CISCO SYSTEMS FRANCE SARL

Their core work

Cisco Systems France is the French subsidiary of the global networking and telecommunications giant Cisco. In H2020, they contributed networking infrastructure expertise and performance evaluation capabilities to projects advancing next-generation internet architecture and 5G systems. Their role focuses on providing real-world testbed infrastructure, network protocol design, and KPI benchmarking for emerging communication technologies.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Cisco France's H2020 involvement shows a clear progression from foundational internet protocols toward 5G deployment infrastructure. Early projects (2015-2017) addressed transport-layer APIs and information-centric networking concepts, while the later project (2018) moved into concrete 5G facility testing and performance benchmarking. This mirrors the broader industry shift from researching next-gen networking concepts to deploying and validating 5G infrastructure.

Moving from protocol-level research toward practical 5G deployment validation and vertical industry use cases — expect future interest in 6G or network slicing for industry verticals.

How they like to work

Cisco France exclusively participates as a partner rather than leading consortia, contributing industry-grade infrastructure and expertise to research-led projects. With 38 unique partners across 13 countries in just 3 projects, they operate in large consortia (averaging 12+ partners). Their role is that of an industry anchor — providing real-world network infrastructure and commercial perspective to academically-driven research.

Broad European network spanning 38 partners across 13 countries from only 3 projects, indicating involvement in large multi-national consortia typical of major ICT research initiatives.

What sets them apart

As a subsidiary of a global networking leader, Cisco France brings unmatched commercial networking infrastructure and real-world deployment experience to EU research consortia. Unlike academic partners, they can validate research outcomes against production-grade systems and provide pathways to market adoption. Their involvement signals project credibility and potential for results to reach actual deployment.

Highlights from their portfolio

• 5G-VINNI
  Large-scale 5G validation infrastructure project — Cisco's most recent and only funded H2020 project (EUR 177,875), focused on real 5G testbed deployment.
• NEAT
  Addressed fundamental internet transport-layer redesign, aiming to create a new universal API for network communication.