CONNECT

CONNECT is the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications. Its mission is to research and develop innovative solutions for the communications challenges facing society today. The Internet of Things, 5G/6G networks and future communications services are the Centre’s main areas of focus.

Over 300 CONNECT researchers across 10 Higher Education Institutes are supported by €90 million of funding from the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres Programme, the European Regional Development Fund and industry partners.

CONNECT also leads the ENABLE Spoke research programme which investigates ways of connecting communities to smart urban environments through the Internet of Things.

Research Areas

CONNECT focuses on six research themes looking to the next generation of networks:

Dependable Networks: Low-latency services, such as Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) and Mixed Reality (MR), leveraged by edge computing, and exploiting recent advances in data analytics for the design and operation of dependable networks.
Sustainable IoT: Scalable integrated energy harvesting, storage, and power management, for sustainable IoT edge networks. Low-power IoT platforms based on reconfigurable, software-defined sensing, computation, and communications to support long-term network operation. New security and resiliency mechanisms.
Link Performance: Multi-Gbps wireless and wireline data transmission, flexible mmWave communications, enabled through converged photonic networking. Signal processing operations for multi-dimensional data structures. Molecular communications and interfaces for the Internet of Bio-Nano Things.
Customised Networks: Virtualisation and dynamic resource sharing, resource characterisation, provisioning, and isolation. Monitoring customised networks. Embedded trust and security mechanisms.
Data-driven Optimisation and Management: Predictive power of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to effect configuration changes before adverse conditions arise. Metrics of users’ experience of network. Apply in distributed, resource-constrained contexts.
The New Operators: Intelligent dynamic management and provision of network slices across a combination of independent radio access networks. Recommendations on a policy and regulatory environment and financial framework for new operators.

CONNECT researchers have vast expertise in test and experimentation in these areas.

CONNECT’s researchers tackle issues of particular interest to industry. Their work includes the development of:

Energy-efficient, ultra-low-power smart sensors
Programmable network substrates for multi-stakeholder ecosystems
Extreme-sharing systems for Cloud-RAN architectures
Network-aware, reconfigurable, multiband/multimode transceiver architectures
Quality-of-experience management for sparse, bursty data networks

CONNECT works with a wide range of industry partners on targeted projects in the areas of Internet of Things, future cellular (5G and beyond), next-generation broadband, software-defined networks and cloud-based services. CONNECT’s expert researchers are dedicated to delivering outstanding results at the pace and standard demanded by industry. Several spin out companies have emerged from CONNECT research in recent years.

Accuflow
Accessgreen
Aeronet Global
Ampleon
Analog Devices
Arris
ARUP
Benetel
BlueMetrix
Canguru
CISCO
Civic Integrated Solutions
Cork City Council
Cork County Council
Dell EMC
DenseAir
Digital Canopy Technologies Ltd
Dublin City Council
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Co.Co.
Ericsson
ESB
Equal1 Laboratories
Google
Granahan McCourt
Huawei
IBM

Intel
Johnson Controls
MACOM
McKesson
Nexalus
Nokia
Nonlinear Systems
Predictive Control Systems
Rambus
Real Wireless
Rivada Networks
Routematch
S3 Group
Seagate
Silent Sensors
Softbank
Synopsys
Taoglas
TrackNStop
Trasna
UTRC
VMWare
Westire Technology Ltd
Xilinx
Zeto

Pervasive Nation - Ireland’s Internet of Things testbed using a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN).
Ireland’s largest public data centre at TSSG, in Waterford Institute of Technology.
Open Ireland - Ireland’s Open Networking Testbed with enabling researchers to perform end-to-end research across heterogeneous network domains, including mobile networks, optical networks and cloud computing resources.
Indoor/outdoor wireless testbeds for cellular, Cloud-RAN and SDR at Trinity College Dublin.
RadioSpace - a national facility for the development and testing of new radio technologies for the Internet of Things and 5G, based in Waterford Institute of Technology.
Smart Docklands - Dublin’s smart city testbed, a partnership of CONNECT and Dublin City Council.

Technology is changing the world at a rapid pace. It is vital that the public feels empowered to engage with the issues this raises. Consequently, CONNECT has a strong commitment to education and public engagement. A key focus of this outreach is ‘STEAM’ - using the Arts and creative practices in the traditional formula of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. CONNECT’s initiatives includes the Academy of the Near Future, which is introduces students and upskillers to the technology at the heart of smart cities.