-up a 34 Mbit/s link over trans-European borders using existing 
facilities between Strasbourg and Karlsruhe. The project has used the connection to join 
existing systems installed in both locations. 
/</ 
Projects Achievements 
12001 - Isabel 
Data 
Data 
ÄiiSliiv A™ over PDH 
xmmp" 34Mb/s 
Multimedia Multimedia 
The Isabel project has interconnected two IBC islands, RECIBA from Telefonica in Madrid 
(Spain), and RIA from Telecom Portugal in Aveiro (Portugal) using ATM over PDH at 34 
Mbit/s. 
As a main objective, the project has verified the interworking between two different ATM 
technologies. The RIA island is equipped with an Alcatel cross-connect, while the 
RECIBA island is equipped with a cross-connect developed by Telefonica. From the 
terminals, access was done through an Ethernet LAN and a router. 
Two bearer services were supported on top of ATM: LAN interconnection and circuit 
emulation at 2 Mbit/s. Isabel mixes different technologies, N-ISDN and ATM over PDH 
transport networks. The two Broadband Islands are interconnected by optical fiber. They 
are directly managed by the R&D Centers of Telecom Portugal and Telefonica, thus 
ensuring a smooth interconnection. 
The Isabel network, first phase, has been used during the BRAIN Summer school in July 
1993, while the second phase, operational since December 1993, will be used for the 1994 
edition of this Summer school. This infrastructure supports two major types of broadband 
applications: Cooperative working and distance learning 
Participants: 
Telefonica I+D 
Centre de Estudos de Telecomunicaçoes Country 
Spain 
Portugal 
is 
12002 - Tironet 
To raot of Europe 
To root of Europe TIRONETs principal objective was to put 
in place a network facility open for a 
growing body of users and applications. To 
achieve this general growth and expansion, 
TIRONET has established an ongoing 
conference of users and PNOs, the 
Advanced Telecommunications Users 
Conference (ATUC). The ATUC has 
mapped out a strategy for the development 
of both the infrastructure and the value 
added services and applications using that 
infrastructure. 
The project has demonstrated the first 
transborder connection between Belfast and 
Dublin. On this network, Tironet has 
performed the following experiments: 
• Two services: 
• One Service 
Development 
•Two 
Experimental 
Pilots Provision of a super computing facility by a university in Belfast 
to application users in Dublin. 
Provision of shared full text and multimedia electronic 
documents (journals, etc.) by three university libraries involved 
in the consortium, with the possibility of extending this to other 
universities in the British Isles and the European mainland. 
Application of desktop conferencing technology to the 
cooperative development of multimedia materials. 
The Tourism Information and Marketing (TIM) project in 
RACE involves the tourist board from both the Republic of 
Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the availability of this 
broadband connection will provide an excellent opportunity for 
a TIM trial between these two organisations. 
The Educational Access and Support Tools (EAST) project in 
DELTA is developing a set of tools for accessing, interrogating 
and managing multimedia databases of educational material. 
Two of the universities in TIRONET are involved in this project 
and will use the network connection for testing and evaluating 
the use of shared educational resources. 
Participants: Country 
University of Ulster United Kingdom 
British Telecom Northern Ireland United Kingdom 
University College Dublin Ireland 
Nynex Media Communications Ltd United Kingdom 
Queens University Belfast United Kingdom 
Telecom Eireann Ireland 
University College Dublin Ireland 
MARI Northern Ireland | United Kingdom 
16 
12003 - Betel 
IN2P3 (Lyon) 
CERN (Geneva) 
Eurécom (Sophia Antipolis) 
The Betel project has demonstrated multimedia applications with high data rate 
transmission over optical fiber links. The optical platform was between Geneva (CH), 
Lausanne (CH), Sophia Antipolis (F) and Lyon (F). 
The project was based on a trans-European broadband cross-connect infrastructure, using 
asynchronous techniques with a connection oriented facility. This connection has been the 
first international network using ATM technology. The BETEL project experimented 
broadband techniques, providing a significant advance for understanding the broadband 
issues. 
The project has used existing products. It has build a 34 Mbit/s cross-connect trans-
European platform with the following main objectives: 
• to test a cross-connect platform for trans-border links, 
• to support suitable multimedia applications, such as Tele-teaching or Physics 
Analysis Workstation, 
• to give a broadband access to high computing resources, and 
• to test asynchronous transfer techniques. 
