Academic Partners

The TSSG of Waterford Institute of Technology is the primary academic partner on the IMS ARCS project. The following academic institutes are also partners on the project: The IDC University of Limerick, SRC at Athlone Institute of Technology, The Hamilton Institute, Enterprise Ireland and Fokus Fraunhofer.

TSSG Waterford Institute of Technology

The Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) was founded in 1996. Since then, it has grown into a large research centre (over 40 active projects, over 40 completed projects, 120 active staff and students, and over €40Million in funding 1996-2007). The TSSG is located in Waterford Institute of Technology’s new West Campus in Carriganore, Co. Waterford where it is colocated with business training and business incubation facilities. The TSSG’s research focus is on the dramatic changes occurring in the telecommunications software industry, and indeed on the wider converged communications industry, particularly in managing networks and in developing innovative new services for those networks. The unique aspect of the TSSG’s approach is that it embraces a wide range of research and development cultures, from blue-sky basic research through to commercial activity, each with a critical mass of activities. This integrative emphasis came from the original vision of its founder Dr. Willie Donnelly, who is now also the Head of Research in WIT.

Website: http://www.tssg.org

3CS was established by the Telecommunications Software and Systems Group TSSG in 2006, a leading research and innovation institute in the South East of Ireland based at the Waterford Institute of Technology.  3CS is associated with Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS (formerly GMD Institute FOKUS) in Berlin, Germany, and is funded via Enterprise Ireland’s  Applied Research Enhancement scheme.

3CS’s mission is create breakthrough innovations in Internet and Telecommunications  applied research and then deliver these innovations to industry. To do this 3CS uses an Open Innovation model that leverages the existing research of its founder and parent the TSSG; 3CS’s own applied research programme; and also joint R&D with industry partners.

Website http://www3.3cs.info

IDC University of Limerick

The Interaction Design Centre in the University of Limerick have been leading the usability aspects of the IMS Arcs project. They have worked in a number of phases including data gathering/analysis, the specification processes, the creation of low-fidelity prototypes and interactive sketches, and the evaluation of these scenarios. This work has been carried out within a User Centered Design (UCD) approach and involves a holistic approach of integrating user centered design as a design methodology from the conceptualisation stage throughout the entire development cycle. Understanding the usability gaps in the development cycles of telecommunication companies with regard to pervasive IP based personalized services and bridging these differences is a core theme of the IMS Arcs project.  In order for consumers to benefit from these new types of completely transparent pervasive services, the IDC is working on service usability and on end-user service analysis to meet these user needs.

The team in UL consists of:
Mikael Fernstrom, Eoin Brazil, Marc McGloughlin, and Tony O'Callaghan.

Local UL Page: http://www.idc.ul.ie/projects.php?id=12

SRC Athlone Institute of Technoogy

Founded in 2003 by Athlone Institute of Technology's Enda Fallon and Austin Hanley (Head of School of Engineering), the mission of the SRC is to develop a software research capability that is a partner of choice to develop new ideas and innovative products with the aim of enhancing AIT's reputation as a centre of excellence for Software Engineering. The SRC's main research strand will focus on the delivery of middleware capable of adaptive and context aware distribution of heterogeneous data to core and edge nodes over Next generation Networks. As part of the SRC's collaboration with other institutions around the country, it has contributed it's expertise to the IMS ARCS project since August 2007. From working on the original ILRP project proposal to gathering requirements from stakeholders for the "Merrion 25" service suggestions to developing prototypes of the innovative services that will constitute the final output of the project. The team members who have been involved include Enda Fallon, Anthony Cunningham, Eoghan Conway, Haoshuo Wang, Adrian Matthews and Gregory Hayes.

Website: http://www.ait.ie/src

The Hamilton Institute

The Hamilton Institute is a multi-disciplinary research centre established at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. The Institute seeks to provide a bridge between mathematics and its applications in ICT and biology. The Hamilton Institute has expertise and test facilities for lower-layer technologies, such as TCP, IPv6 and the WiFi Mac Layer. The Hamilton Institute is helping establish some of the IMS ARCS testbed facilities, such as the OpenIMS Core test bed.

Website: http://www.hamilton.ie/index.html

Enterprise Ireland

ILRP or Industry Lead Research Programme is a funding scheme set up by Enterprise Ireland to advance some facet of technology for the benefit of a group of commercially interested parties. Enterprise Ireland, in partnership with a group from the wireless/mobile industry in Ireland put together the call to develop a research programme in Mobile IMS Enabled Services. The objective of the research project is to harness the opportunities provided by the adoption of the IMS architecture by the telecommunications industry, by allowing the roll-out of powerful new service offerings to customers. The IMS architecture offers true IP convergence as well as convergence of wireless/mobile and wire-line networks, removing barriers that currently exist. The terms of reference for the project was for selected research groups from third-level colleges in Ireland to work with a team of industry partners from the wireless/mobile cluster in carrying out research in building mobile IMS service creation tools and novel services. These service prototypes should showcase the capabilities enabled by an IMS core network but more importantly should be driven from an understanding of end-user needs. The IMS ARCS proposal lead by TSSG, won out right. TSSG along with their partners are now pushing ahead with the plans laid down by that initial proposal.

Website: http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/

Fokus Fraunhofer

The Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS in Berlin has been researching and developing communication and integration solutions for partners in industry, research and public administration in the fields of telecommunication, automotive engineering, eGovernment and software development for more than 20 years. Based on our smart metering devices and gateway technologies, future systems will be enabled to increase the security and safety of our homes and will allow residents to save energy like power, oil, water, etc. To let intelligent buildings become real, FOKUS is developing different kinds of wireless connected, battery powered systems and services in the health care, security, home automation, automotive and localization domains. Based on our standard compliant platform, the user gets an insight into converged and seamless utilization of media and how it might look like in the future. Based upon NGN and IP technology content of any kind will be delivered using the same infrastructure and fosters the convergence on technological level as well as in respect of content.

Website: http://www.fokus.fraunhofer.de/en/fokus/index.html