Research and Education Networks around the World: the Internet2 View

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Research and Education Networks around the World
the Internet2 View

• Douglas E. Van HouwelingPresident and CEO,
  Internet2dvh_at_internet2.edu
• Meeting on Enhancing Research and Education
  Networking within and to Africa
• 5 May 2005
• Arlington, VA

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Outline

• An overview Internet2 International
  Partnerships
• The rationale for National Research and Education
  Networks (NRENs)
• NRENs around the world
• Africa
• Europe and the Middle East
• Asia and Oceania
• Latin America

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Internet2 today

• US-based membership organization
• 207 regular University members
• 66 Corporate members
• 42 Affiliate members
• Goals
• Create a leading edge network capability for the
  national research community
• Enable revolutionary Internet applications
• Ensure the rapid transfer of new network services
  and applications to the broader Internet
  community
• US National Research and Education Network
• Internet2 Abilene Backbone Network
• 10 Gbps backbone
• Over 218 participants
• Expanded access over 30-based state-based
  education networks across the country
• State, regional, metropolitan networks connecting
  campuses
• Move to facilities-based networks
• International partnerships
• Close to 50 International partner organizations
  roughly representing over 75 countries

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Internet2 Partnerships

• Partnerships are key to Internet2
• International partners are of strategic
  importance to Internet2
• Global collaborations
• Science, research, teaching and learning area all
  increasingly global
• Support global collaborations with an equivalent
  GLOBAL leading edge networking capability
  through partners around the world
• Interoperability, joint development of new
  technologies
• International Partner Program
• Build effective partnerships in other countries
• With organizations of similar goals/objectives
  and similar constituencies
• In support of the Internet2 membership
• 50 organizations (International partners)
  representing over 75 countries

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Current International Partners
Europe
Africa
ARNES (Slovenia) BELNET (Belgium) CARNET
(Croatia) CESnet (Czech Republic) DANTE
(Europe) DFN-Verein (Germany) GIP RENATER
(France) GRNET (Greece) HEAnet (Ireland) HUNGARNET
(Hungary) INFN-GARR (Italy) NORDUnet (Nordic
Countries) POL-34 (Poland) FCCN
(Portugal) RedIRIS (Spain) RESTENA
(Luxembourg) RIPN (Russia) SANET
(Slovakia) Stichting SURF (Netherlands) SWITCH
(Switzerland) TERENA (Europe) JISC, UKERNA
(United Kingdom)
MCIT EUN/ENSTIN (Egypt)
Related partnerships
APRU (Asia/Pacific) IEEAF World Bank
Middle East
Israel-IUCC (Israel) Qatar Foundation (Qatar)
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Supporting science user communities and beyond

• Research increasingly dependent on access
  globally to resources, collaborators, data,
  scientific instruments.
• Access to scientific instruments with specific
  geo-location needs (e.g., optical and radio
  telescopes)
• Unique instruments impractical or unfeasible for
  each country to afford for its own (e.g., Large
  Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, electron
  microscope in Japan)
• Access to/collecting geo-specific data and
  getting it back for analysis, visualization,
  sharing, prevention
• Environmental, Atmospheric/Oceanographic Studies
• Access to the US (resources) and to non-US
  resources
• Teaching and learning
• .and many more

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US International Connectivity

• Links between the US and other countries funded
  through various sources
• Outside the US many of our partners procure and
  operate links from their country to the US
• US-funded
• US NSF provides funding through IRNC (was HPIIS)
  program for some links
• DOE provides some funding for CERN-procured and
  operated links to US
• Internet2 funds used for some connectivity
• Donations IEEAF has made donations from Tyco
  Telecom available to the RE networking community
• Transit via partner networks
• Ex. Reach many countries via GEANT, APAN, CLARA
• International exchange points
• Around US borders (including north and south
  borders of US)
• Facilitate connectivity with Internet2
  infrastructure and other US national networks
• More than 60 countries reachable via the
  Internet2 Abilene backbone network

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Why RE Networks?