Participants: Country 
Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de 
Physique des Particules 
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 
Institut Eurécom 
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 
France Télécom Expertel 
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Nucléaires 
Alcatel CIT France 
Switzerland 
France 
Switzerland 
France 
Switzerland 
France 
f 
12004'HPC Vision 
Inspection robot and Partial Vision Sy «on (Karlsru he) 
FDDIlntei&ce 
Hntand 
Connection to 
Optical Fiber 
Vision 
System 
(Featuie 
Interpretation) 
Partial Vision System and Control (Strasbourg) 
The project has interconnected two vision systems based on parallel systems (e.g. 
specialized processors and transputer networks), thus extending the availability of 
distributed vision systems. The data transfer was done through a trans-national optical 
network with a rate high enough to be compatible with real time applications. Also, 
friendly man-machine interfaces hid the network characteristics of the system allowing 
users to use the system as a whole. This approach opens the doors for new applications 
through cooperation of two geographically distributed systems, and intensifies the common 
research activities of the partners. 
The distributed system was also open to industries of the partners' regions, in the 
framework of a border crossing demonstration and transfer of technology for the industrial 
application of computer vision. The existence of a public optical link between the project 
partners and the commitment of the regional telecommunication agencies of the partners' 
countries to provide the required transfer rate of 34 Mbit/s has greatly facilitated the 
extension of the existing distributed systems using local networks (e.g. FDDI) to a larger 
public networked system. 
The existing applications used and adapted were the following: 
• Set-up of a distributed high computing power parallel structure based on transputers 
for computer vision applications. 
• Vision-based on-line inspection of manufactured parts. 
• Robotics applications. 
• Set-up of a geographically distributed demonstration and transfer of technology 
center for vision applications. 
Participants: Country 
Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg-I 
FraunhoferInstitut -RIB France 
Germany 
'* 
Press References, Demonstrations, and Publications 
• Public Network, December 1993 / January 1994. 
• Communications Week International, September 20,1993 
• Internet Society newsletter, October 7,1993, Olivier Martin, International IP connectivity 
at 34 Mbps" 
• Demonstration at Interop Europe exhibition, Paris, October 23-27,1993. 
• SMDS conference, Amsterdam, November 22,1993, Olivier Martin, BETEL** . 
• The Packet, Cisco Magazine, January 1994. 
• Broadband Islands Conference, Athens, June 15-16,1993; An Overview of RECIBA, RIA, 
and Isabel 
• Advanced Telecommunications Users Conference Event, University College Dublin, May 
18,1993 
• Summer School on Advanced Telecommunications, Aveiro, July 1993 
• Communication^ exhibition, Dublin, 12-14 October 1993. 
• Demonstration of Interworking Via Optical Networks, Proceedings of Broadband Islands, 
Athens, 1993, Elsevier 
a 
Participating Organizations 
Project Participants; Country 
Isabel Telefonica I+D Spain 
Centro de Estudos de Telecomunicaçôes Portugal 
Tironet University of Ulster United Kingdom 
British Telecom Northern Ireland United Kingdom 
University College Dublin Ireland 
Nynex Media Communications Ltd United Kingdom 
Queens University Belfast United Kingdom 
Telecom Eireann Ireland 
University College Dublin Ireland 
MARI Northern Ireland United Kingdom 
Betel Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de France 
Physique des Particules 
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland 
Institut Eurécom France 
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland 
France Télécom Expertel France 
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Nucléaires Switzerland 
Alcatel CIT France 
HPC-Vision Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg-I France 
Fraunhofer Institut -IITB Germany 
14> 
List of Major Deliverables 
The projects prepared and delivered a number of Deliverables describing specifications, 
project plans and achievements. The most significant Deliverables are listed below. 
ISABEL Specification of the interconnection 
Services and applications 
Evaluation report on the interconnection of 
the two broad band islands 
Final report on co-operative working 
Final report on distance education 
TIRONET Implemented Network 
Implemented Application 
Evaluation Report 
TIM Application Pilot Specification 
Interoperability Test Report 
Evaluation Report 
BETEL Demonstrator Specifications 
Primary Testing Report 
HPC Vision Report on the Implemented Distributed 
Structure 
I Report on the Implemented Applications 
Hr 
ISSN 1024-4492 
KOM(95) 342 lopullinen 
ASIAKIRJAT 
FI 16 15 
Luettelonumero : CB-CO-95-373-FI-C 
ISBN 92-77-91751-2 
Euroopan yhteisöjen virallisten julkaisujen toimisto 
L-2985 Luxemburg