The Works of DANTE - Issue 4

Welcome

Welcome to the latest edition of the DANTE newsletter, The Works of DANTE. We are privileged to be able to include a guest editorial from Commissioner Viviane Reding, who outlines why GÉANT2 is a flagship project of the European Commission and how it can play an enabling role in much of Europe’s research and education activities.

Howard Davies, former General Manager for DANTE, poses a wider question on the impact of GÉANT2 for Europe’s citizens. Howard canvassed opinions at the GÉANT2 launch event in June and you can read these views on page 3.

The geographic boundaries that separate research communities across the globe continue to be broken down. We have the latest news on the ORIENT project, which will provide direct research connectivity between Europe and China. Also in this issue is news on the tender issued for connectivity to India. These developments will allow ever-increasing numbers of researchers and academics to work together, and places GÉANT2 at the heart of these new global research communities.

We have the latest news on the development of the GÉANT2 network infrastructure, and details of recent contract signings. There’s also a comprehensive round-up of news from other projects such as ALICE, TEIN2 and EUMEDCONNECT.

A new feature has been introduced in this edition. The Partner Profile section will highlight a different project partner each issue to find out the latest news from around the NRENs, and to reveal what the current “hot topic” is for their users. The Croatian NREN CARNet launches the new section.

We hope you find this edition a useful and varied source of news. As always, we appreciate any feedback that you have. If you wish to get in touch with your comments or suggestions, please use the online feedback form at www.dante.net/feedback.

The Works of DANTE editorial team

GÉANT2 – The European Commissioner’s view

 As Commissioner for the Information Society and Media my portfolio represents an economic sector which is crucial for prosperity and quality of life in the European Union. This portfolio stretches from the underlying communications infrastructure – such as GÉANT – to content and services delivered. It encompasses telecommunication networks, broadband Internet access and satellite communications, new communications technologies such as ‘3G’ mobile communications and Internet telephony, and digital material as diverse as cinema releases and advanced eHealth services.

e-Infrastructures

Modern ICT based infrastructures – so-called e-Infrastructures – are critical to achieving science and technology leadership. This makes them a key component of Europe’s Lisbon strategy to become the world’s most dynamic and competitive knowledge economy. e-Infrastructures play a pivotal role in the creation and exploration of knowledge and thus in promoting innovation. The momentum created around the pioneering development of e-infrastructures is huge, because research communities are finally able to enjoy the benefits of advanced communication technologies and services.

• e-Infrastructures are the motor of a triangle linking research, education and innovation.
• e-Infrastructures transform the way science is carried out and have a profound impact on the European research and education landscape.

GÉANT2 in a Global Context

GÉANT is now a solid component of this e-Infrastructure. It has abolished the distance between researchers that used to hinder collaboration. Now, with GÉANT, it no longer matters whether scientific data is on the hard disk of a local computer or on the other side of the globe. With this powerful capability, GÉANT has created the landscape in which Grid-based infrastructures can flourish.

GÉANT2 is a flagship project for the European Commission and a major success story highlighting the impact of cooperation between the European Commission and Member States.  The innovative and ambitious network currently being built will provide the technology and service to support the evolving needs of researchers as they embrace networking services as an essential component of their working environment.

GÉANT2 is a fundamental building block of the European Research Area. Through the global reach of GÉANT - via EUMEDconnect, ALICE, TEIN2 and the long lasting trans-Atlantic partnership - an advanced communication and collaboration infrastructure is provided for all research and education communities in Europe and beyond. GÉANT and the National Research and Education Networks also act as integrators of national facilities and have demonstrated their structuring effect on the European research landscape.  With GÉANT2 placing an emphasis on the usability of the network, making it easier to understand and use, networking is set to become as indispensable to many researchers as paper and pencil were in times gone by.

I look forward to seeing the impact of the new GÉANT2, within and beyond the research sector, to keep Europe at the forefront in this key area.

What’s the impact of GÉANT2 for Europe’s citizens?

Howard Davies, DANTE General Manager between 1993 and 2001, attended the launch of the GÉANT2 network in Luxembourg, 14–15 June 2005. Whilst there he canvassed opinions on the project from the attendees and here reports on the potential impact of GÉANT2, as seen from those working within and around the project.

200 Million euro will be spent on GÉANT2 over the next four years, half of it coming from the European Commission, the other half being supplied by the partner national research and education network (NREN) organisations. This funding represents a cost of 0.1 euro per person per year to European taxpayers. What will an average family of four get for its 1.6 euro?

In the short term, the direct answer is “nothing”. The purpose of GÉANT2 is to support collaborative research activities throughout the EU, particularly those which involve the transmission of very large amounts of data between institutions in different countries, by providing a very advanced network.  The closer the researchers can get through the use of the network and its services to interacting as if they and their specialist equipment were located in the same room, the more effectively they can combine their collective expertise to the study of the problem in hand.

In the longer term, the potential benefit to the average EU citizen is huge. The nature of the research being supported in areas such as the development of new drugs and better healthcare, and more accurate forecasting of weather and climate change, means that benefits will only be seen in a few years’ time. However, the research is essential now if Europe is to maintain a strong economic position in relation to North America, South East Asia and other regional groupings.

At the formal launch of GÉANT2 in Luxembourg on 14-15 June 2005, a selection of attendees was asked to say what impact GÉANT2 would have on them personally or on the organisation they worked for.

Some of the replies from representatives of long-established NRENs were straightforward and confirm that GÉANT2 is meeting its objectives:

• “GÉANT2 connects to the national WDM network, thus enabling national research groups to extend their activities internationally.” 
• “Some current research projects could not be carried out without GÉANT2.”

A respondent from outside Europe highlighted the key role that GÉANT2 plays on the worldwide stage:

• “GÉANT2 has opened up possibilities for research collaboration on a global scale.”

The first GÉANT project led the way in advanced research networks. GÉANT2 maintains this lead, setting ever higher targets and standards for research networking as a whole. Some  comments pointed to the quality of GÉANT2 as “an example to be followed”:

• “ . . . provides the motivation for Asian countries to follow the technology adopted in the West.”
• “ . . . sets a direction to be followed though there are difficulties in getting matching (10Gbps) circuits for the national research network to use within the country.” 

With the involvement of 34 European countries, a number of people said that GÉANT2 has social as well as technical benefits:

• “Users are grateful to see GÉANT2 routers on the path when they do traceroutes; it makes them feel part of the international community again.”
• “ It promotes better understanding between complementary cultures.”
• “Besides being effective on a technical level, it is effective on a social level, bringing network experts together to share knowledge and experience.”
• “There needs to be a balance between innovation and digital divide resolution; GÉANT2 addresses this.”

In two countries, the impact of GÉANT2 within the national government structure goes well beyond the department which is directly responsible for it:

• “It will provide support and infrastructure for the development of a new university.”
• “Through the availability of a world-class network service, GÉANT2 enables the government to promote our country as a good location for carrying out world-class research.”

Financial issues are an understandable preoccupation for some people:

• “For a small country which does not have an extensive national research programme and which consequently cannot benefit from the advanced facilities provided by GÉANT2, we have to work hard to justify the cost of a GÉANT2 subscription compared with a commercial Internet connection.”
• “The fibre footprint across Europe is particularly dense; because of the way GÉANT2 costs are distributed between the NRENs, we have to pay more than we would like for capacity we do not need.”

Some imperfections are inevitable in any complex organisational structure and GÉANT2 is no exception – indeed, one of DANTE’s key successes has been in negotiating an agreement with all parties. The so-called "digital divide" – the uneven development of telecoms markets across Europe – is the cause of some of the financial concerns that arise.

There was also a reminder that provision of high-rate data transmission is no longer enough by itself:

• “Infrastructure and capacity issues which had previously dominated the list of problem areas addressed by the national networks have been largely resolved.  More attention can now be given to applications.”

The impact of GÉANT2 has also been felt in the commercial sector.  Although GÉANT2’s suppliers might be expected to make favourable comments having won a contract to supply equipment or services, the responses from two of them are notable:

• “The DANTE tender for GÉANT2 provoked the creation of a new market.”
• “For us, GÉANT2 is a strategic project; if the systems work, they can be applied to other business areas and create new market opportunities.”

The Internet and the World Wide Web were used and developed within the academic community over many years before their commercial exploitation became realistic. During the last ten years, however, their usage has exploded, new industries have been created, and they now form a key element in the day to day working of the leading national economies. 

What will appear during the next ten years as a result of current research projects in which GÉANT2 plays a key role? We shall have to wait and see before we can confirm that the average family’s tax contribution represents good value for money but the prospects are looking very good.

GÉANT2 - the routers (and switches) to success!

 Construction of the GÉANT2 network continues to gather pace. The GÉANT2 PoPs in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and the UK are now ready. GÉANT2 engineers have taken receipt of the first set of dark fibre links, which are now ready for testing. Alcatel are in the process of installing their transmission and switching equipment in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Fibre tests have been taking place on the routes Germany-Switzerland and Switzerland-Italy, and are due for handover shortly. Construction work on the new network is being carried out alongside the existing GÉANT network, to ensure a seamless transition between the two. 

