The SoftFIRE project consortium is calling for applications to its challenge on Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Software Defined Network (SDN), and 5G technologies. The call goes out to all technologists, visionaries, and practitioners involved in these fields.
These technologies have the potential to transform the way in which software network architectures will take shape, but their potential has yet to be fully realised (see The state of telecom in 2017) and they still face a number of challenges. The SoftFIRE project has been working towards overcoming the challenges in recent years, having developed a federated platform for proving new capabilities and functionalities.
Now, the project has issued its final challenge - it is looking for ground-breaking proposals to move these technologies one step further and solve the remaining issues. Sector experts are invited to demonstrate how their technological solutions could improve virtualization platforms, or to show how new compelling services and applications could be developed on top of an NFV/SDN middleware.
The consortium is particularly interested in proposals that address interoperability/extension of the platform, creation/consolidation of services and/or creation of applications on top of the infrastructure. Proposals should address one of the following streams: Interworking, Programmability or Security.
The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2018 at 5pm CET. Proposals are submitted online via the submission portal. There are three prizes for each stream, allocated according to the creativeness and technical proficiency of the solutions provided. The total prize budget is €225,000, with €75,000 available per stream. The first prize for each stream is €40,000, with €25,000 for second place and a third prize of €10,000.
The first six highly ranked proposals for each stream will be selected for the Demo at the Fed4FIRE Engineering Conference (FEC3) on 13 March 2018. More information can be found on the SoftFIRE Project’s website.