• Location: CTVR Seminar Room
• Date: 26 October 2012
• Time: 13.00-14.00

Location: Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 8
Date: 25 October 2012
Time: 6.30pm

The third CSET Thesis in 3 took place on 25th October in the Smock Alley Theatre. The event showcased the research of 18 students from 9 SFI funded CSETS (CLARITY, SBI, CNGL, CRANN, Lero, BDI, CTVR, APC and DERI). Both Séamus Hickey (UL) and Emanuele Di Pascale (TCD) represented CTVR at the event. Emanuele was awarded the audience prize for his presentation entitled ”Buy Local” Paradigm for Next Generation Networks”, which outlines how Fiber-to-the-Home will bring high speed connections to our neighbourhoods, but it will also reduce the capacity gap between these residential access segments and the main information highways in the center of the network; which can lead to congestion. Emanuele proposes the application of the ”buy local” paradigm to future networks, redistributing content in your local community through peer-to-peer, one can avoid costly data transfers through the center of the Internet. His research shows that this approach can improve user experience by speeding up communications, while at the same time reducing power consumption and operational costs for network operators.

We wish to congratulate both Séamus and Emanuele for their hard work and presentations.

The event was co-ordinated by Aoibheann Bird from CLARITY, Cara Greene from CNGL and Philip Smyth from Systems Biology Ireland.

You may view the event here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CR2FdaMpcI

Location: Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin
Date: 26 September 2012
Time: 10am – 5pm

A spectrum opportunity awaits both consumers and the communications industry when the Irish analogue TV signals are switched off at the end of October 2012. The unused White Spaces that will surround the new digital signals of the Saorview system will be up for grabs.

But, who will use this spectrum? What will they use this new spectrum for? How will they access it?
Some of these questions have already been addressed by both industry and regulators in the USA and the UK where the digital TV switchover has already advanced. Suggested uses of this spectrum range from new WiFi-like devices for increased broadband connectivity, to machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, to new mobile network operator deployments.

The Filling the White Spaces workshop aims to inform an Irish audience as to these opportunities by sharing the experiences of companies that have already conducted trials in the UK and USA. We will also be looking to identify opportunities for Irish exploitation of this new spectrum resource in the context of on-going global developments.

Workshop Agenda:

10.00 Whitespaces introduction – Studios 1+2

This session is for those who feel they would like more background. They may want to know about the origins of the TV White Spaces or get a broad overview of what is happening around the world. There will also be a brief intro to some of the emerging ideas around spectrum sharing in general including Authorised Shared Access (ASA), the recommendations in the latest PCAST report in the USA on Realizing the Full Potential of Government Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth and the latest EU documents.

OFFICIAL START 11.15 TV White Space Networks in Action Abroad – Paccar theatre

This session marks the official start of the workshop and has a very practical focus. We will hear from those who have been involved in TV White Space Trials. There will be an opportunity to hear about the different target applications, the equipment used, the outcomes and the overall experience.

Microsoft – Jim Beveridge (UK) / Spectrum Bridge – Peter Stanforth (USA) /Adaptrum – Darrin Mylet (USA) / Neul – Paul Egan (UK) / FairSpectrum – Heikki Kokkinen (Finland) / BSKYB – Rafael Cepeda (UK)

13.30 Demonstrations in Studios 1+2 & Lunch

14.30 Ireland and White Space – where to next? – Paccar theatre

The purpose of this session is to determine what to do in Ireland. The first part of the session will take the form of a moderated panel. The questions which will frame the panel and subsequent audience discussion are –
1) What worth do ‘me-too’ trials have, i.e. replicating a trial that has been successful in another jurisdiction? Buy-in from local regulator, industry?
2) Are there new applications that can be trialled using the existing FCC/Ofcom rules?
3) What kind of TVWS applications could be trialled with new speculative rules that go beyond the
current FCC/Ofcom rules?

Discussion Topics – new applications for TV White Space bands, regulatory issues, economic challenges and opportunities, attitudes to sharing of spectrum in general, testing and trialling challenges, availability of equipment, opportunities for different players, the role of traditional media entities, the implications for mobile operators, the barriers to progress, the opportunities for intervention, funding etc. We are particularly interested in hearing from a wider range of voices outside of the purely technical and regulatory domain in discussing the opportunities for White Spaces.
16.30 Wrap-up

The final session will summarise the key conclusions of the day and identify a set of next steps.

17.00 Session closes in Paccar theatre + demonstrations continue in Studios 1+2

Registration has closed, thank you for your interest and for in attending.

Please inspect here for an Irish Times interview with Professor Linda Doyle regarding Filling the White Spaces

Location: Montpellier (France)
Date: 27 August 2012
Time: All day

CTVR academics Ken Browne, Barry O’Sullivan, Cormac Sreenan will co-chair the WAITS 2012 workshop on August 27th 2012.

The workshop will run alongside ECAI 2012, the leading European conference on Artificial Intelligence, and aims to bring together researchers and technologists from academia and industry to explore the applications of artificial intelligence to the most pertinent technical challenges in telecommunications and sensor networks.

Workshop participation will be by invitation only. If you would like to participate, submit either a full paper of no more than 6 pages (or 6,000 words); a position statement, short paper, or problem instance (at most 3 pages or 3,000 words); or a position statement (1 page). Short papers may address an important problem for further research or describe a practical problem or an interesting lesson learned. In addition, we solicit proposals for short demonstrations (at most 3 pages with demonstrations taking at most 15 minutes).

All submissions should conform to ECAI’s formatting guidelines, to be available soon on the conference website.

Location: CTVR & TCD Science Gallery
Date: 28 June 2012
Time: 10am – 4pm

This four day festival that addresses social, technological and cultural issues surrounding the digital commons,will take the form of talks, presentations, workshops, discussions and screenings. It will be held in The Science Gallery and in CTVR headquarters in Trinity College.

What does it mean to be open today?

If we speak of ‘the commons’ today as a general phenomenon, this has a lot to do with the modes of production, consumption and distribution that have emerged over the last two decades around information and communication technologies. This period has seen a growing emphasis on the social and juridical implications of sharing in the online domain, where a range of nonmarket and non-proprietary activities such as open source software, remix culture and commons-based peer production have lead some to propose the advent of a ‘digital socialism’. However, as sharing and openness become the watchwords of the new corporation – as the commons is increasingly central to capitalism, such positions are no longer straightforward.

Open Here will bring together a transdisciplinary community of critical theorists, engineers, artists, designers and industry professionals to expand debates surrounding the digital commons.  Key points of discussion will include the conflictive spaces of the digital commons, tactical media, net-art, digital policy, disruptive wireless practices, alternative spectrum ownership models, next-generation networks and the political economy of infrastructure.

Participants include: Michel Bauwens (BE), Ralph Borland, (ZA) Sarah Browne (IE), CTVR (IE), Marika Dermineur (FR), Fairwaves (RU), Jessica Foley (IE), Tim Forde (IE) Benjamin Gaulon (FR/IE), Robert Horvitz (US), Dmytri Kleiner (UA/CA), Franco Lacomella (AR), Sascha Meinrath (US), Rachel O’Dwyer (IE), Julian Oliver (NZ), Nora O’Murchu (IE) Jussi Parikka (FI), Paul Sutton (IE), Tom Rondeau (US), Steve Song (ZA), Danja Vasiliev (RU), Martin Weiss (USA), Mick Wilson and Thomas Wilson (IE).

 This series of events is curated by Linda Doyle, Benjamin Gaulon and Rachel O’Dwyer and supported by ESOF2012, CTVR,  & Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin.