Research and Education Networks
around the World: the Internet2 View
Douglas E. Van Houweling
President and CEO, Internet2
dvh@internet2.edu
Meeting on Enhancing Research and Education
Networking within and to Africa
5 May 2005
Arlington, VA
Outline
• An overview: Internet2 International
Partnerships
• The rationale for National Research and
Education Networks (NRENs)
• NRENs around the world
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Africa
Europe and the Middle East
Asia and Oceania
Latin America
Internet2 today
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US-based membership organization:
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Goals
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207 regular University members
66 Corporate members
42 Affiliate members
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
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Internet2 Abilene Backbone Network
• 10 Gbps backbone
• Over 218 participants
• Expanded access: over 30-based state-based education networks across the
country
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State, regional, metropolitan networks connecting campuses
• Move to facilities-based networks
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International partnerships:
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Close to 50 International partner organizations roughly representing over 75
countries
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
Current International Partners
Europe
Asia-Pacific
ARNES (Slovenia)
AAIREP (Australia)
BELNET (Belgium)
APAN (Asia-Pacific)
CARNET (Croatia)
APAN-KR (Korea)
CESnet (Czech Republic)
CERNET/CSTNET/
DANTE (Europe)
NSFCNET (China)
DFN-Verein (Germany)
JAIRC (Japan)
GIP RENATER (France)
JUCC (Hong Kong)
GRNET (Greece)
NECTEC/UNINET (Thailand)
HEAnet (Ireland)
NG-NZ (New Zealand)
HUNGARNET (Hungary)
SingAREN (Singapore)
INFN-GARR (Italy)
TANet2 (Taiwan)
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)
Middle East
Israel-IUCC (Israel)
Qatar Foundation (Qatar)
Americas
Africa
CANARIE (Canada)
MCIT [EUN/ENSTIN] (Egypt)
CEDIA (Ecuador)
CLARA (Latin
Related
America & Caribbean)
partnerships
CUDI (Mexico)
CNTI (Venezuela)
APRU (Asia/Pacific)
CR2NET (Costa Rica)
IEEAF
REUNA (Chile)
World Bank
RETINA (Argentina)
RNP (Brazil)
SENACYT (Panama)
Supporting science user
communities and beyond
• Research increasingly dependent on access
globally to resources, collaborators, data,
scientific instruments.
• Access to scientific instruments with specific geolocation 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 R&E 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
Why R&E Networks?
• Provide capabilities beyond commercial ISPs
• A question of purpose
• Low congestion allows for use of new applications
• Provides platform for providing key R&E collaborationsupporting 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 R&E community
• Where much more can be achieved together than separately
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
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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
Our understanding of where
NRENs currently exist
Current MoU Partners
Developing Partnerships
Related Efforts in Formation
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
12/08/03
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Europe
• High-performance R&E 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
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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
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
Americas
• Latin America
• redCLARA regional backbone network up
and running
• emerging NRENs in Caribbean
• North America
• Canada’s leading role
• NSF-funded WHREN/LILA project
• Connectivity between North and South
America
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 R&E net
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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
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
Challenges for NRENs
• Many NRENS around the world are still dealing with
traditional telecom models and costs
• Lack of competition and price-competitive capacity (intracountry) 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 S&T and economic development
• Lack of funding for R&E and for NRENs
Some lessons?
• Example: in Latin America, projects like AMPATH and
the CLARA initiative have played a role in the way in
which LA&C 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.
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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
Contacts
• Internet2 International
• Heather Boyles heather@internet2.edu
• Ana Preston apreston@internet2.edu
• International.internet2.edu