The ambition of FLAME is to build a ground-breaking media delivery platform. It aims to provide tighter integration of media services with the programmable compute, storage and communication infrastructure of the Telcos, allowing placement of media services deep in the network, in metro data centres as well as at the very edge of the network in street cabinets.

FLAME’s use of highly distributed resources connected by dynamic network routing offers major benefits.The platform knows where services and content are, and where they need to be. This allows the network-level indirection, essentially a quick way of ensuring the right content is served to consumers from the best place in the network. These decisions are fast and driven by where, when and how consumers want to interact with media. For emerging immersive experiences, that would be a placement offering very low latency connections to the compute and storage. Another advantage is in-network multicast. Here, similar service requests can be automatically combined to increase network efficiency and dramatically reduce costs.

Our goal is to allow media service providers, technology and infrastructure providers to understand the interplay between content and infrastructures used to deliver it. Cost efficiencies and market revenue sharing models are expected to emerge for providers, while new media services offering better personalisation, interactivity, mobility and localisation are some of the consumer benefits.

To make FLAME more accessible, the platform will be rolled-out to smart city infrastructures around Europe. Then, using an Experimentation-as-a-Service approach, we’ll run over 20 experiments to explore user acceptance and commercial viability. By taking this approach, we give media service providers, technology and infrastructure providers an opportunity to understand the interplay between content and infrastructures used to deliver it. We expect the benefits for providers to include cost efficiencies and market revenue sharing models. Consumer benefits will include a richer, more immersive media experience, supported by FLAME’s new paradigm for the personalisation, interactivity, mobility and localisation of media services.