=================================
eMobility News - December 2009
=================================

Have you ever tried to imagine what the world will be like in 2022? The eMobility Steering Board has, and we would like to share their vision on communication in the year 2022 with you, in order to stimulate a productive discussion about it.

In addition, this issue of eMobility News contains a report about the Future Networks Workshop in Beijing, which again demonstrates the world-wide impact of eMobility.

Please enjoy reading, and send us your comments.

On behalf of the eMobility team, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Milon Gupta, Eurescom
Editor

=================================
 

ACTIVITIES

+++ eMobility vision on communications in 2022 +++

At its meeting on 2nd December, the eMobility Steering Board discussed a vision for communications in the year 2022. The vision, as presented by eMobility chairperson Fiona Williams, consists of three main elements: empowering people, empowering society, and improved technology.

Empowering People
eMobility envisages that by 2022 communication technology will have empowered citizens in a much more comprehensive way. Through cloud computing, citizens will have access to their data and to any knowledge they need whenever they need them. This will enable completely new ways of learning and working, allowing for more flexible work which is better suited to the individual lives of users. Besides improving education and work, communication technology will also empower users to have a voice in different communities, may it be social clubs or the local affairs in their municipality. Based on advanced communication, citizens will be able to get more actively involved in local and regional affairs via expanded e-government services and e-voting.

Empowered Innovative Societies
The communication networks of tomorrow will empower societies in multiple ways, enabling a wide range of innovative services which will raise quality, efficiency and sustainability of practically all economic sectors to a new level. By 2022, future networks will have enabled intelligent transport systems, comprehensive environmental monitoring, a widespread use of e-health applications, and novel cultural experiences, like, for instance, realistic 3D movies and museums reviving exhibits through the use of augmented reality.

Turbo-Charged Systems
The communication technologies required for empowering people and societies in the described way need to be much more powerful than what we have today. This is why eMobility calls them turbo-charged systems. These systems focus on simplicity to deal with the growing complexity in the networks and in the applications domains. Tomorrow's communication systems will particularly improve the efficiency of all parts of the network as well as the interactions with applications. The media-rich applications of the year 2022, will require high bandwidth. Thus, the vision is that continued broadband rollout will have led to a wide geographic coverage, which will also include rural areas. Many new applications will also require short-range and near-field communication; these areas will see a steep growth by 2022.

In order to enable the realisation of this scenario in Europe, multi-disciplinary research and innovation on a large scale will be required.



PAST EVENTS

+++ Future Networks Workshop in Beijing  +++

On 19 October 2009, eMobility and WWRF together organised a Future Networks Workshops in Beijing, China. The workshop, which was colocated with the WWRF conference, attracted 30 senior telecoms experts. The idea of the workshop was to get a common understanding of future plans and activities in the networks domain.

Projects, companies and institutions from Asia and Europe presented their insights and latest results. The presentations from Asia put the focus more on technical aspects, while societal issues are also addressed. In contrast, the European presentations had their focus rather on application domains and how the Future Internet can help to solve societal challenges. Presentations from eMobility were given by Uwe Herzog and Luis Correia.


UPCOMING EVENTS

14-16 April 2010
Fifth Future Internet Assembly
Valencia, Spain
eMobility will be involved in the programme.
Further information:  http://www.future-internet.eu/events.html

16-18 June 2010
Future Network & MobileSummit 2010
Florence, Italy
eMobility will be involved in the conference and the exhibition
Further information: http://www.futurenetworksummit.eu/2010

-------------------------------------------------

Contact person:
Dr. Fiona Williams
Chair of eMobility - The Mobile and Wireless Communications and Technology Platform