• Provide capabilities beyond commercial ISPs
• A question of purpose
• Low congestion allows for use of new applications
• Provides platform for providing key RE
  collaboration-supporting infrastructure
• Authentication and authorization
• Shared use of computation facilities i.e., the
  Grid
• Potential to mitigate constraints in
  non-competitive marketplaces
• Aggregate demand of a key user community
• Different demand patterns than residential,
  business users
• Collaboration among RE community
• Where much more can be achieved together than
  separately

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NRENs in general

• The idea of national research (and education)
  networks continues to be popular
• New NRENs in Latin America, Eastern Europe,
  Mediterranean, Middle East Pakistan, New
  Zealand, Jordan
• Typically one per country
• Connect universities
• Sometimes also connect government research labs
• Other education institutions
• Not-for-profit or government/ministry-based
• Continuum from commercial Internet access, to
  reliable-leading-edge (production) to
  experimental to network research facilitating
  networks
• But focus of most effort on supporting the
  high-performance, leading-edge needs of high-end
  science (e.g., UK e-Science, US
  CyberInfrastructure) and other high-end research,
  education, clinical needs

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Our understanding of where NRENs currently exist
Current MoU Partners
Developing Partnerships
Related Efforts in Formation
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Global research and education network
infrastructure

• Interconnecting NRENs
• Regional (continental-scale) backbone growth
• Increasingly regionalized networking
• European GEANT, Asian cluster efforts, Latin
  American redCLARA
• Continental backbones providing transit to other
  regions
• Aggregate inter-continental bandwidth now
  sometimes greater than continental bandwidth
• Trend away from US as center of the Internet
  world
• Many initiatives outside the US are engaging and
  establishing leadership roles in connecting to
  the world
• European South American connectivity
• European Asian connectivity

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12/08/03
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Europe

• High-performance RE networks pan-European
  network is GEANT
• GEANT2 backbone in midst of finalizing
  procurement
• Several national networks building out
  owned/leased fiber (NL, CH, PL, CZ, SK)
• Wavelength-based international facilities and
  connections NetherLight, Czech Rep.,
  NordicLight, UKLight
• European-funded connectivity to other regions
  than Europe
• SEEREN (southeastern Europe)
• ALICE (Latin America)
• TEIN2 (Southeast Asia)
• EUMEDCONNECT (Mediterranean)
• Algeria, Cyprus, Israel, Malta, Morocco, Tunisia,
  Turkey now connected
• Trans-Atlantic connectivity between US and Europe
• Multiple links

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Middle East

• Qatar Foundation connectivity for Doha
  Education City universities and U. Qatar to US
  (NYC, LA)
• Interest in U.A.E., Oman occasionally
• Pan Arab Research and Education Network
  Feasibility Study
• Canadian initiative

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Americas

• Latin America
• redCLARA regional backbone network up and running
  
• emerging NRENs in Caribbean
• North America
• Canadas leading role
• NSF-funded WHREN/LILA project
• Connectivity between North and South America

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Asia-Oceania

• APAN Asia-Pacific Advanced Network
• Country-owned point2point links contributed to
  APAN
• Most connect to APAN/Tokyo XP
• Cluster efforts (Northeast, Southeast, Oceania)
  to create regional backbones
• South Asia
• New Pakistan NREN ERNET and Garuda in India
• None connected yet to global RE net
• Central Asia Virtual Silk project
• Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan,
  Uzbekistan now connected (via DFN (Germany)
• Limited satellite connectivity
• Australia
• Connectivity to Fiji, Hawaiian Islands, Japan

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Africa

• North Africa EUMEDCONNECT
• Egypt (Ministry of Information and Communications
  Technology) connecting to US (already transiting
  via GEANT)
• South Africa TENET tunnel to GEANT/London
• NSF-funded study grant (G. Sadowsky, J. Mack, D.
  Riley)
• This Meeting

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Challenges for NRENs

• Many NRENS around the world are still dealing
  with traditional telecom models and costs
• Lack of competition and price-competitive
  capacity (intra-country) and between countries
• Many still largely based on commercial Internet
  services at low speeds
• Regulatory frameworks
• Limited global connectivity
• Beyond networks, applications, content,
  sustainability and the human factor
• Country developments are varied disparities in
  capabilities and resources
• Lack of awareness among policy makers and user
  communities for long-term strategic support to
  sustain networking for national ST and economic
  development
• Lack of funding for RE and for NRENs

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Some lessons?

• Example in Latin America, projects like AMPATH
  and the CLARA initiative have played a role in
  the way in which LAC countries communicate among
  themselves, and with countries outside the region
• NRENs regionalized networking can aggregate
  traffic within the region enabling more effective
  routing to other parts of the world
• NRENs can play a role in supporting national
  science and linking to international community
• Generally, there is improved connectivity that
  will also support improved and new collaborations
  with partners in other regions.
• NREN role can be
• Strategic role policy/regulatory, capacity
  building, and bridging
• Establishing concrete regional and core
  frameworks around which to organize national and
  international support

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Contacts

• Internet2 International
• Heather Boyles heather_at_internet2.edu
• Ana Preston apreston_at_internet2.edu
• International.internet2.edu

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