CNIT

CNIT is a non-profit private association founded in 1995, currently including 37 major Italian Universities, whose main purpose is to foster research activity and provide networking support to specific projects in the broad area of telecommunications. CNIT is organised in operational units which include Research Units (RUs) and National Laboratories (NLs). The National Laboratories are larger structures owned or rented on purpose by CNIT, aiming at developing particularly advanced experimental, national and international research activities. CNIT can run national, European or corporate-funded projects by aggregating RUs and NL according to the project needs. For the purpose of ACTPHAST CNIT will participate as Photonic Networks National Laboratory. CNIT Photonic Networks NL in Pisa has been created in 2001 as a part of a broad agreement among four partners, CNIT itself, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Marconi Communications S.p.A. (now Ericsson) and the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). CNIT and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna jointly operate within the Integrated Research Center for Photonic Networks and Technologies (IRCPhoNeT). The activity of IRCPhoNeT encompasses all research aspects related to implementing the various types of very highspeed communication networks with partial or total use of “photonic” technologies to perform various operations, such as transmission, amplification, signal processing, switching.