–the following information is taken from here.
The ALICANTE project proposes a novel concept towards the deployment of a new networked ‘Media Ecosystem’. The proposed solution is based on a flexible cooperation between providers, operators and end-users, finally enabling every user – first – to access the offered multimedia services in various contexts, and – second – to share and deliver his own audiovisual content dynamically, seamlessly, and transparently to other users.
Towards this goal, ALICANTE’s advanced concept provides Content-awareness to the Network Environment, Network- and User Context-awareness to the Service Environment, and adapted services/content to the End-User for his best service experience possible, taking the role of a consumer and/or producer.
The ALICANTE architecture introduces two novel virtual layers on top of the traditional Network layer, i.e., a Content-Aware Network layer (CAN) for network packet processing and a Home-Box layer for the actual content delivery.
The validation of the project architecture and results will be done in a large-scale trans-national pilot, in preparation for bringing it to the market.