The European Commission is teaming up with Japanese government and industry to redefine internet architectures in a bid to increase the efficiency of networks in carrying data.

The EC, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication and the National Institute of ICT are all part of the project, along with European and Japanese industrial players, universities and research and development centres. Orange, Telefonica, NEC, Panasonic, NTT, KDDI, ADVA, STMicroelectronics and Intel have all pledged their support to the initiative.

The programme consists of six research projects. One project, called Strauss, aims to build networks capable of speeds of 100Gbps; the average European broadband speed is currently 19.7Mbps. The MiWeba project is focused on making better use of existing radio frequencies in order to boost ultra-high speed and mobile connections.

The Necoma project will explore new ways to enhance personal data security while GreenICN will try to ensure an efficient use of energy in information networks

The ClouT project is focused on smart city operations such as energy use, traffic flow or emergencies and finally the Felix project will set up joint EU-Japan experimental platforms to help universities and research centres test new network technologies.

The projects will receive around €18m in funding and touch on challenges such as cyber security, network capacity, storage, high density data traffic and energy efficiency.

European Commission vice president Neelie Kroes, said: “Our future internet should know no barriers, least of all barriers created because we did not prepare for the data revolution.”