You can also download the new topology map in pdf format.

GÉANT2 Developers Meeting held at DANTE

A PACE developers meeting was held at DANTE recently to work on the GÉANT2 PIP (Premium IP) Provisioning System. PACE, developed within the Service Activities of GÉANT2, is concerned with End-to-End Quality of Service on the network. The aim of the service is to provide guarantees on bandwidth and other networking parameters that may affect performance, across one or more interconnected domains. It will develop a provisioning system that allows users to request a given class of service for IP, end-to-end.

It is expected that the primary beneficiaries of a PIP Provisioning Service will be users of applications with real time constraints, such as video conferencing and remote control.

Service provisioning has previously been available on GÉANT, but the challenge now is to extend this facility to a multi-domain environment, which would really be of benefit to the end user. This activity will extend PIP service provisioning to NRENs and other networks by developing the provisioning mechanisms and policy for the allocation of PIP. The system being developed, when deployed in participating domains, will provide an automated procedure for requesting and delivering the PIP service.

The system will be developed and deployed in phases, with new features being added in each phase. It is hoped that a basic “version 1” of the provisioning service will be ready for the end of October.

Also included in the work of PACE is the development of a distributed performance monitoring system which is able to determine if service guarantees are being met, and can be used to diagnose performance problems.

The activity has already created the Performance Enhancement and Response Team (PERT), a virtual team whose purpose is to help investigate and resolve any system performance problems a user is experiencing.

An interview with one of the PERT Managers appeared in the last edition of The Works of DANTE.

DANTE signs network agreement with Level 3

• Contract to procure dark fibre connectivity for GÉANT2

DANTE has signed an agreement to buy dark fibre and co-location services from Level 3 for the GÉANT2 network. Under the terms of the agreement, DANTE will purchase inter-city dark fibre to connect London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris. DANTE is also leasing co-locating space in Level 3 data centres in London, Brussels and Düsseldorf as part of the transaction.

“We’re delighted to have been selected by DANTE as a network services supplier for this important research initiative,” said Brady Rafuse, president of Level 3’s European operations. “The research and academic market is of strategic importance to Level 3 both in Europe and the US; as such we very much look forward to providing DANTE with high-quality network infrastructure to support GÉANT2 and its end users.”

Level 3’s network spans approximately 3,600 miles in Western Europe and utilises high fibre counts, the latest generation of optical fibre, and carrier neutral co-location facilities.

 

Alcatel to contribute to GÉANT2 infrastructure

 Alcatel transmission equipment has been selected to light the dark fibre routes on the GÉANT2 network.

Dai Davies, DANTE’s General Manager said, “They offered us a cost-effective and technically advanced set of products with a strong and well defined development path to ensure that the GÉANT2 network would remain a network with a high level of technical and service innovation.”

"The Alcatel solution will help gradually migrate the GÉANT network to new services while leveraging the existing infrastructure, and ensure a high performance network with a long operational lifetime," said Romano Valussi, President of Alcatel’s optical networking activities.

Alcatel’s solution will enable the transformation of GÉANT’s current infrastructure to a converged optical and IP network over a single platform. The addition of a new optical Ethernet network layer will provide direct optical connectivity to the existing IP network and will enhance service performances to support the increasing demand for broadband IP applications in the research and education domain. Supporting a distributed optical GMPLS-based control plane, the Alcatel solution will also offer highly reliable network protection and fast re-routing of traffic in failure conditions, essential for sensitive or research-critical data.

The technical solution is managed by the Alcatel 1350 management suite, and will deploy the Alcatel 1626 Light Manager (LM) DWDM platform for ultra long-haul applications and the 1678 Metro Core Connect (MCC), which converges optical transport and switching over a single future-proof optical platform.
 

GÉANT2 PR Network meets to “Connect, Communicate and Collaborate”

 

Following the GÉANT2 slogan to “Connect, Communicate and Collaborate” the first GÉANT2 PR network meeting was held in Estonia on 28th September, 2005.

The PR Network has been created as a way of increasing collaboration and exchange of experience between the project partners' communication teams. The meeting provided a general introduction to the project, outlined products developed so far for GÉANT2, and explored ideas for future communications activities. One of the main foci of the meeting was a discussion forum on how to communicate with GÉANT2’s end users and the user-segmentation activity.

