The overall objective of the FUTEBOL project is to develop and deploy research infrastructure, and an associated control framework for experimentation, in Europe and Brazil, that enables experimental research at the convergence point between optical and wireless networks.

Great progress has been made in the past few years on the development of federated telecommunications research infrastructure in Europe, through the FIRE program. More recently, the FIBRE project enabled fiber optical interconnection of research facilities in Europe and Brazil. However, telecommunications research remains largely segregated between optical networks and wireless systems, and rarely do researchers cross the boundary between the two. We argue that the needs of future telecommunication systems, be it from high data rate applications in smart mobile devices, machine-type communications and the Internet of Things (IoT), or backhaul requirements brought about from cell densification, require the co-design of the wireless access and the optical backhaul and backbone. FUTEBOL aims at developing a converged control framework for experimentation on wireless and optical networks and to deploy this framework in federated research facilities on both sides of the Atlantic.

The infrastructure and control framework created in FUTEBOL will be federated according to principles developed in the FIRE program and facilities in the two continents interconnected through infrastructure deployed by the FIBRE project.

Check out the project’s website for further information: http://www.ict-futebol.org.br/