Eva Legras and Jérôme Dubos visited the HPNG lab to get a flavour of the group’s research work and its applications outside of the laboratory. Research Assistant Mayur Channegowda from HPNG and Bijan Rahimzadeh Rofoee from Bristol Is Open gave an introduction about the group’s activities in optical networking and software-defined networking (SDN) research and developments, and on the Bristol Is Open (BIO) programmable city initiative.

The visitors were keen to know more about the impact of SDN on telecommunications and smart city industry, the involvement of other cities in Bristol Is Open and the public engagement aspects of the BIO project. The hosts outlined the ways in which SDN technology is helping to accelerate the development of smart cities through the BIO initiative, and how the University’s research is helping to establish BIO as a leader in smart city activity.

The parties also discussed how HPNG and BIO link to French universities and companies, and how closer collaborative ties could be developed in future projects.