India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC) of Excellence in Next Generation Networks Systems and Services

这项以英国-印度财团为基础的倡议是直接响应英国驻印度高级专员公署先前的请求而建立的。IU-ATC联盟是通过EPSRC和英国驻印度高级专员公署支持的一系列讲习班发展起来的，从2006年1月/ 2月的技术讲习班开始。该联盟由英国8所研究型大学、5所领先的印度理工学院、英国和印度的主要工业合作伙伴（包括BT、InfoSys、Wipro、Sasken和Tejas等公司）以及一些中小企业组成。该倡议旨在建立第一个虚拟的印度-英国下一代网络、系统和服务先进技术中心（IU-ATC），该中心将建立支持基础设施，以促进、发展和实现两国的数字经济。这将通过对下一代网络技术和功能需求的科学调查来实现，通过促进与研究领先的学术机构和政府部门的行业合作，作为英国和印度之间整体5年联合计划的最初30个月第一阶段的一部分。目前的提案建立在现有和良好的联盟基础上，该联盟已经吸引了EPSRC的支持（旅行补助金GR1， INTERACT 5 GR2）， UKTI补助金，GOF，以及最近的UKIERI-DST研究奖（S083）。在过去十年中，先进的电信网络和多媒体服务的爆炸式增长为包括通信、教育、娱乐和健康在内的许多部门提供了令人兴奋的机会。这些机会在欧洲和美国已经被成功地接受了，并且越来越需要为快速发展的印度经济提供类似的机会。然而，考虑到印度的特殊要求，这不能通过现有技术和工程解决方案的转移来轻松实现，需要从根本上重新思考，以适应或开发新的解决方案，并为英国和印度之间的研究、创新和财富创造机会提供支持。IU-ATC计划的重点是促进数字经济，这是最近政府2007年综合支出审查确定的优先事项。数字经济旨在支持研究和技术人员，使各种用户部门早日采用信息和通信技术。理解和实现信息的影响，使英国和印度能够更好地获得新兴电信工程硬件和软件以及用于低成本传感器和用户设备以及服务交付平台的固定/无线/移动宽带技术所提供的经济和社会效益。在利用下一代网络技术进步的前景并实现其潜在性能、经济和社会回报方面所面临的挑战，不仅需要对通信网络堆栈的较低层有透彻的了解，还需要对开发面向公民应用的核心技术有很强的能力和兴趣。这通常意味着对医疗保健、金融、制造和管理等特定领域的企业和政府战略的赞赏，并要求学术界和工业界密切合作，以充分发挥潜力。

This UK-India consortium-based initiative has been established in direct response to a previous request from the British High Commission in India. The IU-ATC consortium has developed through a series of workshops supported by EPSRC and the British High Commission in India, commencing with a Technical Workshop in January/February 2006. The consortium comprises 8 research-leading universities in UK, 5 leading IITs, major industrial partners in UK and India (including companies such as BT, InfoSys, Wipro, Sasken, and Tejas), and a number of SMEs. The initiative aims to establish the first virtual India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC) in Next Generation Networks, Systems and Services, which will put in place the support infrastructure to facilitate, develop and enable the Digital Economy of both countries. This will be achieved through scientific investigation of the technical and functional requirements of Next Generation Networks through the promotion of industry collaboration with research-leading academic institutions and government departments as part of an initial 30 month Phase 1 of an overall 5-year joint programme between the UK and India. The current proposal builds on the existing and well formed consortium, which has already attracted EPSRC support (Travel Grant GR1, INTERACT 5 GR2), UKTI Grant, GOF, and most recently UKIERI-DST Research Award (S083). The explosive growth in advanced telecommunication networks and multimedia services in the last decade has offered exciting opportunities across a wide range of sectors, including communications, education, entertainment, and health. These opportunities have been successfully embraced within Europe and USA, and there is an increasing need to provide similar opportunities for the rapidly expanding economy of India. However, given India's special requirements, this cannot easily be achieved by transference of existing technical and engineering solutions, and a fundamental rethink is required to adapt or develop novel solutions and provide for research, innovation and wealth creation opportunities between UK and India. The IU-ATC initiative is focused on promotion of the Digital Economy, a priority identified under the recent government Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 . The Digital Economy aims to support research and skilled people to effect early adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by a variety of user sectors. Understanding and enabling the impact of information, better positions the UK and India to reap the economic and social benefits offered by emerging Telecommunications Engineering hardware and software together with fixed/wireless/mobile Broadband technologies for low cost sensor and user devices, and service delivery platforms. The challenges in exploiting the promise of the technological advances within NGNs, and achieving their potential performance, economic and social returns, require not only a thorough understanding of the lower layers of the communications networking stack but also a strong ability and interest in exploiting the core technologies for citizen-facing applications. This often implies an appreciation of business and government strategies in specific areas such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing and management and requires close collaboration between academia and industry to realise the full potential.