GÉANT2 at TNC 2008

19-22 May, Bruges, Belgium

GÉANT2, the high bandwidth, pan-European research network, has played a prominent role at this year’s annual TNC conference for the European research and networking community. This year, a total of 17 presenters participated in the GÉANT2 Distributed Workshop, with presentations covering a wide range of subjects on technology issues and service developments, from perfSONAR and eduGAIN and security to user experiences of the network. For further details of the GÉANT2 presentations see the distributed workshop list of presenters here

GÉANT2 was further explored in the panel discussion “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. Lead by moderator Robin Arak (Archway Computer Associates Ltd but who many of you know as ex-Chief Executive of UKERNA/JANET(UK)) and five panelists from the research networking community, the debate exposed the challenges encountered over the GÉANT2 project, the innovation, accessibility and future outlook for the network. It proved a lively and controversial session where audience participation was active. For details on the panelists visit the TNC website

The exhibition area of the event hosted the GÉANT2 booth where demonstrations of the network and its applications were displayed. GÉANT2’s pan-European connectivity enables collaboration by a wide range of users and, hosted on our booth, the ASTRA project demonstrated how it uses the network to recreate the sounds of ancient musical instruments. From the TNC special demo area AutoBAHN, one of the GÉANT2 network services, also exhibited how bandwidth on demand connections are helping advance some exiting research projects across Europe.

Full event details are available at the TNC web site, http://tnc2008.terena.org/