Publications

The explosive growth of data, particularly internet traffic, has led to a dramatic increase in demand for transmission bandwidth, imposing an immmediate requirement for a broadband networks. The primary objective of the COST Action 291 ‘Towards Digital Optical Networks’ was to focus on novel network concepts, subsystems and architectures to enable future telecommunication networks, exploiting the features and properties of photonic technologies. Three working groups were established to deal with these research objectives:
WG1, Optical Processing for Digital Network Performance, dealt with the physical layer and implementation-related issues of transparent optical networks such as optical-signal-per-bit processing, optical-switch-architecture designs and implementations as well as transmissino-related issues.
WG2, Novel Network Architectures, focused on the evolution of network scenarios, including novel network architectures. Also different node architectures and technologies in terms of network performance and functionality were investigated. Three different architectures were studied and compared: circuit (wavelength, waveband, etc.), and optical-burst and optical-packet switched networks.
WG3, Unified Control Plane, Network Resilience and Service Security, dealt with the impact of transparency on photonic network architectures and the associated control and protocol issues as well as on network survivability and security issues, covering topics such as protection and restoration, routing and wavelength assignment algorithms, fault isolation, disaster recovery, etc.
The results obtained within these working groups are collected in this volume.

More and more transactions, whether in business or related to leisure activities, are mediated automatically by computers and computer networks, and this trend is having a significant impact on the conception and design of new computer applications. The next generation of these applications will be based on software agents to which increasingly complex tasks can be delegated, and which interact with each other in sophisticated ways so as to forge agreements in the interest of their human users. The wide variety of technologies supporting this vision is the subject of this volume. It summarises the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action project on Agreement Technologies (AT), during which approximately 200 researchers from 25 European countries, along with eight institutions from non-COST countries, cooperated as part of a number of working groups. The book is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of the emerging field of Agreement Technologies, written and coordinated by the leading researchers in the field. The results set out here are due for wide dissemination beyond the computer technology sector, involving law and social science as well.

Presentations from the workshop held in Malta, March 23-25, 2006.