CONNECT Magazine Issue 13

DNADATADELUGEGÉANT ANDTHE GLOBALSHARING OFGENOMICDATA

CREATING NETWORKS:BEHIND THE SCENES ATGÉANT’S NETWORKMIGRATION

SUPPORTING NRENS:CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OFEENET, THE INTERNET ANDINDEPENDENCE

BUILDING COMMUNITIES:VIA NETWORKPERFORMANCE ANDMONITORING

CCOONNNNEECCTTTHE MAGAZINE FROM THE GÉANT COMMUNITY | ISSUE 13 OCTOBER 2013THE MAGAZINE FROM THE GÉANT COMMUNITY | ISSUE 13 OCTOBER 2013

CONNECT is thequarterly magazinefrom the GÉANTcommunity;highlighting key areasof interest, updates onthe project and its vitalwork supportingEuropean researchand education. We give insights intothe users who dependon the network, andthe community that makes GÉANTwhat it is. We welcomefeedback [email protected]

Published by the GÉANT(GN3plus) project, under the NA2 Communications Activity Task 1 | Editors: PPaauull MMaauurriiccee((TTaasskk LLeeaaddeerr)) aanndd TTaammssiinn HHeennddeerrssoonn ((MMaarrkkeettiinngg OOfffificceerr))..

Hyperlinks: CONNECT is produced as a digital magazine also made available inprint. To view the digital editionand benefit from hyperlinks to further information, please see: http://connect.geant.net

For digital or printed subscriptions email [email protected]

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CONNECT is published on recycled silk stock and is:

• 100% FSC recycled pulp• Saving of 25% of KG CO2

per tonne compared to virgin grades

• Made without the use of chlorine chemistry

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shared, and work programmesprogressed in the collaborative,team-work spirit for which the projecthas become known.

For those in Vienna, we hope youenjoy the event and for those unableto join us, we hope you enjoy themagazine!

Finding the time to write thiswas a challenge, as this timeof year always provesespecially busy! Not only is

there the usual backlog of work afterthe well-earned summer break, butthere are numerous conferences,committee meetings, planningsessions… the list goes on. It doesfeel like everybody in the GÉANTproject is busier than ever, but this isa highly positive signal: thisdemanding workload stems not onlyfrom an ambitious and on-scheduleGN3plus project, but also from thefact that GÉANT’s importance to theworld of research and education isgrowing ever greater.

We see this from the vastresearch projects with whom we areworking closely; we see it from thestrengthening collaboration betweennetworking partners across the world;we see it in the way GÉANT isembedded in the European Union’s

Digital Agenda for Europe; and wesee it in the closer ties with industry.

These links to industry are beingstrengthened through GÉANT’s OpenCall initiative: a €3.3 million fundingprogram for multi-domain networkR&D activities. The objective is tosource new and innovative users andprojects to work with GÉANT,developing future innovations to helppromote the unimpeded movement ofscientific knowledge across high-speed networks. The Open Call wasoversubscribed by a factor of 3,drawing 70 responses from Europeand beyond, a reflection of the highregard in which GÉANT is held.

Open Call project representativeswill be joining us at our annual projectsymposium in October, which bringstogether around 250 projectparticipants in Vienna for theopportunity to gain a widerappreciation of the project and anupdate on its status. Ideas are

WWoorrddssMatthew Scottand NielsHersoug, Joint ProjectManagers ofGN3plus.

Our ability to read DNA isadvancing so fast, it’s hardto understand howrevolutionary genomics

could be to human health andmedical advancement. But when thetopic is brought into the public eye byfigures such as Angelina Jolie, whoearlier this year had a preventativedouble mastectomy followinganalysis of her DNA, it brings homehow far we’ve come in recent years.And with the cost of sequencing asingle human genome dropping from$2.7bn in 2003 to less than $5,000today, biologists are acquiring dataon a scale that is revolutionisingtraditional means of data collection,storage and dissemination.

This raises questions around theethical handling of this data - a hottopic in bioinformatics today. How doyou ensure data is responsiblyhandled and kept private? On page4, learn how open-data championsEMBL-EBI and ELIXIR have joined aglobal alliance, and together withGÉANT are building an evidencebase that adheres to the higheststandards of ethics and a means tomanage the growing volumes of datathat are exchanged.

On page 8 we give you the storyof the terabit migration from the eyesof the people who planned and built it- a new perspective on this enormousachievement. Thank you toeverybody who contributed.

As well as being an awardwinning network, GÉANT is now alsoa Guinness World Record holder!(See page 2). While somewhatdifficult to explain, the recorddemonstrates a network thatcontinues to set the standard innetworking excellence – a keymessage for millions of users whorely on its bandwidth to learn anddiscover. And, of course it’s alwaysnice to be recognised for being thefirst to do something!

If you haven’t already connectedwith us on social media, weencourage you to join theconversation. Find out how on page 3.

We hope you also enjoy the usualmix of interviews and news fromaround the world. Let us know whatyou’re up to, in particular if yourresearch project relies on GÉANT!You can write to us atccoonnnneecctt@@ggeeaanntt..nneett

EEddiittoorrssPaul Maurice & TamsinHenderson

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WELCOME

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DDNNAA DDAATTAA DDEELLUUGGEE

CONNECT NEWS

02 CONNECT ISSUE 13 OCTOBER 2013

WWHHAATT’’SS TTHHEE BBEESSTT WWAAYYTTOO SSHHOOWW OOFFFF YYOOUURRNNEEWW 550000GG NNEETTWWOORRKK??In August, staff at DANTE celebrated

a new – unsurprisingly neverrecorded before – Guinness WorldRecord for the fastest provisioning

of long-haul multi-terabit transmissioncapacity on a live network.

While for some of the moretechnically minded, this might mean agreat deal, to the average personhowever, it simply demonstrates thatGÉANT is a network at the forefront oftechnological innovation, pushingboundaries in data networking. Themessage here is for the research andeducation community, which will reapthe rewards of the best datainfrastructure available in Europe.

Michael Enrico, CTO of DANTE,said; “While somewhat unusual foryour average Guinness World Record,it helps communicate the power,

HHOOWW TTHHEE RREECCOORRDD WWAASSAACCHHIIEEVVEEDDTogether with Infinera, the DANTEteam enabled enough capacity tosupport the simultaneous streamingof 1.6 million HD films in bothdirections, in less time than youraverage coffee break.

speed and capacity of the GÉANTnetwork and the rapid plug and playprovisioning functionality nowavailable. It is important for our usersto know that we are able to turn upextra capacity as and when it isneeded, offering the scalability andefficiency demanded by today’sscientists.”

GÉANT’s growing socialcommunities are a great way to keep up to date withnews, events and whatpeople are saying about thenetwork. We encouragelively participation with oursupporters, partners andusers, so why not shareyour thoughts on what we're up to and join in the discussion!

HHAAVVEE YYOOUU CCHHEECCKKEEDDOOUUTT GGEEAANNTTTTVV??At the GÉANT YYoouuTTuubbee channel you can learn more about the projects wesupport via interviews with DECIDE,EMBL-EBI, GEO and EIT and about the GÉANT project as a whole withinterviews with representatives from the European Commission.

WWAANNTT TTOO UUNNDDEERRSSTTAANNDDHHOOWW OOUURR SSEERRVVIICCEESSCCAANN HHEELLPP YYOOUU??Find out how you can benefit frominterfederating through eduGAIN in just four minutes.

hhttttpp::////wwwwww..yyoouuttuubbee..ccoomm//wwaattcchh??vv==xx11YYhhuuFFPPxxMMzz88

Sign up to receive alerts when newvideos are uploaded and keepconnected to our latest news.

CONNECT NEWS

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GGEETT CCOONNNNEECCTTEEDD!!FFAANNCCYY AA CCHHAATT??Our Twitter followers have grown by100% in less than a year, so we must bedoing something right! We hope you’llfollow us too. Find us on:

@@GGEEAANNTTnneewwss

hhttttppss::////wwwwww..ffaacceebbooookk..ccoomm//GGEEAANNTTnneettwwoorrkk

We look forward to connecting with you!

https://www.facebook.com/GEANTnetwork


https://twitter.com/GEANTnews

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1YhuFPxMz8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1YhuFPxMz8

http://www.youtube.com/user/GEANTtv

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FEATURE


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FEATURE

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As sequencing costs continueto fall, more individuals arechoosing to make theirgenetic data available for

research. There is a lot of enthusiasmin study participants, not leastbecause pooling all this informationopens up new possibilities fordeveloping new approaches tomedical treatment. But large-scalegenome sequencing is a relativelyrecent phenomenon, and studyparticipation on this scale represents abig change. In light of this, dataprotection has become a burning topicin the life sciences.

“ELIXIR has joined the globalalliance because we are dedicated toensuring the responsible sharing ofdata,” says ELIXIR Director NiklasBlomberg. “It is a very large-scaleendeavour involving a lot of dataproducers and researchers the worldover. I honestly think that anundertaking of this size is only feasiblewith a robust, flexible technicalarchitecture – and we know thatGÉANT and its partners can supportwhatever practical measures theglobal alliance decides to undertake.”

ELIXIR was initiated in response tothe flood of new data being producedin the life sciences, and is building anon-centralised system for collecting,storing and archiving data acrossEurope. Dr Blomberg explains thatGÉANT provides the fundamentalnetworking architecture underpinningELIXIR services, and its scalability isessential to managing the huge andgrowing volumes of data that areexchanged.

The central activity of EMBL-EBI, afounding member of ELIXIR, is toshare molecular data and information.EMBL-EBI manages the EuropeanGenome-phenome Archive (EGA), anexemplar for the global alliance’stechnical standards for interoperability,data access and security.

The EGA matches up genomedata with other features whileprotecting key information about theresearch subjects. The individualswhose personal genomic data arecontained in the archive haveexpressed a desire for this informationto be used in research, but gainingaccess requires researchers to put inmore effort than they would for open-access data sets. By developing asecure, centralized, access-approvalsystem that facilitates access whileensuring the appropriate level ofprivacy, the global alliance could havea dramatic, positive impact onresearch.

“The global alliance will rely on thestability and sustainability of resourceslike the EGA, which connects genomicresearch data with those wishing toaccess it,” says Paul Flicek, who leadsgenome resources at EMBL-EBI.EMBL-EBI deals with around 18petabytes of data, including EGA,European Nucleotide Archive, 1000Genomes Project and ENCODEdatasets – so it has large bandwidthand connectivity requirements as wellas access restrictions. GÉANT offersthe capacity to manage such heavyusage: EMBL-EBI’s inboundbandwidth requirements often peak ataround 8Gb per second.

“What makes research like this sopowerful is that we can compare verylarge datasets like the ones in EGAwith similar resources that aredeveloped in many different parts ofthe world,” Dr Flicek explains. “Makingthese data available to researchersworldwide – GÉANT has been criticalto doing that. Public services like thesecould not exist without GÉANT, andinitiatives like the global alliance couldnot move ahead without them.”

In addition to the EGA, the 1000Genomes Project and otherpopulation-level genome studies (forexample the Korean Genome Project)

are providing baseline informationabout human DNA, to be used forcomparison against new clinical data.These baseline datasets will constantlyundergo improvements and revisionsas science progresses.

“Ultimately, researchers are goingto need guaranteed access to newdata in real time, and data providersare going to need secureauthentication to make sureidentifiable information is in the righthands,” Dr Blomberg says.

Members of the alliance arecommitted to creating a commonframework that supports clinical andgenomic data analysis while protectingthe autonomy and privacy ofparticipating individuals. Scaling up afederated authentication service andadapting it to different legal andcultural environments is a basic needof the global alliance, which comprisesover 100 organisations in Asia,Australia, Africa, Europe, NorthAmerica and South America.

“The global alliance will need atruly global network to be effective,because data will need to betransferred between global partners,traversing many networks,” adds DrFlicek. “An endeavour of this size canonly work because the research andeducation networks are ready forthem. We know it can be donebecause GÉANT gives us the speed,security and capacity we need.”

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CONNECT INTERVIEW


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CONNECT INTERVIEW

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WWHHAATT IISS TTHHEE RROOLLEE OOFF TTHHEEPPRROOJJEECCTT OOFFFFIICCEE?? The Project Office (which is also knownas the Programme Management Office,or PMO) is there primarily to support andassist the Project Managers. We handlethe day-to-day management andadministration of GÉANT, assisting in thecollation and exchange of informationsuch as financial and manpowerreporting, run the technical authoringservice for reporting, and generallyensuring all participants have thecollaboration tools they need to carryout their work. This includes areas suchas managing the project intranet, andalso organising internal events such asthe GÉANT Project Symposium (heldeach autumn/fall in Vienna) and theGÉANT Project Convention – which thisyear was the kick-off point for theGN3plus project. However, it alsomeans arranging the other internalevents such as the Project ManagementTeam (PMT) meetings, the Execmeetings, and so on. We also deal withrisk, issues and change management,training needs and of course coordinatethe Project Management Framework(PMF). It’s a pretty big remit!

HHOOWW DDOOEESS IITT IINNTTEERRAACCTTWWIITTHH TTHHEE OOTTHHEERR AARREEAASS OOFFTTHHEE PPRROOJJEECCTT?? The Project Office is part of theGovernance and Management area ofthe project. We work closely with theProject Managers, Activity Leaders (viathe PMT) and with the Executive Boardand Partners’ Assembly. Of course,where required we liaise with individualTask Leaders and project participants onmany areas of work.

Over the summer, the Project Officehas put in place a number of newprocesses to improve efficiency, and tobetter fit into the GN3plus governancemodel. This, and the new AdvisoryBoards and the more intensive use ofthe Coordinators in the day-to-dayrunning of the project, should ensure awider technical consultation beforedecisions about the execution of theWork Programme are taken.

WWHHOO EELLSSEE IISS IINN TTHHEEPPRROOJJEECCTT OOFFFFIICCEE TTEEAAMM?? Alongside me, the team includes ourProject Manager Linda Mesch, TechnicalWriters Sue Tyley, Bridget Hannigan andColin Duly, and Jill Compton who hasrecently joined us as PO Administrator.

Tor Bloch has been running theProject Office on an interim basis toensure a seamless handover periodfrom Milos to myself. Following thehandover, Tor will remain as a consultantto myself and the Project Office for asuitable period, given the busy timesahead!

WWHHAATT DDOO YYOOUU SSEEEE AASS TTHHEEMMAAIINN OOBBJJEECCTTIIVVEESS AANNDDCCHHAALLLLEENNGGEESS IINN YYOOUURR NNEEWWRROOLLEE??Initially, my objective is to be up to speedas fast as possible, and in this myrelationship with Tor will be highlybeneficial. Following the formalhandover, Tor and I will work together toliaise with the Advisory Boards andCoordinators to plan for the remainder ofGN3plus and beyond. Of course,another objective is to close the GN3project with excellent remarks. One mainchallenge is to provide the channel andpoint of cohesion between what needsto be delivered for GÉANT,understanding the requirements ofsenior stakeholders (EC and NRENmanagers), and making sure it istranslated into real project deliverables.

WWHHEERREE DDIIDD YYOOUU WWOORRKKPPRRIIOORR TTOO TTHHIISS RROOLLEE?? I worked as Chief Technical Officer atGRNET, the Greek NREN, where I spentthe past 14 years building up a strongorganisation, and securing andmanaging EC-funded projects. So I havea lot of experience of the GÉANTcommunity! I have also served as aboard member for the Greek Chapter ofthe Project Management Institute (PMI)and I have ample experience in Projectand Programme Management. I was amember of the Future Internet Forum(FIF), where I have dealt with nextgeneration networking. Last but notleast, I have served as a board memberfor the Infosoc SA, where I spentconsiderable time with publicadministration networking.

WWHHAATT DDOO YYOOUU EENNJJOOYYMMOOSSTT AABBOOUUTT YYOOUURRWWOORRKK??I would have to say theexceptional quality of thepeople I work with from allcountries and their ingeniousminds. They are allremarkably knowledgeableand never seize to amazeme. At DANTE, I particularlyenjoy the workplace aseverything is deftly organizedand working with such aproficient team dailymotivates me enormously.

LLAASSTT MMOOVVIIEE YYOOUUWWAATTCCHHEEDD??“The Call”, and I have toadmit that I was gravelyunnerved. I went homethinking whether I shouldput a tracking device on mychildren.

WWHHAATT AARREE YYOOUURREEAADDIINNGG??“The elephant song” byWilbur Smith. I amfascinated by the Africancontinent.

WWHHAATT’’SS IINN YYOOUURR MMUUSSIICC LLIIBBRRAARRYY?? Anything from Frank Sinatrato Rihanna.

WWHHAATT DDOO YYOOUU DDOO FFOORRDDOOWWNNTTIIMMEE??I cycle a great deal with myfamily or I just relax at homewith a good movie or book.

FEATURE


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In the last issue we announced completion of 100Gbpscapacity across the entire GÉANT network. To some itmight appear to have happened at the flick of a switch!But with over 34 countries involved, a vast and complexprocurement process, and 50,000 km of infrastructure torefresh, the upgrade was anything but simple and has beenyears in the making.

CONNECT caught up with just a handful of the talented peoplewho created the network we have today, asking: “What was itlike to be part of such a ground-breaking project?”

GGÉÉAANNTT-- TTHHEE PPEEOOPPLLEE’’SSNNEETTWWOORRKK

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MMIICCHHAAEELL EENNRRIICCOO,, CCTTOO,,DDAANNTTEEI was involved in the first technical workshops in 2008 to mapout and define the specifications for the network. DANTEworked very closely with the National Research and EducationNetworks (NRENs), sometimes with up to 40 attendees, toagree how we wanted the network to look. With so manystakeholders, a long procurement and decision makingprocess followed over the coming years.

While this was happening, consolidation of competitiveforces came into play, with a previous duopoly of vendorsgiving way to a much more open and competitive market. As one of our main goals was to provide a cost-effective, butcutting-edge network, we were able to create strategies forfuture proofing the network up to 2020 and perhaps beyond.

The process required long-term vision and cooperationfrom a diverse and geographically dispersed group of technicaland procurement experts who had to make big and difficultdecisions. While in no way plain sailing, the end result is anetwork that not only serves everybody's purposes butfacilitates a more cohesive environment and a stronger team;an aspect of working with GÉANT I feel very proud of.

FEATURE

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PPEERR NNIIHHLLEENN,, CCTTOO,, SSUUNNEETTEarly in the pre-migration stage I was on the phone discussinga plan to find an NREN resource to assist with procurement,part of DANTE’s inclusive vision. It rang a bell for me and Iwondered whether that person could be me! I had a bigdecision to make, with my family in Sweden and two childrenunder five. And yet, the opportunity was very appealing. I decided to go for it and spent a year on secondment withDANTE, but compromised by renting a flat in Cambridge fortwo months with my family and commuting the rest of the time.

It was an interesting time with a lot of steps and politicalhurdles to manage. Governance needed sorting out before wecould focus on getting the technical solutions and operations inplace. It required really careful handling. Not many people getthe chance to work on competitive dialogue procurement, amassively complex procedure, so it was a very usefulexperience.

A particular benefit I noticed as a result of the vastcollaborative project was improved understanding among the community. I also made life-long friends in the process and gained a new perspective on DANTE. I have increased respect and understanding for them, havingseen first-hand the difficulties in trying to keep so manydifferent organisations happy; an almost impossible task.

FEATURE


GGAABBOORR IIVVAANNSSZZKKYY,, SSEENNIIOORRNNEETTWWOORRKK EENNGGIINNEEEERR,,NNIIIIFF//HHUUNNGGAARRNNEETTI worked as a member of the migration team, having agreedwith my home organisation NIIF Institute to a secondment atDANTE. I looked at understanding the pre-migration state,preparation of the POPs, electrical power, space and logisticalissues. It was great to become a valuable part of a majorservice provider’s team of experienced, multi-cultural staff,although having never used English in an everyday worksituation, getting around had its moments! I gained a great dealof professional experience and learnt more about life in the UK.

SSCCOOTTTT IINNNNEESS,, SSEENNIIOORRNNEETTWWOORRKK EENNGGIINNEEEERR,,JJAANNEETTI joined DANTE to assist and learn with the pre-migration, withlittle knowledge of what I had signed up for. I had my baptism-of-fire on my second day at an Infinera meeting and with notime to sit back and casually learn the ropes, quickly learnthow agile and ‘on it’ the migration team were. I was fullyimmersed in the process from day one.

From week two we were firmly into the planning of powerand accommodation. Would the routers fit in the currentracks? Would there be enough power? How would we get ridof extra heat from the larger chassis? We were right to question. At several POPs they were unableto deal with DANTE’s new housing requirements. Paris, forexample, required us to source a completely new room.

For every small change, new contracts had to be drawn.And then there was the DTN-X - a behemoth piece of kit thathad the POPs questioning our knowledge of power. All thishad to be planned, and re-planned until gradually we workedto a point where it could be shipped and installed.

In some cases we had no choice but to attend site. Paris,Tallen, London, Geneva, Copenhagen; all sound like film starlocations, but hours spent in noisy POPs are really not thatgreat. Copenhagen proved a nightmare. After much planningand arranging of access, myself and an engineer from Infineraended up stuck in the middle of nowhere outside the PoP infreezing horizontal rain, trying to hatch a plan and gain accessas we had arranged. Freezing wet nights, soaked through, onthe entry phones apologising for our lack of Danish was notwhat we dreamt of on the flight out!

However it was an enjoyable eight months and I drewmuch knowledge from the friendly staff at DANTE as well asfrom engineers at Imtech and Infinera. My ability to converse ata higher-level led to me being offered a senior engineeringposition at Janet. I now have a new skill-set and can offer myorganisation an insight into working at DANTE.

I’d like to make a special mention to the migration team, abunch of guys like no other. The bond we had was awesome.I’m not sure how many cups of tea we drank together in mytime but we were literally one-for-all-and-all-for-one.

FEATURE

11

MMAARRKK JJOOHHNNSSTTOONN,, CCHHIIEEFFNNEETTWWOORRKK OOPPEERRAATTIIOONNSS OOFFFFIICCEERR,, DDAANNTTEEI joined DANTE as a contractor just before the start of themigration. Coming from a commercial telecoms environment,with a much more regimented structure, I was struck by thedifference in working culture, with less defined roles and morefluidity of planning.

Unsurprisingly nobody had ever worked on a roll-out of thisscope before, so there was no defined approach in place tohelp us implement it. Theoretically we were sound, but inpractice life for 10 months became an endless round of lastminute adjustments and finding our feet as we went along. Weoften found ourselves implementing and planning at the sametime.

Availability of information often presented a challenge,which, along with financial constraints and governance,certainly kept us busy with day-to-day problem solving. WhenI look back at the magnitude of what was achieved I’m stillcompletely dumbfounded we delivered as well as we didwithout any major problems.

I got a real sense of achievement seeing how quicklyeverybody gelled and pulled together. The less experiencedengineers were able to draw knowledge and skills from thegroup. From individuals we formed a really strong team helpingeach other to get the job done and are a hell of a lot moreknowledgeable as a result.

Operations is a much more open relaxed environmentnow. I think people feel more confident and empowered. Theyare coming up with more ideas and discussion, are morewilling to debate and to suggest ideas. It’s been a big enableracross other departments too. Working closely with finance,procurement, business development and marketing reflectsthe level of collaboration essential to a project of this scale.

Likewise working with our European partners, the NRENs,has facilitated greater understanding, on both sides, of thechallenges each other face. We are particularly proud of thewonderful feedback we received (see box out) and lookforward to building on these improved relationships as wewatch the community reap benefits from the new GÉANTinfrastructure.

On a personal note, it’s been an amazing careeropportunity. I was delighted to get the chance to add real valueand make a difference as part of an award winning team.

TTHHEE MMIIGGRRAATTIIOONN RROOLLLL--OOUUTT

““OONNEE OOFF TTHHEE BBEESSTT PPRROOJJEECCTTSS II HHAAVVEEWWOORRKKEEDD OONN.. LLEEAARRNNTT AA LLOOTT.. GGRREEAATT TTOOBBEE PPAARRTT OOFF TTHHEE TTEEAAMM TTHHAATT DDEEPPLLOOYYEEDDAA RREECCOORRDD BBRREEAAKKIINNGG NNEETTWWOORRKK..””

DDOOMM TTAAIILLOORR,, HHOOSSTTIINNGG IINNFFRRAASSTTRRUUCCTTUURREE LLEEAADD,,DDAANNTTEE

FEATURE


HHEENNRRYY AAGGBBEENNUU,, TTRRAANNSSPPOORRTT EENNGGIINNEEEERR,,DDAANNTTEEHaving worked at DANTE for almost five years I had a goodunderstanding of the network and the services running on it,so acted as a consultant for the service migration and was alsoheavily involved in POP logistics.

The migration process was not so different to themethodologies used in project management. Except on amassive scale! The initial planning phase involved a lot ofmeetings to try to understand the scope of the migration. Forinstance how to migrate the GÉANT plus services from thelegacy SDH equipment to the new Juniper Ethernet switchesand the Lambda services and Dark fibre to the new Infinerasolution. But there’s nothing like a good team putting theirheads together.

With these types of challenges and of course the need tomaintain operation of the existing network at the same time,we needed a willing and motivated team to deliver, and thatwas what we had. We all have varying skills but perfectlycomplement each other and the fantastic leadership from MarkJohnston really helped pull everyone together.

Although not part of the procurement process, I got toknow some of the commercial activities involved. This is aproject that happens once every ten years, so to be part of one has been great. As an organisation the process of buildinga network of the size and scale of GÉANT is clearly understood now.

When I have a small project now, the first thing that comesto mind is, what could happen here that I haven’t dealt withbefore? This thought is very motivating.

FEATURE

GGAABBOORR IIVVAANNSSZZKKYY,, SSEENNIIOORRNNEETTWWOORRKK EENNGGIINNEEEERR,,NNIIIIFF//HHUUNNGGAARRNNEETTWe were one of the first to take advantage of the upgrade, byadding a 100Gbps service connecting CERN’s new datacenterin Hungary to CERN directly. As 100Gbps Ethernet was not amature technology yet, we faced new challenges during theservice turn up process but thanks to cooperation betweenCERN, DANTE, CERN@Wigner and NIIF/Hungarnet most ofthe difficulties were handled quickly during the initial warm upperiod. My advice for anyone planning to do similar is to allowa long testing period and be prepared for issues you had neverthought of.

I’m proud to have been associated with NIIF Institute inHungary for many years - and now also proud of myinvolvement with DANTE. I’ve really enjoyed working with thevery delightful staff and with the numerous expertsrepresenting the NRENs that keep close contact with DANTE.And last but not least, I fell in love with Cambridge and thelocal atmosphere.

I hope that the last decade of research networkingsuccess will be repeated both on the GÉANT and the NRENlevels. This is only possible if we do our best to cope with thefast increasing demands of our changing world. Keeping pacewith the global technological development, extending theservice portfolio, and widening the user community, are allneeded if we really want to continue the success story.

13

SSTTUUAARRTT WWAARREE,, TTRRAANNSSPPOORRTT NNEETTWWOORRKKMMAANNAAGGEERR,, DDAANNTTEEI joined DANTE in June 2012 coming from a carrier networkoperations background. I could not have been more shockedat the reception I received, having never been made morewelcome on day one, so all good. The following week thestorm broke… we had a little over 5 months to prepare for themost aggressive network build I have ever had to work on.

The operations team though technically excellent had littleor no experience of a major network roll out. Some had spenttheir careers in house, never even visiting a telehouse, let alonenegotiating with dark fibre providers or trying to get a costreduction on fibre patch leads. A baptism of fire to say theleast. But as is the DANTE way, the team rose to thechallenge, picking up new skills quickly. They played off eachother’s strengths, nothing was ever too much trouble andeverybody rolled up their sleeves and dug into the preparationwork. Five months flew by and next was the delivery phase.

“It’s all about the delivery.” This became our motto for thebuild, nobody cared how late you worked, or how much youcried, it was all about getting the network delivered. To say thisphase was agile project management is an understatement.Every one of the 268 days (not that we counted) hadchallenges, but thanks to the team’s performance and supportfrom other staff at DANTE, every challenge was met and goalsexceeded. Also, without the support of the NRENs andflexibility we could not have finished on time.

So post migration we now have a big network for bigscience. You have to love that idea. After all it is why we spenta year of our lives building something truly special.

It’s also a record breaker, with 2Tbs in 20 mins and theGuinness World Record of 8Tbs in 19 minutes, demonstratinga network technically able to carry the NREN requirement into2020. But to me it is also a network that is now run by peoplewho can achieve anything they set their minds too. Pretty goodteam if you ask me.

PPOOSSTT--MMIIGGRRAATTIIOONN

FFoorr mmoorree iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn,, pplleeaassee vviissiittwwwwww..ggeeaanntt..nneett//nneettwwoorrkk

SERVICES


NNEETTWWOORRKKPPEERRFFOORRMMAANNCCEE AANNDD MMOONNIITTOORRIINNGGAACCRROOSSSS TTHHEE EEQQUUAATTOORR

WWoorrddssPaul Maurice,SeniorCommunicationsOfficer, DANTE

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15

With scientific and researchcollaboration becomingever more global in itsscope, so the need for

data to be carried across the worldgrows. These vast high performancenetworks criss-cross the world, andtheir applications and their data trafficneed to be monitored to ensure thehighest performance.

So behind the networks andpowerful tools are the people acrossdifferent countries, continents and timezones, who ensure these networks andtools perform to their very best. Andjust like the research communities they

which is fully interoperable withperfSONAR PS – an equivalent toolused in some regions of the world,including Australia and New Zealand.

His view behind the trip is clear:“The main purpose was sharing toolsand knowledge, but also feeling likewe are all part of the same community.We don’t just need powerful tools likeperfSONAR, we need a network ofpeople who know they can count oneach other. This is what eduPERT isdoing. And the experience of ourcolleagues in AARNet and REANNZ isreally valuable to us – because of theirlocation they are facing every daywhat we occasionally – though moreand more frequently – face: long-haulintercontinental network monitoring.”

Alessandra leads eduPERT, thefederated community that, as part ofGÉANT, combines all the independentPERTs (Performance Enhancementand Response Teams) across Europe,providing multidisciplinary knowledgeand support in solving end to endperformance issues.

The users of both perfSONARMDM and eduPERT are part of acommunity that improves with size –growth in the number of monitoringpoints means an ever greater view ofthe network, whilst eduPERT’sknowledge sharing can only benefitfrom a greater pool of knowledge!Indeed, the model used for eduPERTin Europe is inspiring new communitiesto be established in other parts of theworld, for example Latin America andnow New Zealand and Australia.

Alessandra adds, “The fact thatthese regions are beginning toestablish eduPERT communitiesbased on our European model is reallysatisfying to see. GÉANT is the onlyR&E network that fosters such acommunity passionate about networkmonitoring and troubleshooting, and itseems this approach has been wellnoticed by other regions. We aredelighted to be working with them todevelop their own communities, whichwill be closely inter-linked to ours. Itmeans stronger support and moreseamless networks for all of us.”

SSPPRREEAADDIINNGG TTHHEEWWOORRDD AANNDDSSHHAARRIINNGGEEXXPPEERRIIEENNCCEESS The trip began in REANNZ, for anintensive training course for localengineers on improving performance;firstly covering perfSONAR MDM formonitoring and also looking at thegeneral concept of virtualisation andhow firewalls can have an impact onperformance.

support, they too need to work closelytogether, collaborating and sharingknowledge and expertise.

So in July this year, DomenicoVicinanza (DANTE) and AlessandraScicchitano (SWITCH) crossed theequator to visit the NRENs of NewZealand (REANNZ) and Australia(AARNet) with the objectives ofsharing knowledge and best practice,and further strengthening collaborationand community building in the areas ofnetwork monitoring and performance.

Domenico is the driving forcebehind perfSONAR MDM, the multi-domain monitoring tool for GÉANT, and

PPiiccttuurreeWellington, New Zealand

IInnsseett DomenicoVicinanza andAlessandraScicchitano

SERVICES


The first of these was withrepresentatives of AARNet, looking attroubleshooting performance issueson international links, in collaborationwith networks outside of Australia.Engineers from AARNet are verykeen on joining the eduPERTcommunity, with the hope of one dayestablishing their own. A further meeting was then held withrepresentatives of ESnet (EnergySciences Network, USA) about thepossibility of a future joint eventbetween ESnet and eduPERT, andthe expectation is that this will bescheduled for early 2014.

Overall, this was a highly valuabletrip and a clear reminder (if it wereneeded!) that collaborating onperformance and troubleshooting isvital if networks are to deliver theseamless experience relied on bylarge scale, international researchprojects such as the Large HadronCollider (LHC) and the upcomingSquare Kilometre Array (SKA). Thesuccess of this trip and the actionsarising out of it are also strongindicators that services established inGÉANT are increasingly being seenas the role model for others aroundthe world.

The monitoring session includedlive measurements on transatlanticdata between GÉANT (London) andREANNZ in Wellington usingperfSONAR MDM, as well asdiscussing future developments andsharing methodologies. Domenicoshowed how deployments of the twoversions of perfSONAR wereinteroperable, and how to use theperfSONAR MDM web user interface,performing on-demandmeasurements between NewZealand and the rest of the world. Infact, the web user interface provedso easy to use, engineers were ableto set up new nodes and runmeasurements in less than a minute!

BBUUIILLDDIINNGG TTHHEEEEDDUUPPEERRTTCCOOMMMMUUNNIITTYY The two then travelled with REANNZcolleagues to Christchurch to helprun a workshop at the eResearchNZconference run for the universitiesand research centres in NewZealand, titled “All aboutperformance: network, end hosts andeverything in between”, andincluding presentations onperfSONAR MDM and eduPERT.

the audience was full ofenthusiasm and interest for growingand joining the eduPERT community,testament to the importance given toperformance and knowledge sharing.

The final leg of the trip was theQUESTnet 2013 Conference.Queensland Education Science andTechnology Network (QUESTnet) isthe regional component of AARNetand their annual conference was avaluable opportunity for Domenicoand Alessandra. After presenting oneduPERT and perfSONAR MDM to anenthusiastic audience, highlyconstructive meetings were thenheld.

Part of the perfSONAR MDM training included using the innovative ‘perfSONAR on a stick’ – a USB stick pre-loaded with perfSONAR MDM and which installs the network monitoring software in less than a minute, enabling any computer tobecome a fully-functioning perfSONAR MDMmeasurement point. No installation, no configuration,just ‘plug in and switch on’!

AAbboouutt ppeerrffSSOONNAARR MMDDMMperfSONAR MDM is the multi-domain monitoring service forthe GÉANT Service Area (andbeyond), enabling NRENNetwork Operations Centres(NOCs) and PerformanceEnhancement Response Teams(PERTs) to collaborate inproviding seamless networkperformance for their networkusers. As perfSONAR is theresult of a global collaborationeffort and a shared protocol,GÉANT’s perfSONAR MDM isfully interoperable with similarservices developed and offeredby international partners,facilitating monitoring andtrouble-shooting on a globalscale. It is also compatible withsingle domain monitoring toolsthat might already be in use bya NOC or PERT.

For more information, pleasevisit ppeerrffSSOONNAARR..ggeeaanntt..nneett

AAbboouutt eedduuPPEERRTTAs networks and networkedapplications grow and develop,so do the demands they makeon performance and reliability.Performance Enhancement andResponse Teams (PERTs) aretherefore a crucial R&Ecommunity resource, helping tosolve their users’ problemsquickly and efficiently. eduPERTis part of GÉANT’s commitmentto helping network users get thebest performance from theirconnections, providing afederated PERT that combinesthe independent PERTs (GÉANT,National, Local and ProjectPERTs) with a portfolio of centralservices to aid them in theirnetwork investigations.

For more information, pleasevisit eedduuPPEERRTT..ggeeaanntt..nneett

PPiiccttuurreeperfSONARuser interfaceshowing livemeasurementbetweenLondon andWellington(REANNZ)

eduPERT.geant.net

perfSONAR.geant.net

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17

EEDDUUGGAAIINN MMEEMMBBEERRSSHHIIPPGGRROOWWSS AASS NNEEWWCCOONNSSTTIITTUUTTIIOONN AAGGRREEEEDD

This summer, the GÉANTeduGAIN inter-federationservice made great progresstowards students and

researchers collaborating via onlineresearch and education (R&E)services and content hosted acrossmany countries. With a newconstitution agreed by participatingidentity federations and coming intoeffect from the end of September, thegoal of widespread, trusted inter-federation has moved closer.

eduGAIN originally had 15 identityfederations in its sights; now 25 havesigned a declaration agreeing to abideby the new constitution and are fullparticipants in the service or are closeto completing the process qualifyingthem to join. Five more candidatefederations have begun preparationsand another twelve are future targetsfor inclusion.

The new eduGAIN constitution,which was approved by the eduGAINSteering Group and ratified by itsExecutive Committee in June, givesthe member federations greatertechnical flexibility and more say in thedirection of the service. Simplificationof the constitution means inter-federation activities can be bettersupported by eduGAIN and with fewerobstacles. And for the first time theconstitution specifies voting

procedures that clarify the decisionmaking process member federationsfollow in expanding and improving theservice.

To support federations’compliance with the constitution’stechnical requirements, and to achieveoverall consistency, eduGAIN hascommissioned templates fordescribing federation policies andpractices. This will allow morefederations to complete the joiningprocess in the coming months andsimplify the comparison of federationpractices across its membership.

Some federations have received

support for their creation ordevelopment with the assistance ofeduGAIN, through training at nationalconferences, other events, or throughconsultation on policy. The GÉANTproject further fosters the growth ofidentity federation activities throughthe ‘Digital Inclusion’ and ‘Federationas a Service’ tasks, bridging the digitaldivide between countries where nonational federation efforts exist. In thisway, the GÉANT project is providing acoordinated approach to inter-federation for the ultimate benefit ofstudents and researchers around the world.

WWoorrddssLaura Durnford,TERENA

PicturePaola Arellanoof REUNA, Chilesigning theeduGAINDeclaration tostart theprocess ofCOFRe formallyjoining eduGAIN6 June 2013

For full details of currenteduGAIN members, joiningfederations and candidates, see:hhttttpp::////wwwwww..eedduuggaaiinn..oorrgg//tteecchhnniiccaall//ssttaattuuss..pphhpp

Targeted federations are: MATE(Argentina), CARSI (China),INFED (India), ISRAGRID(Israel), Litnet Federation(Lithuania), Knowledge ID(Oman), INCA (Peru),PIONIER.Id (Poland), RoEduNetFederation (Romania), ФEDUrusAAI (Russia), iAMRES (Serbia),SAIF (South Africa)

To learn how eduGAIN helps to connect researchers with their services, visit yyoouuttuubbee..ccoomm//GGEEAANNTTttvv

http://www.edugain.org/technical/status.php

http://www.edugain.org/technical/status.php

QQ&&AA AAFFRROODDIITTEE SSEEVVAASSTTIIAACCTTIIVVIITTYY LLEEAADDEERR((JJRRAA22))

CONNECT INTERVIEW


AAffrrooddiittee SSeevvaassttii ooff GGrreeeekk NNRREENN GGRRNNEETT,, lleeaaddsstthhee JJooiinntt RReesseeaarrcchh AAccttiivviittyy ((JJRRAA22)) ffooccuussiinngg oonn TTeecchhnnoollooggyy TTeessttiinngg ffoorr SSeerrvviiccee SSppeecciiffiicc AApppplliiccaattiioonnss.. CCOONNNNEECCTT ccaauugghhtt uupp wwiitthhAAffrrooddiittee ttoo lleeaarrnn mmoorree aabboouutt tthhee wwoorrkk iinn tthhiiss aarreeaa,, aanndd hhooww iitt eennccoouurraaggeess iinnnnoovvaattiioonn iinn tthhee pprroojjeecctt..

HHOOWW LLOONNGG HHAAVVEE YYOOUU BBEEEENNPPAARRTT OOFF GGÉÉAANNTT,, AANNDD HHAASSYYOOUURR RROOLLEE AALLWWAAYYSS BBEEEENN IINNTTHHAATT OOFF TTHHEE JJRRAA??I am privileged to have been part of theGÉANT family for almost 10 years,starting as a network engineer involvedin both Service and Joint ResearchActivities in the early years and leadingJRA teams for the last 7 years.

WWHHYY IISS TTHHEE RROOLLEE OOFF TTHHEEJJRRAASS IIMMPPOORRTTAANNTT TTOOGGÉÉAANNTT?? WWHHAATT VVAALLUUEE DDOOTTHHEEYY AADDDD TTOO TTHHEE PPRROOJJEECCTT?? JRAs are the sources of innovation forGÉANT. User community requirements,service activity needs, blue-sky researchinitiatives and new service concepts allblend within the JRA environment,leading to innovative results in the areasof service provisioning, operations,middleware, network architectures andmore. JRAs follow the latestdevelopments in standard bodies, the ITservice markets, the vendor community,partner organizations, R&D projects andinitiatives globally and make sure thatupcoming GÉANT services andcapabilities are aligned with them or attimes even leading progress. At thesame time, researchers from within theGÉANT community often bring forwardand develop clean slate concepts andmodels. JRAs provide the fertile groundsupon which novel service offerings andcompetencies are conceived,elaborated, defined, designed, provenand very often prototyped before beinghanded over to SAs and ultimatelydelivered as value to the GÉANT usercommunity.

HHOOWW HHAASS TTHHEE FFOOCCUUSS OOFFYYOOUURR RREESSEEAARRCCHH TTEEAAMM((JJRRAA22)) IINN TTHHIISS PPRROOJJEECCTT((GGNN33PPLLUUSS)) CCHHAANNGGEEDD FFRROOMMTTHHEE PPRREEVVIIOOUUSS PPRROOJJEECCTT((GGNN33))??GN3 JRA2 was a diverse activity aimingat innovating in all aspects of theGÉANT multi-domain network services,including network management andoperations to support services,monitoring, security, resourceprovisioning. JRA2 developments inGN3 were multi-threaded and at thesame tightly integrated with thecorresponding service roadmaps.

In GN3plus the scope is narrower.JRA2 is focusing on the latestdevelopments in software defined

networking and network virtualization togenerate value for the GÉANT usercommunity. These technologies arecurrently shaping the internet oftomorrow. So, JRA2 is not only settingthe foundations for the next generationof GÉANT provisioning services but alsopaving the way for specialized serving ofadvanced applications as well as thecloud in the near future.

HHOOWW DDOOEESS JJRRAA22 IINNTTEERRAACCTTWWIITTHH TTHHEE OOTTHHEERR JJRRAA WWOORRKKPPAACCKKAAGGEESS?? Within the GÉANT ecosystem, JRAs areconstantly interacting to make sure theirresearch agenda is aligned. Jointworkshops and working meetings ondesignated topics are organizedregularly. In certain cases, the best ofexpertise from different JRAs iscombined in joint ventures, where oneJRA team might be focusing on theexploration of a new technology whilethe other JRA team is producingprototype software to prove theconcept. At the Activity Leader level,there are often informal discussions oncommon interests and decisions to plancollaboratively on future steps.

IINN WWHHAATT WWAAYYSS DDOO YYOOUU SSEEEETTHHEE WWOORRKK OOFF JJRRAA22IIMMPPAACCTTIINNGG TTHHEE EENNDD--UUSSEERRSS,,OOVVEERR TTIIMMEE??JRAs are often delivering prototypes andproofs of concept for new services andcapabilities that eventually enter theGÉANT service portfolio. Thus, they areproviding utility to the end usercommunity. In other cases, newoperational capabilities, increasedflexibility in accessing the resourcesavailable, enabling of federated functionsand improving the performance ofexisting services are also deliveringwarranty and value to the end usercommunity by meeting specialized andadvanced requirements.

IINN TTEERRMMSS OOFF TTHHEE JJRRAASS,,WWHHAATT AARREEAASS WWOOUULLDD YYOOUULLIIKKEE TTOO SSEEEE IINNCCLLUUDDEEDD IINNFFUUTTUURREE PPRROOJJEECCTTSS??So far, network-related JRAs in GÉANTmostly focus on solutions developed ontop or aside of industry solutions in theareas of transport technologies as wellas management and control of networkinfrastructures. Future projects shouldpursue joint developments with theindustry to deliver innovative results on

WWHHAATT DDOO YYOOUU EENNJJOOYYMMOOSSTT AABBOOUUTT YYOOUURRWWOORRKK??Diversity and originality ofdaily activities

LLAASSTT MMOOVVIIEE YYOOUUWWAATTCCHHEEDD??‘Before midnight’

WWHHAATT AARREE YYOOUURREEAADDIINNGG??Trying to finish up a Greeknovel for several monthsnow

WWHHAATT’’SS IINN YYOOUURR MMUUSSIICC LLIIBBRRAARRYY?? Bands such as Pink Floyd,The Cure, Pearl Jam, Jamesand lots of Greek music

WWHHAATT DDOO YYOOUU DDOO FFOORRDDOOWWNNTTIIMMEE??Playing with my son, jogging

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autonomic and user-empowerednetworking, always with focus onserving the specialized needs of the R&Ecommunity. GÉANT JRAs have thepotential to lead in the areas offederated service provisioning andoperations.

WWHHAATT DDOO YYOOUU SSEEEE AASS TTHHEEMMAAIINN OOBBJJEECCTTIIVVEESS AANNDDCCHHAALLLLEENNGGEESS IINN YYOOUURR RROOLLEEAASS AACCTTIIVVIITTYY LLEEAADDEERR??Being an Activity Leader in a researchactivity is primarily about setting thescene so that the best of ideas fromtalented and foresighted colleagues arecultivated to generate value. Identifyingthe research priorities with an eye onproject-wide objectives as well asspecific needs, making sure worthwhileresearch results are picked up properly,inspiring the teams to innovate despiteof working away from the users of theirresearch outcomes are among thechallenges of the job.

to avoid possible informationblockades during the critical politicalsituation.

The internet andindependenceAwareness of computers was alreadythere in 1950s and demand wasgrowing thanks to the radio ‘Voice ofAmerica’.

The first lecture aboutprogramming was held in 1958 undercode name "Additional Chapters ofAlgebra" at the University of Tartu inthe deep communist period. Theuniversity was lucky to get its firstcomputer URAL-1 the following year,as there were no other competitors for

In a way, the internet has been a symbol for national success and democracy inEstonia.

Twenty years ago during the firstyears of re-independence the EstonianEducation and Research Network(EENet) was established to manage,coordinate and develop the computernetwork of science, education andculture in Estonia.

Infrastructure and availability ofinformation played a crucial part in theearly 1990s, the time of re-independence when political tensionsin the Soviet Union culminated. So itdid not lose vital information channelswith the rest of the world, Estonianeeded to find an independent channel

COMMUNITY NEWS


20 YEARS OFEENET, THE INTERNET AND INDEPENDENCE

WordsMaria Ristkok,Project Manager - NetworkDepartment,EENet

it in the whole Soviet Union: Moscowand Leningrad (St. Petersburg) alreadyhad a computer. At the same time withthe first computer centre in Tartu in1965, another computer centre at NõoSecondary School was established. Nõowas the first school of generaleducation in the Soviet Union thatowned a computer: the same URAL-1based on electron tubes. Computerlectures started in Nõo in the sameyear.

The preparations for connectingEstonia to the internet started in 1992,culminating in two 64 kbps satellitelinks to the Swedish Royal Institute ofTechnology: one from Tartu and theother from Tallinn. In the same yearEstonia became an official member of

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PictureEENet office atthe Town HallSquare in Tartu,July 2013

the internet with its own country codeTLD (.ee), registered by the NationalInstitute of Chemical Physics andBiophysics.

In 1993 EENet was established as agovernmental nonprofit organisation.The TLD.ee was managed by theRegistrar EENet for 17 years (1993-2010) and was handed over to theEstonian Internet Foundation 3 yearsago. During the first development yearsEENet was supported by thephilantropist George Soros, as well asthe Nordic Council of Ministers and theFinnish national research networkFUNET.

New legal form ofEENetFrom 1997 until 2013, EENet operatedas a state agency administered by theMinistry of Education and Research.The ministry streamlined managementinformation and communicationstechnology for education and research.This year EENet got its legal formchanged and became a structural unitof the Information TechnologyFoundation for Education (HITSA).EENet continues as part of HITSA withits mission to provide a high-qualityinfrastructure for research, educationand culture and is still financed by thestate.

EENet Customer baseand networkEENet provides services to educational,cultural and research institutions notengaged in commercial activities in thenetwork. EENet services are used by1090 organisations with 218,000 endusers. The field of education andresearch has always been a pioneer innetworking, hosting critical users ofnew technologies. A fast internetconnection is crucial for the majority ofresearchers collaborating with othercommunities outside Estonia.

The backbone is currentlyupgraded in the framework of an EUfunded project "Estonian Research andEducation Optical Backbone Network".The capacity will be Nx10Gbps.Another project funded by theEuropean Regional Development Fundis "The Estonian Scientific ComputingInfrastructure" (ETAIS).

For ensuring the long-termsustainability and internationalcollaboration platform for scientists theEstonian National Grid Infrastructurehas been connected to the EuropeanGrid Initiative (EGI). ETAIS isdeveloped in collaboration withEstonian universities and institutes.Furthermore, the academicauthentication and authorisationinfrastructure TAAT was developed aspart of ETAIS. The major universitieshave already joined as identityproviders and EENet is currentlyundergoing technical preparations tojoin Kalmar2 and eduGAINinterfederations.

Looking into the futureThe peculiarity of the Estonian networkderives from the size of the country andits population - less than 1.3 millionpeople. Small countries like Estonianeed a large customer base for moreeffective operation and collaborationacross the infrastructure. According tothe user survey (2011) half of the highereducation institutions need fiberopticconnections next year (2014) and athird need up to 10 Gbps. In addition,almost 40% of the research institutionsneed 10 Gbps connections in the nearerfuture. Thus the EENet opticalbackbone network project is beingcarried out just in time.

In 2013 EENet, the EstonianInformation Technology Foundationand the Tiger Leap Foundation wereconsolidated under the roof of HITSA.In addition to developing the basicinfrastructure for the needs ofeducation and research, HITSA willalso become a competence centre forincreasing the quality of teaching andpromoting ICT education at alleducational levels.

For more information, visithttp://www.eenet.ee/EENet/EENet_en

http://www.eenet.ee/EENet/EENet_en

http://www.eenet.ee/EENet/EENet_en

COMMUNITY NEWS


TOWARDS E-EDUCATIONIN CROATIA

term, out of a total of 46,157 students.As of today, 45,313 students areenrolled in one of the general educationprogrammes, while 1,524 students willhave to face the autumn admissionterm, where 9,748 free spots will beavailable for them. Talking about thecomplexity of the project, ZvonimirStanić, CARNet Chief ExecutiveOfficer, pointed out that the systemcontains more than 10 million data,and CARNet's Helpdesk, whichprovides help and support to students,parents, school principals and otherparticipants of the process, received36,630 inquiries. "There werenumerous hacking attempts as well,but they were all preventedsuccessfully", Stanić said. The wholesystem is hosted in CARNet and isrunning on CARNet infrastructure.

Schools 2.0 ProjectThe Schools 2.0 Project of the CroatianAcademic and Research Network -CARNet was chosen as one of the threemost innovative initiatives in thecategory of Initiative for the Educationand Research of the European Prize forInnovation in Public Administration.The aim of this project is to enablehigh-quality and comprehensivedistance learning and e-learning for anincreasing number of users – bothteachers and students. As part of theproject, 25 school locations wereconnected to high-speed Internet viaan optical network (7 main schoolswith corresponding branchschools). Wireless networks (includingeduroam) are set up in these schools toenable students and teachers to accessonline learning materials and digitaltextbooks via the tablet, and use themfor videoconferences and distancelearning. All of these schools also tookpart in the e-Class Register project.

For the project, CARNet receivedjust over €1,5 million through a publictender conducted by the Croatian Postand Electronic CommunicationsAgency - HAKOM, which was used not

Croatian Academic andResearch Network – CARNetis investing lots of effort intoimplementing an e-Education

in Croatia. Over the past 7 years aseries of projects have beenimplemented in order to achieve that.Here we’ll present the most recentones.

Classroom of the FutureThe Kamesnica Elementary School inOtok, Split-Dalmatia County, hasbecome the first 'Classroom of theFuture', enabling over 470 students,along with those in satellite schools invillages of Ruda and Udovicici, accessto interactive learning supported by thelatest information technologies. Thisimplementation of Samsung Schoolplatform, implemented in joint forcesby the Croatian Academic andResearch Network - CARNet, SamsungElectronics Adriatic and the CroatianMinistry of Science, Education &Sports, is one of the first in the region.The school has been equipped with asmart board (a 65” LFD with touchoverlay), tablet PCs and accompanyingsoftware and server infrastructure, toserve students in the higher grades ofelementary school – from 5th to 8thgrade. IX. Gymnasium (secondaryschool) in Zagreb followed this and wasthe second school to join this project.

National InformationAdmission System forSecondary Schools

For the first time ever inCroatia enrollment to secondaryschools was conducted completelyonline. The National InformationAdmission System for SecondarySchools has been developed andimplemented in the past year enablingeasier enrollment to secondaryeducation. The figures indicate that45,672 students submitted theirapplication during the first admission

WordsGoran Skvarc,CARNet

only to finance the mentioned networkand videoconferencing infrastructuresand connections, but also for thepurchase of tablets for teachers andstudents, as well as any necessaryteacher education aimed at improvingtheir digital competence, specializededucation for the use of technology andthe planning and implementation ofproject-related cooperation amongschools. Schools are also equipped withscientific learning technologies(sensors) for natural sciences - biology,chemistry, physics and ecology.

e-Class RegisterIn the fall of 2011, with the beginningof the new school year, the newCARNet project, e-Class Register,began, keeping class registers in

COMMUNITY NEWS

23

PictureClassroom of the Future

electronic form. The pilot phase of thisproject then included 9 freshmanclasses in three secondary schools andtoday has grown to more than 250schools that implemented e-ClassRegister as the sole source of trackingall aspects of a pupil’s performance.The application was developed byCARNet and it has all thefunctionalities of existing class registerswith additional functionalities thatenable the use of ICT technologies.Along with the existing functionalitiesof the paper-based class register, theapplication has the added value of areporting system that helps theteachers in monitoring the studentsand preparing reports for sessions ofthe teacher's council. In a quick, simpleand reliable way, homeroom teachers,teachers and principals will be able tosee various reports on grades and

absences, and there will also be thepossibility of alerting the homeroomteacher about students with a largenumber of negative marks or absencesand alerting the principal aboutbacklogs in the execution of thecurriculum.

An additional advantage will be theprevention of misuses concerningunauthorized entries as well as cases oftheft and accidental or intentionaldestruction of the class register withwhich schools are sometimes faced.Connecting the e-Class Register withthe central e-main registry is plannedin order to extract the data from theapplications so as to decrease repeateddata input.

“One of CARNet’s priorities is toencourage the implementation and useof ICT in education. We haverecognized the potential of these

projects as the ones that willsignificantly contribute to the goal ofachieving e-Education in Croatia.CARNet will monitor the advantages ofthese projects and their use of ICT inthe classroom and continue to applythis knowledge in improvement of thatproject as well as other CARNetservices. In synergy with our award-winning project Schools 2.0, CARNetwill, along with the 'Classrooms of theFuture', continue to build on activitiesthat enable each student, teacher andparent unlimited access to technologyand internet which are the basicprerequisite for the access toknowledge,” highlighted CARNet CEO,Zvonimir Stanić.

For more information, seehttp://www.carnet.hr/en

COMMUNITY NEWS


THE HEANET NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2013,6 - 8 NOVEMBER AT THE SHERATON ATHLONE HOTEL,CO WESTMEATH

The HEAnet NationalConference attracts delegatesfrom across the educationand research sector as well as

industry leaders and technologyexperts. It provides a uniqueopportunity for you to learn about,present and discuss the latestdevelopments in networkingtechnology and services for theresearch and education community.

This year’s programme has astrong and varied mix of topics with arange of stimulating speakers fromacross the HE sector and industry.

Featured topics include: Big Data,Cloud, e-Learning, Networking, SDNand WiFi with the spotlight on"Strategies for e-Infrastructure

Delivery”. The programme alsoincludes client case studies, theworkshop area and the ever popularLightning Talks.

The conference will be ofparticular interest to managers ofcomputing, networking andinformation services along withresearchers, senior network personnel and information systemsprofessionals. The event will also beof interest to professionals with aninterest in research and educationnetworking and internetdevelopments.

