1. Mobile and Pervasive
Computing Institute
at Lund University
April 2013
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2. Executive Summary
The Mobile and Pervasive Computing Institute at Lund University is being inaugurated in the spring of
2013 in collaboration between the mobile industry, Lund University and the Regional Council of
Skåne.
The purpose is to strengthen and act as an umbrella for mobile communications related research and
innovation being conducted at the university and as a bridge between industry and academia. The
institute will put particular emphasis on distributed mobile cloud research.
The institute will recruit professors, researchers and other staff for conducting graduate research and
contract education as well as for other activities supporting the exchange of ideas and competence
between industry and academia.
The objective of establishing the institute is to confirm and strengthen Skåne as an international and
national hub for research, innovation and commercialization within the mobile communications area.
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3. Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 2
Background .............................................................................................................................................. 4
The Region ........................................................................................................................................... 4
Mobile Heights .................................................................................................................................... 4
The present situation .......................................................................................................................... 5
The institute ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Legal set-up ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Management ................................................................................................................................... 5
Governance ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Financing and commitments ........................................................................................................... 6
Location and premises .................................................................................................................... 6
Activities .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Vision and mission ........................................................................................................................... 6
Partners ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Planned activities ............................................................................................................................ 7
Outcome/results ............................................................................................................................. 7
Key performance metrics ................................................................................................................ 7
Long term development .................................................................................................................. 7
Technical Scope ....................................................................................................................................... 8
Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 8
Background .......................................................................................................................................... 8
Guiding vision and theme.................................................................................................................... 9
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4. Background
The Region
Skåne is one of Europe's leading educational and scientific centers. Lund University, founded in 1666,
is Scandinavia’s largest campus for research and higher education. The close-by Malmö University is,
by contrast, one of Sweden's newest higher education initiatives.
All together, the Öresund Region, which includes greater Copenhagen, boasts 135,000 students, 12
universities and over 10,000 scientists. Moreover, the region demonstrates world-class research and
enterprises in a range of areas; material science, nanotechnology, automatic control technology, IT,
mobile communications, environment and sustainability, cognitive sciences, diabetes, cancer,
neuroscience, stem cells and many others.
In 2009, the city of Lund in Skåne was chosen as the site for the European Spallation Source (ESS), a
multidisciplinary scientific research center harnessing the world’s most powerful neutron source.
Key reasons for selecting Lund, Skåne and indeed the Öresund region were:
- Excellent conditions for attracting the world's best researchers
- Distinguished universities within commuting distance
- Vibrant science and technology ecosystem
- Broad research-based commercial and industrial scene
- Well-developed infrastructure
- English-speaking population
- Cutting-edge research within related sciences such as nanotechnology and physics
In addition to the above, yet another reason for the location is Lund’s long tradition of world leading
synchrotron radiation research, most recently demonstrated with the construction of the Max IV
laboratory. Max IV and ESS will, when inaugurated in 2016 and 2019 respectively, together form one
of the world’s largest and most advanced centers for materials research.
Mobile Heights
The Skåne region is a world-leading hub for the mobile communications industry. Sony, Ericsson,
TeliaSonera, Telenor, ST-Ericsson, Intel, Broadcom, Qualcomm, HTC, Huawei and other world leading
mobile related companies together employ more than 7 000 people in the region. Many small and
medium-size innovation-driven companies such as Scalado (acquired by Nokia), Polar Rose (acquired
by Apple), Swiftfoot (acquired by Intel) and TAT (acquired by BlackBerry) also have had their cradle
here.
In order to reinforce the region’s competitiveness, the industry, academia and the public sector in
2008 formed a long-term, concentrated investment in the growth sector of mobile communications
by setting up a “triple helix” initiative: Mobile Heights. (“Triple Helix” is the term coined by the
European Commission denoting an activity that bridges public, industrial and academia)
Apart from the ecosystem and business acceleration activities there are three industrial excellence
research centers associated to Mobile Heights: System Design on Silicon (SOS), Embedded
Applications Software Engineering, (EASE) and the Network for Mobile Services and Applications
(NMSA). The three centers are very successful enjoying strong international credibility.
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5. The present situation
The mobile industry is undergoing structural changes. The mobile device and equipment industry
consolidates as technology matures and the differentiation opportunities move from hardware and
electronics to software, systems and services.
As previously described, Skåne has been a center of excellence in mobile technology for almost 20
years but with the changes in the mobile value chain the playing field is changing. It is vital to support
the competitiveness of companies present in the region, and this is being addressed jointly by
industry, academia and the regional government through the institute.
