Preparing to upgrade to Very High Speed Internet

Participating in a collaborative project with multiple partners, wherein the objective of the project is to design and implement a high speed experimental platform and test services/application over it.

• Between October 2008 and April 2011, AFNIC took part in the work involved in implementing the high-speed platform involving several players in the Île-de-France region, designed to keep pace with the development of high speed broadband Internet access.

• AFNIC coordinated the activities involved in technology watch, as well as the analysis and dissemination of information among the members of the platform and other stakeholders.

Hosted by the Cap Digital cluster, the regional platform for experimentation on high speed services and content has set itself a number of key objectives, on the one hand, to help develop industrial projects for services and online content related to high-speed networks, and secondly, to capitalize on the observations of use in these experiments, with a view to setting up an Observatory on digital services, content and practices in the Île-de-France region.  AFNIC has contributed in terms of technology watch, policy analysis on the issues involved in developing Internet standards and governance, and the dissemination of knowledge (including workshop facilitation and its contributions to the project  portal).

A coordinating role in technology watch

AFNIC was the coordinator for the "technology watch" work package ("VTech"). In partnership with the L2TI laboratory of Paris University 13, AFNIC has carried out technology monitoring activities covering a wide range of topics related to Internet networks, protocols and communication services. The results of these monitoring activities were promoted in various circles depending on the targets involved or stakeholders interested. Among these targets, there were the other partners from the resource cluster, as well as project leaders and a broad public interested in High-Speed Internet technologies such as the panel of platform users, visitors to the project portal or members of the Cap Digital cluster.

The main objectives of technology watch were, first, to help professional players detect / identify promising technologies in relation to their business lines, enabling them to improve / maintain their competitiveness and capacity for innovation, then raise the awareness of those liable to benefit from high-speed networks, uses and applications that take advantage of this environment by explaining the concepts, the issues involved, and the best practices to satisfy them.

This activity formed part of the rationale for the scientific and strategic advice provided by AFNIC to the partners involved in the project. It also helped shed light on the sustainability of the platform.

The work focused on several issues, of which an overview is provided below:

• Dissemination of technology watch documents: briefing notes, minutes of conferences, meetings and seminars;

• Publication of scientific articles;

• Participation in and facilitation of workshops depending on the programming schedule of the project.