Grid Infrastructures as means for
advancing research and education:
Ruggieri
European Federico
Experience/
EUMEDGrid
Project Director
INFN
Developing Lebanese National
Research and Education Network –
Beirut 21 October 2011
Outline
Why eInfrastructures ?
The European Vision
The National Research and Education Networks (NRENs).
EUMEDCONNECT – regional network Infrastructure
Regional Grid Infrastructures
EUMEDGRID-Support
Conclusions
R&E eInfrastructures
Why should we build ICT Infrastructures dedicated to Research and Education ?
Which are the advantages in adopting a National R&E strategy in this arena ?
Does this address the needs of a vast majority of R&E or is it a toy for a few
beneficiaries ?
Are there social and/or ecnomical benefits ?
Does it cost more ?
Computing intensive science
Many research challenges require community effort
Fundamental properties of matter
Genomics
Climate change
Medical diagnostics
Research is increasingly digital,
with increasing amounts of data
Computation ever more demanding
e.g.: experimental science uses ever more
sophisticated sensors
Huge amounts of data
Serves user communities around the world
International collaborations
The European Vision
The Research Network infrastructure provides fast
interconnection and advanced services among
Research and Education institutes of different
countries’
Projects: GEANT, SEEREN, EUMEDCONNECT, etc.
The Research Grid infrastructure provides a
distributed environment for sharing computing
power, storage, instruments and databases through
the appropriate software (middleware) in order to
solve complex application problems
Projects: EGEE, SEE-GRID, EUMEDGRID etc.
This integrated networking & grid environment is
called electronic infrastructure (eInfrastructure)
allowing new methods of global collaborative
research - often referred to as electronic science
(eScience)
The creation of the eInfrastructure is a key objective
of the European Research Area
e-Science
Collaborations
Grid Infrastructure
Network Infrastructure
NO R&E Network
Internet
US or EU
Local communication (A & B) passes by International (high
cost) links
A & B pay their own International Link
Provider
Provider
No Community Building
X
Y
University
A
University
B
Lebanon
National R&E Network (NREN)
Internet
US or EU
Universitie
Local communication (A & B) stays
(low cost, shigh
EU
Provider
Highlocal
Quality
bandwidth)
X
A & B pay their share of a larger International Link (better
Performance/Price)
Connectivity to R&ENREN
sites in EU is Direct, Dedicated, HQ
Economy of Scale and Strong Community Building
University
A
University
B
Lebanon
Some Reasons for R&E Networking
Technological
Satisfy high demand eScience initiatives: Multimedia Collaboration, Distributed
High Performance Computing (HPC, GRIDs) for Earth Sciences, High Energy
Physics (CERN, LHC…), Bioinformatics, Computational Chemistry, Radioastronomy (eVLBI), Engineering Planning RTD (computations, emulations &
simulations), Cultural (archiving, collaborative digital access & processing) …
Social
Common culture of R&E community
Virtual Organizations (Vos), collaborative research, tele-education
Smoothing the Digital Divides in the countries and regions, affordable high
bandwidth linkage to the Global R&E community Solidarity
Economic
Demand aggregators: University & school staff - students, researchers
Consolidation & control of diverse public expenditures
Promotion of Information Society (e-Government, e-Business, e-Health …)
Stimulation of technological developments & telecom markets Competitiveness
EUMEDCONNECT 2 -> 3
Is providing regional network
infrastructure for R&E since 2004
with European Commission
funding support
3rd phase just starting. Runs
until 2014 with 36% EC funding.
Algeria, Morocco and Palestine
are joining, other Arab countries
expected to follow
Managed by DANTE (also
operates GEANT) with EU NRENs
of France, Greece, Italy and
Spain
ASREN is also a partner
Joining EUMEDCONNECT3
Lebanon is eligible for the EC’s EUMEDCONNECT3 co-funding
support
Lebanon needs to set up a National R&E Network to provide the
national connectivity.
Needs to secure budget for its national network and its share or
EUMEDCONNECT3 co-funding (typically 100 – 200K Euro per
year).
Funding typically from ministry (ICT or HE) and/or user
institutions. EC bilateral funding also a possibility
Advice and assistance to set up NREN available from DANTE,
European NRENs, and through ASREN.
European NREN’s – GÉANT
A Success Story: Some Factors
Century old Telecom (+ 40 years ARPAnet - Internet) experience: Proven strong
“Network Externalities” Sharing tradition
Industry needs for Next Generation Network proofs of concept, synergy with R&E
community: The ARPAnet paradigm @ the USA inspiring the “US of Europe”
Foresight of National + EU funding authorities, triggered by NREN planning –
SERENATE (http://terena.nl/pubications/files/SERENATE-FINAL.pdf) and EARNEST
(http://www.terena.org/publications/files/EARNEST-Economic-Report.pdf &
http://www.terena.org/publications/files/20090604-Geographic-Issues.pdf) Studies
EU Lisbon Agendas: Ubiquitous, secure, fast, cost-effective connectivity to all
A decade (+) of success in serving R&E needs of the Continent Smoothing-out
digital divides & enabling powerful education communities (educators, students,
pupils?)
NREN’s as public utilities for the R&E communities – “commons” principle
Solidarity – human networking of NREN community
Stable Governance: NREN Policy Committee (NREN PC)
R&E Networking Model in Europe
Click to edit the
text format
A 3-tier Federal Architecture, partially subsidized
byoutline
National
and
EU Research & Education funds:
Second Outline Level
The Campus Network (LAN/MAN) > 3,500 Institutions,
>30 M Users
 Third Outline Level


