Colm Browning, CONNECT Research Fellow at DCU, awarded SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant (SIRG). The project will tackle challenges facing the future demands of the internet by demonstrating how new optical technologies can be used to satisfy network requirements and help sustain the growth of the internet.
The total grant amounts to €421,505, funds Colms individual-led research project: Flexible Photonic Network Convergence Enabling Future Mobile Communications (COMPhLEX).
“How society interacts with the internet is changing,” explains Colm. “So too are the communications networks which underpin it. In order to deliver services such as ultra-high definition video steaming or virtual reality, future mobile communications networks must harness the advantages of optical fibre transmission and ‘cloud’ computing in powerful data-centres. This merging of mobile and data-centre networks presents unique challenges in terms of how they may be co-designed to operate in harmony. This project will tackle those challenges by demonstrating how new optical technologies can be used to satisfy network requirements and help sustain the growth of the internet.”
This is part of SFI’s announcement that they will be investing €10.8 million for 20 projects in the areas of health, energy, environment, materials and technology.