Summary

Calypso is a new project of the TCM lab (Laboratory of Telecommunications Software and Multimedia)  of Helsinki University of Technology. A lightweight, configurable service and control platform for ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) will be designed and implemented in the project.

What is Calypso?

The Calypso project is a successor to the ongoing TOVE project, which has provided the Calypso research team with experience on the traditional ATM technology, its limitations and the alternative approaches. This experience has been used to design a three-layer broadband network architecture (the Calypso architecture), which focuses on services. The architecture has been designed to facilitate easy creation, deployment, and management of broadband services. In comparison with the broadband architectures based on the IN (Intelligent Networks) concept, the following benefits can be indentified:
 
  • Efficiency. In Calypso architecture the services are able to control an ATM switch and the network directly, ie. they do not have to do this via control functions.

  • Flexibility. The Calypso architecture defines only a minimum interface necessary to configure the network and the actual functionality of the network is implemented by services that can be dynamically installed into the network nodes. In addition, the structure of the Calypso network node enables the traditional ATM signalling software to be used together with subnetwork- or application-specific signalling software. Furthermore, the resources can be efficiently distributed between the services.

  • Innovativity. The Calypso architecture enables new kind of services to be implemented, because the service logic can be distributed between network nodes, servers and user equipment such as PCs and set top boxes.

    • How the companies could benefit from Calypso?

    The Calypso project is applying a number of practices which aim at maximising the benefit gained by the participating companies. Monitoring the project has been made as easy and convenient as possible. The program source code developed in the project will be well-documented and packaged into modules that can be easily taken into use. The project researchers can be invited to the companies to give presentations about the project or about the trends of the international research in the Calypso's field. The project is also expected to create  significant knowledge in Java technology in general, as well as its applicability in demanding telecommunications applications. This knowledge will be transferred to the companies that participate in the project.
    Updated by Petteri Koponen < Petteri.Koponen@hut.fi> 03 Oct 1997