UNIC - UNIversal satellite home Connection

Research-Project
name=UNIC
title=UNIversal satellite home Connection
keywords=Triple Play, bidirectional satellite, digital divide
fundingAgency=European Union
frameworkProgramme= [FP6]


projectType=STReP
researchObjective=
projectReference=
coordinator=
participants=
Thales Alenia Space,

Eutelsat SA,
[http://www.mbigroup.it MBI] ,
[http://www.crit.rai.it RAI] ,
[http://www.unipi.it University of Pisa] ,

Motorola,
[http://www.wind.it Wind] ,

CNES,

University College London,| budget=
funding=
start=February 2006
end=July 2008
website=http://www.unic-project.org

UNIC (UNIversal satellite home Connection) is a Specific Targeted Research Project (STReP) sponsored under European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme. The project is coordinated by Thales Alenia Space.

Objective

The UNIC project aims at developing an end-to-end scientific test bed for the creation, optimization and validation of new broadband interactive TV-centric services delivered over low-cost 2-way satellite to actual end-users in the home. Combining satellite technology for Direct-To-the-Home (DTH) TV-services with Internet access and IP based services, including Voice over IP (VoIP), can provide an effective alternative to traditional access methods (cable networks) and newcomers (IPTV/TelcoTV and Digital Terrestrial TV).

Breaking the digital divide barrier

It is known that satellite connection provides the best and quickest solution to reduce the digital divide in less-favored areas, which has been considered as a major issue in the diffusion of broadband access. The inherent advantages of satellite communications, such as unlimited access within the satellite footprint, and massive downlink broadcast capacity can be exploited to provide bundled services to those customers that were previously excluded from traditional access choices (rural areas in well-developed countries and large areas with limited terrestrial network infrastructure in developing countries). The UNIC project employs a two-way satellite architecture.

UNIC architecture

The UNIC platform employs DVB-S2 and DVB-RCS technologies in the forward and the return link, respectively. The flexible framing structure of DVB-S2 and the adoption of the Adaptive Coding & Modulation (ACM) functionality allow optimizing the transmission parameters for each individual user on a frame-by-frame basis, dependent on path conditions and required QoS, under closed-loop control via the satellite return channel. The result is an efficient exploitation of the satellite resources so as to reduce the bandwidth demand.

Consortium

The project consortium comprises the following partners from both academia and industry:

* Thales Alenia Space, France
* Eutelsat SA, France
* [http://www.mbigroup.it/en/ MBI] , Italy
* [http://www.crit.rai.it/eng/index.htm RAI] , Italy
* [http://www.unipi.it/english/index.htm University of Pisa] , Italy
* Motorola, Sweden
* [http://www.wind.it/eng/index.php Wind] , Italy
* CNES, France
* University College London, UK

External links

* [http://www.unic-project.org/ UNIC Project official website]
* [http://cordis.europa.eu/fp6/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP6HomePage Sixth Framework Program information]