For full details, please visit our website:http://www.heanet.ie/conferences/2013/home

WordsFi Coyle, HEAnet

http://www.heanet.ie/conferences/2013/home

http://www.heanet.ie/conferences/2013/home

The TERENA NetworkingConference (TNC) isEurope's largest and mostprestigious research and

networking conference, with a recordparticipation of more than 650participants during the 2013 editionin Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Fuelled by this success,preparations for TNC2014 arecurrently in full swing. The 30thedition will take place between 19-22May 2014 in Dublin, Ireland, hosted

by HEAnet, the Irish nationalresearch and education network(NREN). The conference will bringtogether decision makers, managers,networking professionals,collaboration specialists, and identityand access management experts fromall major European networking andresearch organisations, universitities,world-wide sister institutions, as wellas industry representatives.

Call for papersThe TNC2014 Programme Committeehas issued a Call for Papers exploringthe conference’s theme ‘NetworkingWith the World’. Papers on allsubjects relevant to the spirit andobjectives of the conference and thetheme can be submitted as extendedabstracts of 600-1200 words from 7October until 30 November 2013.More information can be found on theTNC2014 website:http://tnc2014.terena.org

DemonstrationsAn exhibition area dedicated todemonstrations and exhibits will be

set up in the conference venue.Companies and projects wishing toparticipate should contact:[email protected].

SponsorshipCompanies who want to gainexposure in, and build relationshipswith, the European research andeducation networking community canbecome a sponsoring partner ofTNC2014. For more informationplease contact Gyöngyi Horváth,TERENA’s Conference and WorkshopOrganiser, at [email protected].

Registration earlierwith bigger discountTo allow participants to benefit fromextra time in planning their travel,registration for TNC2014 will openseveral months earlier than usual.Moreover, everyone using early-birdregistration from 1 November 2013 to24 February 2014 will benefit from anew €100 reduction on the fee insteadof the usual €50. Normal registrationcontinues from 25 February to 9 May2014.

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TNC2014 – NETWORKING WITH THE WORLD

WordsCora Van denBossche –TERENACommunicationsOfficer

PictureThe Ha'pennyBridge isa pedestrianbridge built in1816 overthe RiverLiffey in Dublin.

COMMUNITY NEWS


WORKING TOGETHER TOPROMOTE THE NETWORKAND SERVICES

WordsLaura Durnford,TF-CPRSecretary

PictureGÉANT PRNetwork and TF-CPRparticipants were joined byex-membersonline to markthe 10-yearanniversary inRome, hosted by GARR

In the excitement of thinkingabout new technologies andservices, it’s sometimes possibleto overlook the role of

marketing and communications inensuring that users get what theyreally need.

Recognition for this area ofGÉANT and NREN work has beengrowing in recent years and in April2013, for the first time, GÉANTsupport for community task forceswas extended to include marketingand communications. But therelationship between GÉANT and theTERENA Task Force onCommunications and Public Relations(TF-CPR) goes back much further:with TF-CPR passing it’s 10thanniversary in October 2013, wereview the growth and achievementsin this area.

TF-CPR was set up to support theexchange of ideas, experience,information and best practices acrossthe full range of topics NRENs need tocommunicate. Some NREN staff

assigned ‘PR’ tasks were actuallytechnical or legal experts rather thancommunications specialists, and thetask force supported professionaldevelopment as well as the chance toexplore commonalities and maketrusted contacts.

From 2006, TF-CPR met back-to-back with the GÉANT PR Network,which has similar goals but a firmfocus on the project and its activities.Through these gatherings and mailinglist exchanges, the community’scommunications, marketing and PRindividuals have come together as anextended team. With shared onlinetools and resources they haveproduced and shared materials topromote services such as eduroam,eduGAIN and bandwidth-on-demandnetwork access; they have collectedand created materials for re-brandingand re-use; and they sharedinformation for their own use and foruse by other sectors of the researchand education networkingcommunity.

In a recent survey of TF-CPR,more than 83% of active membersresponded, including severalmembers who founded the group 10years ago. The survey responses showthat members are very satisfied withthe task force and its activities, feelingthat their work had benefited fromcovering a range of topics aboutstrategy, materials, social media,events and how to reach specific usergroups, among others.

Invited speakers from externalgroups such as EGI.eu, RIPE-NCCand Internet Society and co-locationwith TF-MSP (Management ofServices Portfolios) have all beenwelcome additions to the breadth oftopics that the task force covers.Suggestions for enhancing thecollaboration were gained through thesurvey, and the results confirmed thatTF-CPR continues to be valuable to allparticipants in this community-wideteam.

alongside each other," says StevenNewhouse, director of EGI.eu. "This isalso an example of how the EGIcommunity promotes innovation bypartnering up with commercialtechnology providers such as SixSq."

You can learn more about the EGIFederated Cloud on the EGI websiteat http://www.egi.eu/solutions/fed-cloud/

There is a video of thedemonstration on YouTube athttp://youtu.be/U5KwmvLvovA

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Earlier this month theEuropean GridInfrastructure (EGI)demonstrated SlipStream, a

new interface for scientists to accessthe EGI Federated Cloud resources.The integration of SlipStream allowsresearchers to use the EGI cloud thesame way they access commercialcloud providers.

Over the last few years theEuropean Grid Infrastructure (EGI)has been building their FederatedCloud platform with many partnersboth in academia and the commercialsector. This latest demonstration ofthe current state of the FederatedCloud was shown at EGI’s TechnicalForum in Madrid. The work, a proof-of-concept from the European SpaceAgency (ESA) is a result ofcollaboration with the developers ofSlipStream, SixSq.

SlipStream provides a webinterface that allows users toconfigure multiple cloud services andset up custom deployments ofmultiple virtual machines. Thesoftware has previously been tested bythe HelixNebula project as atechnology solution to act as a brokerbetween the user and the differentclouds on offer.

Salvatore Pinto, EGI.eu’s cloudtechnologist, presented thedemonstration. "The demo showedhow you can easily start a complexdeployment on EGI Federated Cloudresources using the SlipStream webinterface," Salvatore says. "I used areal use case and as an example, Irepeated the work performed by theEuropean Space Agency during theirproof of concept on EGI's FederatedCloud."

In the demonstration, Salvatoredeployed a computing cluster, basedon the Globus grid middlewarestarting from basic OS image andconnected it to ESA's grid. He also

demonstrated how to submitprocessing jobs to it using the ESAgrid-processing on demand service.

Using SlipStream, users will beable to "see all FedCloud resourcesunder the same hood, allowing themto provision reliably across them all,improving resource sharing andutilisation," adds Marc-Elian Bégin,SlipStream product lead and co-founder of SixSq.

"The demonstration shows howacademic and commercial cloudresources can be successfully run

SLIPSTREAM – A NEW WEB INTERFACE FOR THE EUROPEAN GRID’SFEDERATED CLOUD

WordsNeasan O’Neill,CommunicationsManager, EGI

http://www.egi.eu/solutions/fed-cloud/

http://www.egi.eu/solutions/fed-cloud/

INNOVATION

JJRRAA11 –– NNEETTWWOORRKK AARRCCHHIITTEECCTTUURREESS FFOORR HHOORRIIZZOONN 22002200,, LLEEAADDEERR TTOONNYY BBRREEAACCHH

The core architectures and technologies used in the GÉANTand NREN networks and the internet in general havedeveloped rapidly in the past 20 years and the capacities andspeeds of the network have grown enormously. Howeverthese have been mainly evolutionary changes with much of theunderlying structure still recognisably consistent. Thechallenges of the “data deluge”, the “internet of things” and thegrowth of cloud applications and computing will requirepotentially radical changes to the core network architectures in use today. This Research Activity will investigate three key areas:

1. Future Network Architectures – researching how GÉANT and the NRENs can build their future networks and liaising with industry to help guide emerging network technologies.

2. Network Architectures for Cloud Services – cloud services represent a paradigm shift in the way computing power and applications are delivered to users. This area of work is investigating how the demands of fluid supply and demand and “always there” application delivery affect the network at both the core and delivery structure.

3. High Speed Mobile Architectures – Mobile access is now considered an essential for users but will become increasingly important to the “internet of things”. This area of work is researching Wi-Fi based broadband access architectures to support and drive these innovations in mobile access.

GGÉÉAANNTT’’ss JJooiinntt RReesseeaarrcchh AAccttiivviittiieess ((JJRRAAss)) hhaavvee aa ssttrroonngg rreeccoorrdd ooff ddeevveellooppiinngg iinnnnoovvaattiivveessoolluuttiioonnss ttoo tthhee nneeeeddss ooff tthhee RR&&EE ccoommmmuunniittyy..WWiitthhiinn tthhee GGÉÉAANNTT ((GGNN33pplluuss)) pprroojjeecctt tthhiissrreesseeaarrcchh hhaass bbeeeenn ccoonnssoolliiddaatteedd iinnttoo tthhrreeee ccoorree JJRRAAss,, eeaacchh iinnvveessttiiggaattiinngg aa ddiiffffeerreenntt aassppeecctt ooff tthhee ffuuttuurree ooff nneettwwoorrkkiinngg aanndd aallllffooccuusseedd oonn iimmpprroovviinngg tthhee sseerrvviicceess aavvaaiillaabbllee ttoo tthhee eennttiirree ccoommmmuunniittyy..

JJOOIINNTT RREESSEEAARRCCHH AACCTTIIVVIITTIIEESS–– IINNNNOOVVAATTIIOONN AACCRROOSSSS BBOORRDDEERRSS


INNOVATION

JJRRAA22 –– TTEECCHHNNOOLLOOGGYY TTEESSTTIINNGGFFOORR SSEERRVVIICCEE SSPPEECCIIFFIICC AAPPPPLLIICCAATTIIOONNSS,, LLEEAADDEERRAAFFRROODDIITTEE SSEEVVAASSTTII

Technologies such as server virtualisation and Virtual PrivateNetworks are now becoming relatively commonplace withcommercial service providers offering these facilities to a huge varietyof users. However this Activity is investigating the next generation ofnetworks’ virtualisation and specialisation – in particular the conceptsof Network as a Service (NaaS) and Testbeds as a Service (TaaS).Within these concepts, virtualisation extends into the network withthe ability to define, create and manage virtual networks forspecialised applications. It focuses on two areas:

1. Openflow/SDN – SDN and the Openflow technology offer the opportunity to decouple the control logic of a network from the actual data transport. This enables the creation of virtual network infrastructure slices for specific applications (for example cloud service support). It can also be exploited to deliver advanced traffic engineering capabilities (e.g. load management and congestion control) to support the most demanding applications. This area of work is investigating delivery of software-defined services, building upon the experience of GN3 in implementing an OpenFlow-enabled facility, as well as OpenFlow technology enhancements. It will also research multi-domain (federated) SDN to enable SDN service offerings across the NREN-GÉANT domains and globally.

2. NaaS, Virtualisation and NSI - At present, most networks have to be pre-defined and configured and have limitations on user configuration – this limits flexibility and usability. This area of work focuses on shaping innovative service offerings on behalf of GÉANT and the NRENs based upon the Network as a Service (NaaS) concept, accompanied by virtualisation capabilities and NSI framework extensions. It also investigates novel management capabilities towards the paradigm of Management as a Service.

NaaS capabilities are particularly interesting for the value they canprovide to cloud services delivered by the GÉANT-NREN backbones,as they can deliver a seamless inter-datacentre service acrossbackbones. This area of work will study the capabilities in this area,aiming at complementing the service architectures for cloud support.

