The Next Generation Internet (NGI) is an initiative of the European Commission which aim is to develop and evolve the Internet we know, into the Internet for the third millennium and beyond. To re-imagine and re-engineer it into the Internet of Humans. The internet that responds to people’s fundamental needs, values and norms dear to all Europeans, like openness, trust, security, inclusion, transparency, cooperation and protection of data1. Internet of Things, which IoT-NGIN project is dedicated to is a part of the European Next Generation Internet.
The Internet has become an important part of our lives. Most of us use it for working, learning, public administration services, social activities, shopping and for many other purposes. In the near future it will become even more essential for society and economy around the world. That’s why it is important, that next generation of the Internet is designed for humans, so it can meet its full potential for both the society and economy.
Internet is still facing many challenges. Most of them relating to personal data and transparency. The Internet of the new generation should address these challenges. It should provide better service. It should also be resilient and sustainable. The European Commission initiative aims to answer all these challenges and IoT-NGIN project is proud to be a part of this journey. The NGI initiative describes the Next Generation Internet on its main website as the Internet of humans, Internet of trust fit for the digital age and Internet that is resilient, sustainable and open1:
AN INTERNET OF HUMANS
The Next Generation Internet will shape the development and evolution of the Internet into an Internet of Humans, that addresses the people’s fundamental needs, including trust, security, and inclusion, while reflecting the values and the norms all citizens enjoy in Europe. EC invests in NGI research and innovation supporting researchers and innovators involved in hundreds of projects. The support goes beyond financing, to mentoring and the journey from the idea to a real business. EC also supports top Internet innovators in the areas of Trust and Data Sovereignty on the Internet; Trustworthy Open Search and Discovery; Internet Architecture and Decentralised Technologies; as well as enhanced EU-US and EU-Canada cooperation and collaboration.
AN INTERNET OF TRUST FIT FOR THE DIGITAL AGE
People’s privacy concerns are considered most important for NGI innovations, as only the Internet that we trust can lay the groundwork for Europe fitting for the Digital Age. NGI supports Europe’s digital transformation by including secure and sustainable digital infrastructures, digital transformation of businesses and public services and digital skills. All of these consider data protection, cybersecurity and electronic identity rules set by the European Union.
RESILIENT. SUSTAINABLE. OPEN.
The Next Generation Internet fosters diversity and decentralisation and grows the potential for a sustainably open environment for our cultures and economies, underlining our values, promoting creativity and respecting the environment. NGI supports the upgrading of Internet infrastructure for better security and privacy. NGI project cover ways to increase network performances and make the Internet more energy efficient. Open-source software is at the heart of many NGI projects which make an important contribution to the open-source community.1
IoT-NGIN project aims to unleash the power of Next Generation IoT as an essential dimension of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) and become the “IoT Engine”. The objective of the IoT-NGIN project is to address the challenges of Next-generation IoT and create sustainable innovation towards Next-generation internet by introducing key digital technologies at things level as specified in the figure below. IoT-NGIN aims to become the IoT Engine, which will be a cornerstone for the development of smart and sustainable cities, and in general smart infrastructures and services. It will maintain and increase the EU citizens’ quality of living in smart cities, increase the safety and efficiency in manufacturing, protect the environment by reducing pesticide and water abuse in agricultural activities, enhance smart grid protection, increase personal data privacy, create new jobs in IoT and ensure that the existing ones are sustainable.
In order to achieve its objective, IoT-NGIN is building the following tools for Next-Generation IoT:
- Patterns-based IoT meta-architecture
defining a design language for legacy and next generation IoT architectures.
- Optimized IoT/M2M and 5G/MCM communications via enhanced spectrum allocation and QoS in M2M communications and exploiting TSN in 5G networks as well as a 5G Management API, which combined with a RUST based edge cloud execution platform, will support secure-by-design micro-services to extend the edge cloud paradigm.
- Versatile Machine Learning as a Service platform simplifying machine learning (ML) model training and sharing, supporting privacy-preserving FL, innovative deep learning/reinforcement learning techniques, polyglot model serving and zero knowledge proof techniques for ML models verification without disclosing any data.
- Augmented Reality (AR) enhanced personalized IoT sensing and actuating relying on both computer vision and classical visual device recognition, pervasive security and ambient intelligence-based access control, as well as AR and Mixed reality methods, towards enhanced tactile IoT applications.
- Enhanced IoT Cybersecurity & Data Privacy via ML-based cybersecurity auditing and active protection, as well as Self-Sovereign Identities’ based authenticated and securely logged access to Interconnected DLTs and meta-level digital twins.
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