Research organisation NICTA has joined an international collaboration that aims to improve online data transfer.

Called Nano Data Centres (NADA), NADA is part of the European Commission’s 7th Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (FP7).

NADA aims to move Internet architecture away from the currently-used network-centric approach to a highly distributed data delivery platform.

The project is expected to enhance performance of home entertainment networks, low-cost content delivery, and support for new applications in the online games area.

NADA will cost a total of €4.9 million (AUD$7.9m), including European Union (EU) funding of €3.01 million (AUD$4.94m), and contributions from participating organisations.

As part of its participation, NICTA has pledged resources worth more than AUD$290,000.

Although NICTA has been involved in various EU projects in the past, this is the first time the organisation has been included in the prestigious FP7.

According to NICTA’s Networked Systems Research Group Manager, Max Ott, NADA gives NICTA the opportunity to build on existing research initiatives and test its research results.

“We have been working for many years on P2P technologies, distributed services, testbed management, and various resource prediction algorithms,” he said.

“Through participation in this project we will get access to very valuable usage traces which will be crucial to tune and validate our algorithms.”

Australia is the only non-EU country besides Israel to participate in the NADA project.

Other project partners include: Thomson SA; Universite Pierre et Marie Curie; Institute EURECOM; Telefonica I+D; Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology; First Oversi; Centre for Research and Technology Hellas; and Martel GmbH.