Japan-US Network Opportunity 2 (JUNO)

The Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) within the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) supports research and education activities that develop a better understanding of the fundamental properties of computer and network systems and to create better abstractions and tools for designing, building, analyzing, and measuring future systems. The Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) program in the CNS division supports transformative research on fundamental scientific and technological advances leading to the development of future-generation, high-performance networks and future Internet architectures.

Under this umbrella, NSF and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) of Japan have agreed to embark on a collaborative research program to address compelling research challenges associated with enabling trustworthy networks supporting the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS). This NSF solicitation parallels an equivalent NICT solicitation. Proposals submitted under this solicitation must describe joint research with counterpart Japanese investigators who are requesting funding separately under the NICT solicitation.

The IoT and CPS are becoming pervasive parts of everyday life, enabling a wide array of related emerging services and applications in cities and communities, including in health, transportation, energy/utilities, and other areas. As these systems become embedded in daily life, it is critically important that the networks underlying the services they provide be designed, built, deployed and operated in a highly trustworthy manner, i.e., that they are resilient against disasters, failures and other network disruptions.  This program focuses on enabling ultra-high-availability, robust and reliable networks that can support continuity of service under duress.  This requires consideration of end-to-end systems, including compute resources needed for services and applications, and creative and innovative ways of approaching the challenges outlined above. This program seeks joint Japanese-US research projects that leverage each nation’s expertise and address the following work areas:

1)     Trustworthy IoT/CPS Networking

Developing the foundations for a future resilient edge cloud/network system to ensure trustworthy end-to-end networks, addressing such factors as the heterogeneity, characteristics, resource constraints and potential mobility of end devices/sensors, the diversity of access network technologies, the availability/placement of computing resources and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements.  

2)     Trustworthy Optical Communications and Networking

Addressing the need for trustworthy, high-availability, agile optical edge/access and integrated optical/wireless networks that are resilient against disasters, large traffic surges and other major disruptions.