The European Union’s Future Internet Research and Experimentation (FIRE) project is an experimental, Europe-based research initiative on clean-slate Internet concepts, protocols, and architectures that willaddress technological, industrial, and socioeconomic issues. Research areas include the development of major, interconnec tedtestbed platforms for experimenting with large projects,as well as the design of new architectures and protocols for increased scalability, complexity, and mobility. Because of the scope of the current Internet infrastructure, researchers say development of a new network will be a long-term project.