Managing Communication Channels for Reliable Remote Working - Project 'Grand Union'

The ‘Managing Communication Channels for Reliable Remote Working’, or Grand Union, Project is a 15-month collaborative industrial research activity into ‘Making Remote Working Secure, Resilient and Reliable’. The aim of the project is to seamlessly improve the interoperability and increase the resilience of remote services across Wifi, WiMax, 3G/4G and future 5G networks. The key objective of the Project is to evaluate the capability of the new technology using pilot demonstrators deployed for the mobile workforce of an SME that is supporting the healthcare sector. The primary innovations are provision of: 1) A simple to understand network QoS/GoS/User Experience indicator plus access to a single integrated, comprehensive network utilisation statement irrespective of the number of actual network providers used; 2) Integrated TCP/IP Accelerator, delta caching and persistence to improve data transfer efficiency and reliability across wireless networks. The primary benefit of this new approach is that mobile workers will have significantly improved reliability, efficiency and resilient data network access with substantial, detailed and simple to understand evidence about their network access.The partners have initiated a comprehensive strategic planning process utilising Gantt charts ( appendix B) and other suitable planning methods to ascertain the specific work packages and required person days necessary by each partner assigned to the project. A comprehensive analysis has also been prepared of current equipment highlighting areas where additional capital expenditure is required to complete the project.

The cost projections are therefore felt to be both prudent and accurate and the project management team is confident of being able to deliver the project within budget and within the forecast timescales.

Total Partner costs for this Industrial Research Project are £617k with the project spanning fifteen months. Total contributions from the partners will be £315k with the collaborators seeking the remaining £302k from TSB funding, additional information regarding each partner’s commitments are provided within the ‘Finance Summary Table’. Initial assessment of the key project deliverables and milestones has been made by the project partners; this has resulted in the following cost calculations being established:
• Internal labour costs will be by far the most significant element, representing ~69% of the overall expenditure estimated at £428k, with an overhead recovery applied at 20% as determined by the TSB in order to simplify the overhead calculation process, the total overhead cost will be £85k (~14%)
• Full Time Sub-contractor Pawel Weclawiak has an existing relationship with Tracline and will provide an integral part of the project development and continuity to Tracline’s projects, constituting 5% of the overall cost £30K. (See App C3).
• Overheads, various other accumulated costs £18k (~3%) which include initial IPR investigations into the novel aspects of the technological solutions.
With the level of resources specified the key objectives of this Project will be completed in the targeted time frame and the outcome of the ‘Grand Union’ Project will be a pilot demonstrator providing a major step forward in the security, resilience and reliable connectivity of mobile communications for remote working.