The key objective of establishing the institute is to confirm and strengthen Skåne as an international
and national hub for research, innovation and commercialization within the mobile communications
area.
The institute
The full name of the institute is the “Mobile And Pervasive Computing Institute at Lund University”.
The institute is planned to be inaugurated before the summer of 2013. The initiative is supported by
the Swedish Government and all relevant authorities.
The purpose of the institute is to drive the research frontier within the research theme and thereby
 Develop original knowledge
 Nurture new competence within industrial members
 Drive innovation through cross-disciplinary projects
 Create critical mass in key research topics
 Provide easy access to competence for industrial members
 Bridge research, innovation and industry
Sony Mobile, Region Skåne, and Lund University are confident the institute will play an important
role in securing the long-term development of a healthy mobile communications industry,
benefitting further entrepreneurship and creation of new jobs in the region.
Legal set-up
There are three Founders; Sony Mobile, Region Skåne and Lund University.
The legal belonging of the institute will be the Faculty of Engineering, LTH, at Lund University.
Management
During an initial phase, the institute will be managed by an interim director.
When operative, the institute will have two directors; a Scientific Director and an Innovation
Director.
The Scientific Director will also be the formal and administrative head of the institute.
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6. Governance
The institute is a formal and separate part of the technical faculty at University and will be governed
by a Board of Directors.
The Board of Directors will be consisting of up to eight persons including the chairman: Up to three
representing other members, two proposed by the industry through Mobile Heights and two
proposed by the University.
The institute will have an advisory board consisting of up to six members. Its members will be chosen
to ensure equal focus on science and on industrial applications and innovation.
Financing and commitments
Both Mobile Heights and the Founders will strive to add more members to the institute. In addition
to direct funding from Founders and members, the institute management is expected to grow the
total budget through participation in public research and development projects.
After the initial ten years, the parties aim to secure a permanent funding of the institute and its
activities.
Location and premises
The proposal is to locate the institute in the Greenland building at the Sony and Ericsson campus in
Lund. The site was chosen for its easy access to the industry and its proximity to ESS, Max IV,
Medicon Village, Ideon and other relevant institutions.
With the location of the institute, the Greenland building becomes a mobile center with the aim
grow a vibrant and innovative environment. Initially, the Mobile Industry Research Foundation,
Mobile Heights, Mobile Heights Business Center and others are to re-locate here.
Activities
Vision and mission
The vision of the institute is
“Laying the foundation for a truly connected world through world-class research, disruptive
innovation, and industry collaboration“
The mission of the institute is
“To bring sustainable competitiveness and differentiation as well as enabling new applications and
business areas for the participating companies and the Skåne innovation ecosystem in both
technology and work models within mobile and pervasive computing”
Partners
To create a flexible, dynamic entity with critical mass to participate in public research and
development projects the institute needs partners.
In Scandinavia there are a host of non-competing entities having activities in relevant areas that can
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7. be used to augment the institute’s activities.
These entities are typically publicly owned research and innovation entities; examples of such are SP
Technical Research Institute of Sweden, the Swedish Institute of Computer Science SICS, Teknopol,
Acreo etc.
Thanks to the novel and advanced theme of the institute, there are virtually no existing, competing
activities and partnerships thus only add to the strength of the institute. Examples of values that can
be brought by partners are:
- Short term prototype and demonstrator projects
- Experimental implementation or research results
- Development and execution of training programs
- Maintenance of test-beds and development environments
- Complement the institute for participation in research and development projects
- Systemic competence for preparing e.g. European Framework applications
Planned activities
The institute will recruit professors, researchers and other staff for conducting graduate research and
contract education as well as for other activities supporting the exchange of ideas and competence
between industry and academia.
The detailed activity plan will be done jointly by the Scientific Director and the Innovation Director.
Outcome/results
Examples of outcome from the institute are:
- World class mobile research (audited by international advisory board)
- Research results, innovations and demonstrators in forms suitable for exploitation by
members or the innovation ecosystem
- High quality Ph.D. to reinforce the staff of members or the innovation ecosystem
- Growth of the mobile ecosystem including use of mobile technology in other industries and
segments
- Attraction to high quality professionals and academics
Key performance metrics
Academic performance is typically measured using the following metrics
- Publications in recognized scientific forums
- Citations
- Graduated Ph.D.
In addition to this, the institute will be measured on
- Commercial use of research results
- Volume of professional education
- Start-ups created and/or supported
- Interviews with Participants
Long term development
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8. The long term plan of the institute is to become a globally recognized hub for mobile-related
technology and innovation. This will require cooperation with many other stakeholders, both
regional and international.
