CTVR: About
Modern society is critically dependent on the availability
of good quality fixed and mobile telecommunications systems.
Todays networks could not have been built without significant advances
in specific technology areas such as radio and optical transmission, software
and network protocols.
It is clear, however, that this technology does not become
available to all at an affordable price without the application of
state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques and processes.
These techniques and processes allow the production of highly complex
devices such as mobile phones, base-stations and high-speed optical backbone
networks at prices that would not have seemed feasible 5 years before.
Looking to the future, the successful networks of tomorrow
will be shaped not just by advances in radio, optical and network control
technologies, but also by our ability to manufacture and construct these
networks at affordable cost. Attention
to reliability is critical so that the networks can continue to operate at
minimum cost over their projected lifetime. This affordable cost can only be
achieved by the application of scientific analysis, modeling and decision
support techniques right through the entire value
chain beginning from architectural design, through component realization to reliable network
operation.
The centre for the manufacture of next generation
telecommunications system will bring together the expertise of scientists, who
are excellent in the many disciplines that are required to solve this problem.
Network architects will work together with specialists in optical and
wireless component technologies to design the next generation wireless network.
Uniquely, this centre will couple the technology specialists with experts
in constraint-based programming, modelling and optimisation techniques that will
moderate each and every design decision. Using an in-depth understanding of the
existing value chain, candidate technologies and architectures can be tested,
analysed and optimised.
Promising architectures can be modelled to determine whether
they can in fact be realized in the cost-effective manner that will be crucial
to their success. Innovations in
radio and optical components will be proceeded with or discarded based on their
manufacturability, testability, reliability and contribution to overall system
cost.
The centre will make significant scientific advances in a
number of areas including
What is unique to this centre is the potential for new
insights that can only be gained through the combination of the disparate
disciplines involved.
The expertise developed within the centre will be directly
applicable to both large multinational companies and Irish SMEs engaged in the
design, manufacture and operation of any highly refined product in the ICT
space, but in particular those that will make up the next generation of fixed
and wireless networks. We
anticipate the formation of spin-off companies exploiting new techniques in
Design for Manufacturing and process optimisation as well as in the provision of
advanced network elements that will collectively comprise the fixed and wireless
networks of the future.
The centres outreach programme will ensure that the work of
the centre influences the wider community, in particular the schools sector.
We have planned activities in outreach that will ensure that the media
are engaged to excite school children about
the connected future that lies ahead of them and the science and engineering
technology that is used to realize this.
We have assembled an unparalleled team of Irish researchers
and a set of Bell Labs collaborators that are world leaders in their fields.
The team has a clear mission that is of huge strategic importance to
Ireland and we look forward to carrying out this mission.
The term Value Chain was first introduced by Porter in 1985
[1]. He defines it as a “tool for diagnosing competitive
advantage” and states that a Value Chain “divides a firm into the
dicrete activities it perofrms in designing, producing, marketing, and
distributing its product”.
More information:
[1] Porter, M.E., Competitive Advantage : Creating and Sustaining Superior
Performance, The Free Press, New York, 1985