CRC-funded telecommunications research in Western Australia originated with the establishment of the CRC for Broadband Telecommunications and Networking in 1993. A collaborative venture between four core partners, CRC-BTN's mission was to provide research and development support to assist in the creation of an Australian design infrastructure in telecommunications and networking. CRC-BTN focused on broadband integrated digital network services for customer premises and digital signal processing for wireless systems.
By the end of its seven year funding cycle, CRC-BTN had developed strong domestic and international industry linkages, world-class research and excellent education with an industry focus. The CRC-BTN produced a spin-off company, Atmosphere Networks that developed an Autologous Transfer Mode Local Area Network product with a research partner, the Australian Telecommunications Research Institute.
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The research achievements of CRC-BTN were credited to the successful bid for funding the Australian Telecommunications Cooperative Research Centre. The research team was expanded to encompass Monash University, Victoria University and RMIT in Melbourne and CSIRO in Sydney. Industry partnerships were also modified to include Ericsson, Vodafone, Radio Frequency Systems Australia, Open Telecommunications, Agilent Technologies and the Strategic Industry Research Foundation.
ATcrc's research program initially focused on three areas; Applications, Networking and Wireless. In July 2002, the research programs were restructured and a fourth program was added, Communications Electronics. The first spin-off company for ATcrc, Cortec Systems attracted venture capital funding in February 2004. As ATcrc entered its fifth year of operation, thoughts are now turning to applying for a second round of Government funding. |
