Introduction
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In June 2004 the project VIOLA (Vertically Integrated Optical Testbed for Large Applications in DFN) has started. Within VIOLA a consortium with partners from industry, research laboratories, universities and the DFN association is implementing a German „Optical Testbed“ in the region of Aachen–Bonn–Cologne (State of North-Rhine-Westphalia) and an extension to Erlangen–Nuremberg (State of Bavaria).
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The major goals of VIOLA are:
- Test of advanced network equipment and network architectures;
- Development and test of software tools for the user-driven dynamical provision of bandwidth;
- Interworking of network equipment from different manufacturers;
- Enhancement and test of new advanced applications (e.g. Grid, Virtual Reality);
- Cooperation with similar projects in Europe and elsewhere.
These goals shall be obtained with integrated work in the areas of network technology and application development, both as part of a testbed environment. The integration of applications into VIOLA will offer a realistic and prototype environment to test such new network equipment.
The results of VIOLA shall support DFN, the application groups and the industrial partners for their respective interests. Especially, VIOLA shall give input for a potential stepwise functional upgrade of X-WIN, the next generation research network in Germany.
The project VIOLA ends in April 2007. It is funded by BMBF (Ministry for Education and Research).
