Design considerations on the CREATE-NET testbed

The CREATE-NET testbed is a long term project aiming at implementing a best state-of-the-art infrastructure able to link together research centers, both from academia and industrial bodies, in order to create a fruitful collaborative environment to help generating new ideas for advanced applications and services, developing new protocols, testing and integrating different vendor equipments. This testbed is aimed to be unique as it covers novel topics such as optical and wireless integration and WiMAX experimentation for offering broadband access to rural communities. In this paper we present both the technical design issues and a general outline of the implementation process.