connect. communicate. collaborate gÉant2 and university connectivity to nrens michael nowlan, dante...

Connect. Communicate. Collaborate

GÉANT2 and University Connectivity to NRENs

Michael Nowlan, DANTE (with thanks to Cathrin Stöver)

UBUNTUNET-CONNECT 2008Tuesday 11th November 2008, Lilongwe, Malawi

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateDANTE

• Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe• Established in 1993 and based in Cambridge, UK• Not for profit Organisation• Created and Owned by a subset of Europe’s National

Research and Education Networks (NRENs)• 50 Members of Staff from 14 different countries


GÉANT2 Topology

January 2008

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateGÉANT2

• 7th generation of pan-European research network infrastructure• Funded jointly by European NRENs and European Commission • Project partners include 30 of Europe’s national research and

education networks (NRENs), DANTE and TERENA• Connects 34 European countries and serves over 3500 research and

education establishments across Europe • Service Activities and Joint Research Activities• Project timescale September 2004 - August 2008

– Extension to Q2 2009• Four year project, GEANT3 planned from Q3 2009 to Q2 2013


North Africa and Middle East - EUMEDCONNECT

• 11 Mediterranean Countries connected since 2004, 7 wholly reliant

• serving 1.4M users in 400+ Institutions

• Major users includeEUMEDGRIDMedGeNet

• Closely connected to GEANT2


Why NRENs and Global Connectivity?• Research, Science and Technology

– Researchers able to participate in global collaborative teams

– Resources/knowledge available to the global research community

• Societal benefit (including education, development and health)

– Improving lives as a result of implementing advanced communications that support the well-being of the population

• Catalysing and stimulating the information economy

– Providing services to transform business, society, and personal lives.

– Implementing collaborative innovation and access to information

– Acting as incubator for technology transfer to industry and commerce(3 pillars of an NREN by G. McLaughlin,

DANTE)

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateNREN Life Cycle

• Highly regulated Telecom environment• Universities seen as competitors to suppliers• Restricted market for networking• Restrictive tariffs• Unavailability of high speed circuits

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateNREN Formation

• Starts as cooperation between universities• Voluntary staff effort, working groups• Allocate/second staff to work full time at one institution• Eventual incorporation with appropriate staffing and

funding• In Ireland it took 9 years 1983 to 1992

Connect. Communicate. Collaborate“small” country NREN

• Close community in Education and Research• Short communications path to Funding Authority• Close connection between industry and education• Head of Funding Authority is Chairman of NREN board

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateNREN Financial Models

• Initially university supported and funded• Small seed funding from university funding authority• Moved to extra state funding• Connected institutions pay significant connection fees

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateNREN Funding Models

• Totally state funded• Totally university funded• Top-sliced by funding authority• A mix of the above• See Terena Compendium

http://www.terena.org/activities/compendium/

Connect. Communicate. CollaborateInstitution attitudes

• May reflect the costs of services• May not understand the true costs• May not pay much to the NREN• May pay a lot for the local loops• Needs to reinforce the supplier/customer relationship with

the NREN


NREN in a competitive market

• Universities always looking for a better deal• NRENs may not be able to compete with commercials on

cost, but must compete on services & identity• NRENs must ensure they represent “value for money” • NRENs can respond to education/research needs and

provide extra shared services beyond bandwidth• Research & Education market is pre-competitive so a

strictly free market analysis may not apply


NRENs for societal benefit – some examples

• The power of telemedicine– Remote assistance– Access to specialists– Telesurgery training and mentoring

• Climate Research– Malaria, Dengue, Yellow fever, etc– Crop research– Floods and droughts

• Modelling and predictions– Earthquakes (and resulting Tsunamis)– Volcanoes

• Digital Heritage


RedCLARA

3M users in app. 750 institutions

13 countries connected

Major users:

Grids, telemedicine, e-learning, agricultural research


•9 Asian countries and Australia connected since 2006

• Serving 30M users in 3,800 institutions

• Major uses include:

China/EU traffic

Tele-medecine

E-learning programmes

• Strong co-operation between partners

connect. communicate. collaborate gÉant2 and university connectivity to nrens michael nowlan, dante...

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