JJRRAA33 –– IIDDEENNTTIITTYY AANNDD TTRRUUSSTT TTEECCHHNNOOLLOOGGIIEESS,, LLEEAADDEERR LLIICCIIAA FFLLOORRIIOO

Collaboration across institutional borders is a recurring theme in theresearch and education community, and is one of the strengths of theR&E community. Therefore, providing infrastructure support for suchcollaborations is a very important aspect to advanced collaboration, aswell as innovation.

R&E is working in an increasingly virtualised world with services andsystems being delivered remotely using networks, hardware andapplications neither owned nor directly controlled by the user. In thisenvironment trust and identity are crucial elements that are needed toensure that only authorised users can access data and services andequally so that users can be sure that the services they are using arevalid and trustworthy.

SSUUPPPPOORRTTIINNGG AACCCCEESSSS WWIITTHH EENNHHAANNCCEEDD SSEECCUURRIITTYYThere is a careful balancing act between supporting collaboration forresearch activities whilst guaranteeing users' privacy and security. TheNREN community and the GÉANT project have been amongst thegreatest innovators in this area – demonstrated by the success of botheduGAIN and eduroam®.

This research will focus on areas that, if not addressed, may hinderwide adoption of research and education Identity Federations, andconsequently of eduGAIN, and the deployment of other GÉANTservices. There are two focus areas to this research being undertakenby GÉANT.

1. Attributes and Groups - This activity is working to extend the current services provided by Identity Federations (such as eduGAIN) to support managing user groups and managing user attributes to allow finer-grained identity and trust management

2. Identity and Trust Technologies – This will extend the benefits of these services in three waysa. By linking the R&E Identity Federations to Commercial provider services to enable greater access to commercial services

b. By investigating the use of physical token systems to enhance user security

c. By working to extend Identity Services beyond the current web-based systems

These developments will help to build a secure and trusted platformfor the next generation of applications and services to support.For more information, visit wwwwww..ggeeaanntt..nneett//iinnnnoovvaattiioonn

29

AANN IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONNTTOO RREEAANNNNZZ,, TTHHEENNRREENN OOFF NNEEWWZZEEAALLAANNDD

T TThhee wwoorrddss LLoorrdd ooff tthhee RRiinnggss,,SSqquuaarree KKiilloommeettrree AArrrraayy aannddggeennoommiiccss sseeqquueenncciinngg aarree nnoottoofftteenn sseeeenn iinn tthhee ssaammee sseenntteennccee,,

bbuutt tthheessee aarree aallll aassppeeccttss ooff hhiigghh eenndd ddaattaauussee tthhaatt aarree iinnccrreeaassiinnggllyy uusseedd iinn tthhee ffaarr ooffffrreesseeaarrcchh,, ssooffttwwaarree aanndd eennggiinneeeerriinngg llaabbss ooffNNeeww ZZeeaallaanndd..

Lke most modern developedeconomies New Zealand is attempting tomake the transition from 20th centuryagricultural producer (as “the farm for theUnited Kingdom”) to those high value-addproducts that result from creativity,software, and advanced services. Thesehave been termed as resulting from the“weightless economy” – it’s no longersufficient to send low value commodityitems around the globe.

New Zealand’s remote location meansthat it is at a competitive disadvantage inglobal markets, because it costs more andtakes longer to get to market. This isparticularly so because New Zealand tendsto send relatively heavy, relative low valueexports to distant markets.

As well as supporting pure science,REANNZ assists applied research institutesthat add value to our (predominantly)agriculturally based economy. Our primarytrading partners and OECD countries inparticular already had mature specialisednetworking organisations that helped drivetheir economies through innovation. Sincethen the network has also supported arange of innovative science and researchinitiatives with institutions around the world.

NNEEWW LLEEAADDEERRSSHHIIPP BBRRIINNGGSSNNEEWW IINNIITTIIAATTIIVVEESS In late 2011 Steve Cotter joined REANNZas CEO, coming from leading organisationESnet (Energy Sciences Network) at theUniversity of California Berkeley, and with awealth of experience in the global R&Eworld behind him. Under Steve’sleadership there has been a raft of newinitiatives including an expansion of thenetwork engineering team, a strongerfocus on member engagement and therollout of a new Infinera-based networkthat will provide Kiwi researchers with theability to access up to 100Gbps capacityover the medium term.

Given New Zealand’s geographiclocation (over 3 hours flying time from ournearest neighbour Australia – about thesame as London to Athens!) relationshipswith external organisations are highlyregarded.

Connections with GÉANT werestrengthened at the recent University ofCanterbury eResearch Symposium thatattracted researchers, IT specialists andeducationalists from across the countryand abroad. DANTE’s own DomenicoVicinanza and Alessandra Scicchitano(SWITCH) ran an excellent and very well-received workshop (in conjunction withREANNZ engineers Sam Russell andJames Wix) that showed local researchershow to tune their hardware and globalnetwork connections through the use oftools such as perfSONAR (link below)

Along with topical research of localrelevance (Pacific tsunami warnings,earthquake-proofing and how to build abigger and better sheep), Kiwi researchersare closely involved in Large HadronCollider projects with their peers globallyand are now looking forward to the rolloutof the Square Kilometer Array (SKA)telescope. As a precursor to that projectthe Murchison Widefield Array is now onstream and undertaking surveys for radioastronomers in a number of countriesincluding New Zealand. The tyranny ofdistance that Pacific nations have sufferedfrom is increasingly being eroded in aglobally interconnected, sub-100millisecond world!

FFOORR MMOORREE IINNFFOORRMMAATTIIOONN,, SSEEEE::

Murchison Widefield Array:hhttttpp::////wwwwww..mmwwaatteelleessccooppee..oorrgg//

REANNZ news:hhttttpp::////nneewwss..rreeaannnnzz..ccoo..nnzz//

eResearch Symposium presentations:hhttttpp::////ggoooo..ggll//jjooOOPPMMbb

PictureSteve Cotter,CEO

WordsDouglasHarre,REANNZ


CONNECT NEWS

REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand) is a Crown-owned company that was launched in 2006. It nowconnects all of New Zealand’s universities and research institutes, most polytechnics, and a number of cultural institutions. A staff of 17based in the heart of the capital city, Wellington, provides a range of advanced network services to around 170 members nationwide.

By Tom Fryer, International Relations Officer, DANTE and Helga Spitaler, Senior Communications Officer, DANTE

GGLLOOBBAALL NNEEWWSS

31

GLOBAL NEWS

SSEEEEKKIINNGG GGLLOOBBAALLCCAASSEE SSTTUUDDIIEESS

GÉANT case studies aim to raiseawareness of the benefits of theconnectivity and services made availableby GÉANT and its global connectivity tothe European R&E community. Theyinform stakeholders of how R&Enetworks are used and why they areneeded, and help explain to similarusers what they can potentially do andachieve using the global R&Enetworking infrastructure. Work toidentify use cases for publication ascase studies is an on-going effort.

Global Collaboration Case Studies aimspecifically to showcase the use ofGÉANT’s global links to other worldregions, which reach over 60 countriesoutside Europe. Efforts are focused ontropical diseases at the moment, andlearning more about how institutionsparticipating in tropical disease researchprojects are collaborating. There isinterest also in other use cases with asocietal benefit, such as telemedicine,the environment, e-learning, etc.

GÉANT would be very interested to hearabout any European or global tropicaldisease research projects or other usecases of the GÉANT network and itsconnections to the rest of the world. Formore information, or to share a casestudy with the global collaboration team,please contact: TToomm..FFrryyeerr@@ddaannttee..nneett.

To view GÉANT case studies, pleasevisit wwwwww..ggeeaanntt..nneett

AALLIICCEE22 IISS CCOOMMPPLLEETTEEDDAASS RREEDDCCLLAARRAA CCEELLEEBBRRAATTEESS IITTSSTTEENNTTHH AANNNNIIVVEERRSSAARRYY

The story of how RedCLARAstarted, however, dates backto the previous year and theEC-funded CEASAR study, the

aim of which was to evaluate thepossibility of a direct interconnectionbetween GÉANT and similar activitiesin Latin America. As part of theCAESAR project, a workshop inToledo, Spain, was organised for June2002. It was here that the initial idea forthe creation of RedCLARA as theresearch and education networkingorganisation for Latin America was firstfloated.

Significantly, the CAESAR projectled to the establishment of the ALICE(Latin America Interconnected withEurope) project which provided EC-funding of €10 million with anadditional €2.5 million from LatinAmerican NRENs towards the creationof an inter-regional R&E network,RedCLARA, and its interconnectionwith Europe.

Starting in 2003, the DANTE ledALICE project established a regionalnetwork, enabling traffic between LatinAmericans to be exchanged within theregion, and provided a 622Mbpsinterconnection with GÉANT. ALICEalso fostered the creation of NRENs incountries where they had previouslynot existed. By the end of ALICE in2008, a total of 12 Latin Americannational networks were connected toRedCLARA, with a further 6 countrieseligible to connect.

The success of ALICE led to the

ALICE2 project, with increasedfunding of €12 million from the EC and€6 million from Latin American NRENs.In a ground-breaking move,RedCLARA took over the coordinatingrole of ALICE2 from DANTE. Togetherwith Latin American NRENs and theEuropean NRENs FCCN (Portugal),GARR (Italy), RedIRIS (Spain) andRENATER (France), DANTE remaineda partner in the ALICE2 project.

Starting in December 2008,ALICE2 aimed to improve theRedCLARA network and itsinterconnection with Europe, and alsoto work with beneficiary countrieswhich at the time were not connectedto RedCLARA (Bolivia, Costa Rica,Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua andParaguay) to assist their developmentand interconnection with RedCLARA.In addition, ALICE2 placed muchgreater emphasis on promoting use ofthe network and supporting usergroups within the region. An additionalfocus point was appropriate trainingfor both the technical andmanagement staff of Latin AmericanNRENs. Significantly, the ALICE2project also aimed to develop thesustainability of RedCLARA for thefuture.

ALICE2 ended on 31st Januarythis year. Among the highlights of theproject are the following:

• The RedCLARA network saw significant improvements with capacities on most trunks

increasing from speeds typically of 155Mbps or lower, to 1Gbps and 2.5Gbps, as well as capacity between Argentina and Brazil at 10Gbps. Some sections of the network (e.g. in Central America and between Chile and Argentina) are dark fibre owned by RedCLARA, providing the ability to upgrade the capacity on those sections of the network. In addition, the capacity of the transatlantic link to GÉANT was multiplied by a factor of four from 622Mbps to 2.5Gbps.

• The re-procurement of the network brought about a substantial reduction in network and maintenance costs to 38% of the level at the beginning of the project, making a major contribution to the long-term sustainability of RedCLARA.

• Considerable efforts were made by RedCLARA and the ALICE2 partner NRENs in Latin America to raise the profile of RedCLARA in non-connected countries and to assist them in their development. This included ALICE2 meetings held in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay, as well as technical training for those countries and assistance in the development of business plans.

GLOBAL NEWS

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GLOBAL NEWS

• An early success was the connection of Costa Rica to RedCLARA, taking the total number of connected networks to 13. For the remaining countries, difficulties of varying types have prevented them from connecting thus far. Nevertheless, Bolivia and Paraguay have formal NREN initiatives and plans exist for their future connection to RedCLARA. InHonduras and Nicaragua, interest has been shown from different players, though no formal proposals for connection currently exist. RedCLARA is continuing its efforts to help these countries overcome their difficulties and connect to the global R&E networking infrastructure.

