Great interest for MONROE first Open Call for external users

The EU H2020 funded project MONROE (Measuring Mobile Broadband Networks in Europe) builds and operates an open, European-scale platform with multi-homing capabilities to run experiments on operational Mobile Broadband (MBB) networks. External users can perform measurements and contribute hardware and software extensions to the platform through the process of Open Calls. The first Open Call which just closed has attracted a large number of applicants from all over Europe.

“I am really glad that we received so many interesting applications. It shows that there is a great need for a measurement platform targeting MBB services”, says Professor Anna Brunström, at Karlstad University.

The MONROE project aims to measure and understand the quality of MBB networks as experienced by the end-user. MONROE also provides WiFi connectivity mimicking multi-homing in smartphones with both MBB and WiFi interfaces, to allow experimenting on different access technologies as well as exploring new ways of combining them to increase performance and robustness.

Funding to external users
The total funding available in the first Open Call is 1.8 million Euros and each experimenter selected through the call will get access to the platform for up to 18 months and will be funded with up to 150 thousand Euros.

“The platform will consist of up to 100 stationary nodes and 150 mobile nodes that act as monitoring stations for measuring quality. Each node will be connected to three mobile broadband operators and also to WiFi when it is available”, explains Anna Brunström.

Broad profile
The profile of prospective external experimenters is wide and includes academics, industry or small and medium-sized enterprises active in research and/or development of mobile broadband technologies, protocols and/or applications. Member states of the European Union and Associated Countries are eligible to apply.

“The launch of the first Open Call is an important milestone for MONROE. Building and operating a MBB platform is the key goal of the project. Such a platform, however, cannot be built without the feedback of the experimenters, who will be its main users”, says project coordinator Dr. özgü Alay.
Simula Research Laboratory, in Norway, is the organisation that coordinates MONROE. The project involves seven partners including universities, research institutes and industrial players from Norway, Italy, Spain and Sweden.
About MONROE
MONROE is a three-year project that started in March 2015 and has a total budget of 6.5 million Euros. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644399.