Technical Scope
Summary
The proposed theme and guiding vision for MAPCI is Distributed Mobile Cloud.
Further described below, Distributed Mobile Cloud is a highly likely, future development and
disruption to the mobile ecosystem. It is supported by a number of identified trends and offers major
opportunities for the industry’s key stakeholders.
These opportunities are however linked to a range of major, technological challenges making the
topic an extremely suitable theme for applied research.
An industry research and education institute focused on Distributed Mobile Cloud is a perfect
extension and complement to the world-class research in low power radio (SOS), embedded
software (EASE) and digital services (NMSA) that is already being carried out in association with
Mobile Heights.
It is also a very relevant complement to the distinguished non-technical research done in both Lund
and Malmö on e.g. health, transportation, digital business models, media creation and consumption,
as well as intellectual property law.
Already from day one, the theme will drive valuable research and competence development in areas
relevant already today; networked software, architecture, distributed processing, device
management, client technology, security, cloud processing, service deployment and many others.
In addition it will prepare The Institute’s industrial members for successfully addressing the major
opportunities of future mobile technology.
Background
The mobile device and equipment industry is consolidating as internet, media and radio technology
matures. With this, the competitive arena moves from electronics and mechanics to software,
systems and content/services. Although the academic and industrial ecosystem in southern Sweden
is strong in several of these areas it needs to be extended to secure a sustainable competitiveness
also in the future.
It is a well-established fact in science history and management research that all industries, all
technologies and all businesses are subject to disruptive change from time to time. Mobile
technology is no exception.
Mobile devices and mobile networks both have a disruption frequency of 5-8 years. In mobile devices
this can be illustrated by the introduction of high-level OS, touch-screens etc. In radio networks this
is mainly driven by new 3GPP standard releases; RAN, GERAN, UTRAN, E-UTRAN etc.
Being in the middle of one with Android/iOS smartphones and 4G LTE networks we can expect the
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9. next major disruption in 3-6 years.
To secure world leadership and be truly valuable in a long term context a research institute must
have a scope that reaches beyond the obvious extrapolations of today’s technology. To stay relevant
and push the research frontier, the horizon needs to be set 5-10 years out.
The Mobile Heights organization has carried out extensive analysis complemented with input from
key strategists in the wireless industry and has made predictions for the coming 10 year period.
These predictions are also supported by actual development in technology such as real-time,
interactive cloud services, cloud-enabled hardware (e.g. Nvidia, ARM), distributed client technology
as well as new software architectures (e.g. Amazon Silk, LLVM, Libvirt, OpenStack, OpenFlow, Linaro).
Guiding vision and theme
As mentioned above, the proposed vision of the research institute is Distributed Mobile Cloud
Cloud technology is well established in data centers and used globally in many industries and
businesses. One possible, or even likely, major disruption to the mobile industry is the introduction of
seamless integration and virtualization of services, data centers, communications network nodes and
devices.
Open execution environments, or virtualization, in devices will allow the device to act as an integral
part of a cloud service and also potentially remove the need for “installation” and “apps”. Through
virtualization a service can deploy its client software over the network, seamlessly and invisibly to the
user. This means that also very advanced services with complex client software can be accessed
through a simple web browser without the limitation of e.g. browser run-time capabilities. Or that
the service can simply remotely deploy the client without any user interaction at all in the case of e.g.
an intelligent internet-of-things device.
Intelligence
Data
Figure 1. Distributed Mobile Cloud concept
Virtualization in networks will allow a merger of data centers and communications networks. It will
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10. enable localization of services meaning that services execute and store data geographically and
topologically close to the end user. This will drastically improve end user experience but at the same
time drastically increase the total capacity of a given network because of the reduction of global
traffic.
Virtualization of services will mean the ability to offer the services to a wider range of products
and/or devices and to create new business opportunities in content and media.
Apart from the identified technological and ecosystem trends, yet another reason for the probability
of the vision is the fact that it enables massive benefits for the entire value chain. Once
implemented, the concept of a distributed mobile cloud will offer more efficient use of radio
spectrum, device resources (e.g. processor, battery), network resources, data center resources and
even natural resources (e.g. CO2 footprint and rare materials).
Specifically for a device manufacturer, a distributed mobile cloud scenario will offer new and unique
opportunities to increase the value of devices (through services and content) and also differentiation
(e.g. through proprietary or service-specific hardware).
Specifically for an infrastructure manufacturer, a distributed mobile cloud scenario will offer new and
unique opportunities to increase the value of equipment (through increased capacity and supporting
new applications) and also differentiation (e.g. through proprietary or service-specific functionality).
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