• The ComCLARA (Comunidades RedCLARA – RedCLARA Communities) programme, established under ALICE2 and developed in two editions (COMCLARA 2010 and COMCLARA 2011), provided support to user communities spread across various Latin American countries. RedCLARA assisted these communities by offering information on potential funding sources as well as througha suite of collaboration tools (such as wiki-hosting, videoconferencing, web-conferencing, video-hosting, a

collaboration partner search tool, file transfer, and an event management tool) made available via the RedCLARA portal. assistance also included funding for a user group coordinator and for a leading member of the user group to attend a relevant international event in their field.

• ALICE2 provided a platform for thecontinued work of RedCLARA’s Technical Working Groups which have worked on areas such as IPv6, Mobility with eduroam, IPTV, security, Mobility with OpenFlow; SciFi (intelligent control system wireless networks); performance monitoring; VoIP (Voice over IP) and web-conferencing. A significant highlight has been a pilot measurement scheme which is up and running with perfSONAR measurement points in Peru, Guatemala, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil and Ecuador.

• Since 2008, RedCLARA has organised regular training opportunities for NREN technical staff in a variety of themes, including VoIP, IPv6, security, OpenFlow technologies and the creation of national identify federations. Management training has also been made available to NREN management staff.

• A final important highlight of the ALICE2 project has been the continued strengthening of the relationship between the Latin American and European R&E networking communities, seen today for example in the continuedcollaboration between RedCLARA and GÉANT on the implementationof the EC-funded ELCIRA project (Europe Latin America Collaborative e-Infrastructure for Research Activities: see CONNECT Issue 12), as well as on-going joint efforts to re-procure the GÉANT-RedCLARA transatlantic link.

The successes of the ALICE andALICE2 projects have placed the LatinAmerican R&E networking communityin a position barely imaginable whenRedCLARA was formed ten years ago.Today, the importance of the roleplayed by RedCLARA for the LatinAmerican Research and EducationCommunity over the past decade hasbeen recognised by LACNIC, the LatinAmerican and Caribbean InternetAddress Registry, with the presentationof a plaque that commemorates itstenth anniversary.

To learn more about RedCLARAvisit: wwwwww..rreeddccllaarraa..nneett

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PictureThe finalALICE2meeting, held in Cuenca,Ecuador, 12-16November 2012


GLOBAL NEWS

The GÉANT Bandwidth-on-Demand (BoD) service offersusers the ability to reservebandwidth across the GÉANT

network and the networks ofparticipating NRENs quickly and easilyusing a simple web-based userinterface. These connections can bereserved for as little as an hour or formonths at a time and can bescheduled in advance to supportdemanding network requirements.They offer a tremendous advance ontraditional static point-to-point circuitswhich are expensive and have muchlonger lead times.

Similar services operate in theUnited States provided by Internet2and ESnet and are in great demand.

However, the tools used to implementthe bandwidth-on-demand services inthe USA were developed separately,leading to interoperability issues withthe GÉANT BoD service. This hasmeant that, until recently, transatlanticBoD connections have beencomplicated to arrange. For the past 2years, GÉANT has worked with its USpartners, ESnet, Internet2 and IndianaUniversity, on a pilot bandwidth-on-demand service between Europe andthe United States that allows seamlessintegration of the services.

In August this year, as a result ofthis collaboration between GÉANT andits US partners, the transatlantic BoDservice to the United States became aproduction service. As a

consequence, GÉANT Bandwidth onDemand can now reach in the regionof 800 end points behind Internet2 andESnet in the United States, providingenhanced capabilities for Europeanand US researchers.

To learn more about Bandwidth onDemand visit:hhttttpp::////wwwwww..ggeeaanntt..nneett//SSeerrvviicceess//CCoonnnneeccttiivviittyySSeerrvviicceess//PPaaggeess//BBaannddwwiiddtthh__oonn__DDeemmaanndd..aassppxx

To learn more about servicecollaboration between GÉANT andother world regions, visit:hhttttpp::////wwwwww..ggeeaanntt..nneett//NNeettwwoorrkk//GGlloobbaall--CCoonnnneeccttiivviittyy//PPaaggeess//GGlloobbaall__SSeerrvviiccee__CCoollllaabboorraattiioonn..aassppxx

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PictureUniversitiesacross the USstand to benefitfrom theinteroperability

CClloosseerr ttiieess wwiitthh UUSS bbrriinnggss ffuullll BBooDD iinntteerrooppeerraabbiilliittyy wwiitthh 880000 UUSS ssiitteess

http://www.geant.net/Network/Global-Connectivity/Pages/Global_Service_Collaboration.aspx



http://www.geant.net/Services/ConnectivityServices/Pages/Bandwidth_on_Demand.aspx



35

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In September 2012 DANTEsuccessfully transferredmanagement responsibility for theTEIN project to Asian-led TEIN*Co-

operation Center in Korea, but hascontinued to actively support the newTEIN4 phase by providing professionalservices assistance in areas such asmarketing, strategic planningprocurement, and financialmanagement.

A year on, the project is continuingto flourish. At the recent TEIN projectmeeting which took place in Augustalongside the 36th APAN meeting inDaejeon, Korea, over 60 attendeesfrom 17 Asian-Pacific project partnercountries took stock of the latest TEINachievements and excitingdevelopments for the future.

As reported in the latestCONNECT issue, Afghanistan hasrecently joined the TEIN programmeand is due to be connected to theTEIN network backbone in 2015.

One of the priorities of the TEINprogramme remains to support thedevelopment of R&E networking in theemerging Southeast Asian countriesLaos, Cambodia and Myanmar andtheir connection to TEIN. WithMyanmar starting to open up andincreasingly interested in developingconnectivity for research andeducation, feasibility studies havecommenced and it is hoped that it may

connect to TEIN during the course of2014.

For the first time ever,representatives attended fromMongolia stressing their country’s firmintention to join the international R&Enetworking community via TEIN.Mongolia has established an NREN,ErdemNet, which already links 10universities and is developing fast. Afeasibility study is underway withErdemNet for connecting to the TEINnetwork next year, bringing thenumber of connected partnercountries to 17.

In Daejeon, the TEIN communitynot only welcomed new members, but

also saw exciting developments interms of intra-regional collaborations.Representatives of the TEIN projectmet earlier this year with theircolleagues from the Central-Asian R&Enetwork CAREN, to explorecollaboration opportunities. As an earlyresult, for the first time representativesof NRENs and medical doctors from allfour CAREN partner countries(Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistanand Turkmenistan) participatedremotely in Medical Working Groupsessions during APAN, thus paving theway for tele-medicine collaborations inthe future, supported by the CAREN,TEIN and GÉANT networks.

GLOBAL NEWS

PictureTEINGovernorsʼMeeting, 19August, 2013,Daejeon, Korea

PictureDr Saw SandaAye from theUniversity ofComputerStudies inYangonoutliningMyanmarʼsplans to joinTEIN

GÉANT IN THE FIELD


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November sees GÉANT exhibiting atpremier events in Europe and the UnitedStates. Exhibitions, conferences andworkshops are a key part of the project’soutreach strategy and a valuable

opportunity to speak face to face with current andpotential user groups, international partners, fundingbodies and ICT professionals.

The first of these is ICT2013, to be held November6-8 in Vilnius, Lithuania. With the theme of ‘Create,Connect, Grow’ this annual European Union eventattracts over 4000 researchers, innovators,entrepreneurs, industry representatives, politicians andstudents, and will focus on Horizon 2020 – the EU’sFramework Programme for Research and Innovationfor 2014-2020.

GÉANT will be exhibiting together with twoflagship users – the European Bioinformatics Institute(EBI) and ITER (a large scale scientific experiment thataims to demonstrate that it is possible to producecommercial energy from fusion, and part of the Fusionfor Energy [F4E] initiative). The booth will featureinformation displays and various demonstrations fromeach exhibitor, with staff available to discuss the latestdevelopments in networking and services.

LITNET, the Lithuanian NREN has been workingclosely with the organisers and the venue to providehigh capacity networking to the venue and secureeduroam® access for the exhibitors and visitors for theduration of the event. Together GÉANT and LITNETwill be demonstrating the power and flexibility ofGÉANT networking services.

For more information, please see:http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ict-2013or check the Events page on www.geant.net

Then it’s across the Atlantic to Colorado, home tothis year’s SuperComputing event, SC13. This long-running show, celebrating 25 years in 2013, bringstogether the international high performance computing(HPC) community for a program of technical papers,tutorials and exhibitors. Over 350 exhibitors areexpected over nearly 140,000 square feet of exhibitspace.

GÉANT had great success here in previous years,exhibiting with local partners such as IndianaUniversity, boosting our international profile andspreading the word of our transatlantic connectivity.DANTE’s Domenico Vicinanza even collaborated withNASA, using the combined power of grid computingand multiple research networks to turn the datareceived from Voyager 1 into a musical piece, playedlive to event attendees. This year, Domenico has againbeen invited back to the NASA booth, one of the mostpopular and visible booths at SC, to do somethingsimilar. Watch this space!

Also this year, engineers from HEAnet will also bepart of the prestigious team arranging SCinet, thepowerful and advanced network set up each year for theconference that links to research networks around theworld. It is this network upon which exhibitors rely toshow demonstrations. The team includes volunteersselected from academia, government and industry whowork together to design and deliver the SCinetinfrastructure.

The SC13 conference runs from November 17-22,with the exhibition from November 18-21. For moreinformation, please see sc13.supercomputing.org.

WordsPaul Maurice,DANTE

PictureDenver, Colorado

http://sc13.supercomputing.org/

You can view or download previous copies of CONNECT at www.geant.net/connect-archive

Do you have an idea for an article in CONNECT? We welcome contributionsfrom our community. Drop us an email at [email protected] with yourthoughts. We look forward to hearing from you!

www.geant.net

www.twitter.com/GEANTnews

www.facebook.com/GEANTnetwork

www.youtube.com/GEANTtv

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GÉANT is the pan-European research andeducation network that interconnects Europe’sNational Research and Education Networks(NRENs). Together we connect over 50 millionusers at 10,000 institutions across Europe,supporting research in areas such as energy, the environment, space and medicine.

GGÉÉAANNTT PPaarrttnneerrssSigmaNetwww.sigmanet.lvLITNETwww.litnet.ltRESTENAwww.restena.luMARNetwww.marnet.mkUniversity of Maltawww.um.edu.mtMRENwww.mren.ac.meSURFnetwww.surfnet.nlNORDUnetwww.nordu.netPSNCwww.man.poznan.plFCCNwww.fccn.ptRoEduNetwww.nren.ro eARENAwww.e-arena.ruAMRESwww.amres.ac.rsSANETwww.sanet.sk

ARNESwww.arnes.siRedIRISwww.rediris.esSWITCHwww.switch.chULAKBIMwww.ulakbim.gov.trJANETwww.ja.netDANTEwww.dante.netTERENAwww.terena.orgBASNET www.bas-net.byRENAMwww.renam.mdURANwww.uran.net.uaASNET-AMwww.asnet.amAzRENAwww.azrena.orgGRENAwww.grena.ge

ABOUT GÉANT

37

http://www.youtube.com/GEANTtv


http://www.twitter.com/GEANTnews

http://www.geant.net

wwwwww..ggeeaanntt..nneett

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of DANTE and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union. CONNECT/1013

CONNECT Magazine Issue 13

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Transcript of CONNECT Magazine Issue 13