The 34 NREN’s (MAN/WAN)

Fourth Outline Level
 Fifth Outline Level
The Pan-European Interconnection: TEN34 TEN155
GÉANT (GN1
 Sixth Outline Level
in EC FP5) GÉANT2 (GN2 in EC FP6): Hybrid Optical
Backbone
 Seventh Outline
(+ Cross Border Fibers)
Level
 Eighth
Outline
Total GN2 Cost: 40 M€/year (co-funded by the EC and
NREN’s)
Level
GN2 EC Subsidy < 10% ofNinth
total
European R&E
Outline LevelFare clic per
Networkingmodificare
Cost stili del testo dello schema
Secondo livello
GÉANT Governance: NREN Policy Committee
GN3 Project Management: Exec, DANTE
Terzo livello
Quarto livello
e-Infrastructures Vision
empower research communities through ubiquitous, trusted
and easy access to services for data, computation,
communication and collaborative work
physics
community
biomedics
astronomy
community
community
Sharing and federating scientific data
Sharing computers, software and instruments
Linking at the speed of the light
.....
Scientific resources
Globalisation of Grid Infrastructures
CNGrid
EUAsiaGrid
Garuda
European Grid Infrastructure
Logical CPUs (cores)
•
•
248,424 EGI (+29.3%)
337,608 All
106.7 PB disk and 112.8 PB tape
Resource Centres
•
•
•
329 EGI
346 All (+6.8%)
93 supporting MPI (+6.8%)
Countries (+11.5%)
•
50 EGI
57 All
•
8 NGIs providing resources
26 National Operations Centres
12 NGIs in 4 Federated Operations Centres
EIRO providing resources (CERN)
9 countries in 4 non-European Operations Centres
Steven Newhouse - EGI-InSPIRE Update, Lyon 2011
Virtual Communities & Impact
e-Infrastructures support wide geographically distributed
communities and they:


enhance international collaboration of scientists
promote collaboration in other fields.
Grids and networks allow the access of many researchers
to scientific resources (laboratories and data):


disparity can be reduced;
larger participation and contributions to high quality
research.
The e-Infrastructures promote the usage of network
connectivity and stimulate scientific and technical
development of countries

contribute to fight the digital divide and brain drain.
EUMEDGRID-Support
Support Action co-funded by European Commission
under: Capacities specific program - Research
Infrastructures - FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2009-1
Project ID 246589
Duration: 24 months
Started: 1st January 2010
Total Cost: in excess of 840,000 €
EU contribution: 740,000 €
Project Partners
14 Partners + 2 Third Parties from 13 Countries
[ Partners & Third Parties]
CCK
CERIST
INFN, GARR,
COMETA
CYNET
IUGAZA
EUN
TÜBİTAK,
ULAKBIM
CNRS-IDG
HealthGrid
JUNET
TRUST-IT
CNRST
HIAST
University of Malta
Objectives & Strategic Actions
Support the consolidation and expansion of the EUMEDGRID
Infrastructure with a special emphasis on sustainability.
Bottom-Up approach:
Create a Two Levels network of Competence Centres
Involve new user communities
Strongly cooperate with other projects and initiatives relevant for the
Mediterranean
Create critical mass to exploit the available resources and build consensus
Top-Down approach:
High Level Policy Dissemination
Involve institutions and ministries to include eInfrastructures in the political
agenda
Foster the creation of a Regional Organisation able to coordinate and manage the
eInfrastructures in the area
EUMEDGRID countries & operating sites
Forthcoming event
12-14 December 2011 E-AGE2011 Event in Amman, Jordan, in
cooperation with:
EUMEDGRID-Support and EUMEDCONNECT3 Meetings colocated.
Lebanese representatives are welcome.
Africa ROC (http://roc.africa-grid.org)
•
•
•
Support of Users and Site
Administrators
Same tools of EGI
Set up in collaboration with
SAGrid, EUMEDGRIDSupport, CHAIN, EPIKH. …
For further information
Visit:
www.eumedgrid.eu
www.eumedgrid.eu
Contact:
Federico Ruggieri (Project Director)
Federico.Ruggieri@roma3.infn.it
Mario Reale (Technical Manager)
Mario.Reale@garr.it
Sara Garavelli (Dissemination)
s.garavelli@trust-itservices.com
Riccardo Bruno (Applications)
Riccardo.Bruno@ct.infn.it
Roberto Barbera – EPIKH
Roberto.Barbera@ct.infn.it
Conclusions
Building stable e-Infrastructures is a must for advanced R&E communities.
ICT infrastructures for R&E are considered now responsible for rapid development
and innovation of many countries and this is estimated to have a value of a few
percent GDP increase.
Research & Education are interconnected and should be both supported by
modern ICT infrastructures.
World wide spread Virtual Research Communities have started to appreciate the
opportunities of working together on large inter-regional e-Infrastructures.
Science is Globalised and liberalised.
The rising tide of large data volumes produced in the world deserves new efforts
and strategies that should be defined for Data Access, Data Curation, Data
Management and Analysis of Large Distributed Data Repositories.
A Grid Infrastructure, based on high quality Network allows to attack such
problems using the paradigm of resource sharing, providing also mitigation to
Digital Divide and Open Access to High Quality Scientific resources.
EUMEDGRID-Support is actively supporting a Grid Infrastructure for the
Mediterranean, Middle-East and Gulf region.
Lebanon can join and start an initiative to deploy High Speed Communication
Networks and Grids for Research and Education.
Thank you !