A PR Network kit has been developed to assist PRs from across the NRENs in disseminating information about GÉANT2. This includes a downloadable press kit with logos, maps and background information. It also includes a priority order form for requesting brochures and conference material such as pull-up displays and the exhibition stand. The resources and services made available to project partner PR people will expand and develop over time.

DANTE issues tender for connectivity to India

DANTE recently announced a tender for connectivity between the Indian research network ERNET and the GÉANT2 backbone network. 26 expressions of interest were received and these parties have now been sent further tender details.

ERNET has made a significant contribution to the emergence of networking in India. Today ERNET is the largest nationwide terrestrial and satellite network, with points of presence located in research and education institutes across the country. ERNET’s mission is to provide a complete networking solution. In addition to providing connectivity they also aim to meet the entire needs of their customers by hosting and providing relevant information and services to their users. Research and Development and training are all important parts of ERNET activities.

ERNET was founded in 1986 by the Department of Electronics (DoE), with funding support from the Government of India and the United Nations Development Program. At that time it also involved eight premier institutions: National Centre for Software Technology (NCTS), Bombay; Indian Institute of Science (IIsc), Bangalore; the DoE at New Delhi and five IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) at Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras.

To learn more about ERNET visit their homepage at www.eis.ernet.in. Look out for further news on connectivity to India in future newsletters and on the DANTE website.

Supercomputing in Europe receives a boost from GÉANT2

European supercomputing experts are receiving solid support from GÉANT2’s technical experts, with the creation of a dedicated network design team, staffed by participants from both projects.

At a workshop between GÉANT2 and the Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications (DEISA) project held in Münich in July 2005, the two projects agreed to create a dedicated design team in order to plan for DEISA’s future. This team will be preparing a cost analysis of the proposed overlay network, for use by DEISA as it continues to grow and add additional sites to its grid.

The power of supercomputing enables scientists to explore complex topics through detailed modelling and simulation. Supercomputers power research in areas such as weather forecasting, climate change, genetics and molecular modelling. DEISA is massively expanding the capabilities of supercomputing in Europe by linking its multiple partner sites in a gridbased on the GÉANT2 network. Utilising GÉANT2’s huge bandwidth, DEISA is thereby able to provide more power and capacity than ever before, allowing researchers to work faster and smarter.

The design team is due to deliver its report, which will be edited by DANTE, later in the year. It is hoped that the paper will form an important input into DEISA’s proposal to the European Commission for its next phase of work (entitled DEISA2).

The creation of the expert design team is yet another demonstration of GÉANT2’s commitment to network users, and to improving the level of service provided to researchers. GÉANT2 places increasing emphasis on users to help them get the most out of the enormous potential offered by the new network

DANTE contributes to iGRID 2005

DANTE's engineers have been working with CANARIE (the Canadian Research and Education Network) and i2CAT to support an application that will demonstrate multistream High Definition Television (HDTV) at iGRID 2005, in San Diego, USA. DANTE’s engineers will establish lightpath connections on GÉANT, to enable a demonstration that will see HDTV data transferred between San Diego, Ottawa and Barcelona.

GridON is an application that converts high-resolution broadcast video into MPEG2 format, thereby reducing the file size and resolution. The application then uses a user-controlled light path (UCLP¹) to create an on-demand, end-to-end connection to access remote computers. The converted MPEG-2 files can be distributed much faster and further than the source files to these dispersed computers, for reassembly into the higher resolution format. The “grid” of computers is far more powerful than a single machine, and allows the data to be reassembled quickly and efficiently. Once the film has been fully re-assembled the GridON application automatically switches off the end-to-end connection, freeing up space on the network. The HDTV signal is then ready for broadcast.

Many research fields already use high quality audio and visual monitoring as an essential tool for their studies. For example, biological monitoring of the effect of forest fires, coral reef damage and wildlife behaviour all make use of surveillance video cameras. An application such as GridON can make the monitoring, data transfer, analysis and archiving process much more efficient. In the future the method may also benefit commercial broadcasters, allowing them to quickly establish telecom links to transfer footage relating to breaking news stories.

For further information on the demonstration partners and to read a more technical briefing visit the CANARIE website at:

http://www.canarie.ca/canet4/uclp/igrid2005/demo.html

The full programme for iGrid 2005 can be found at www.igrid2005.org

^{1 UCLP allows end users to establish end-to-end lightpaths and change the configuration and topology of these without involving a central network management facility.}

GÉANT2 catches the ORIENT Express to China!

Contract negotiations have been completed on establishing direct connectivity from Europe to China, for the benefit of the research and education community. The ORIENT project will interconnect several of China’s academic networks, headed by CERNET, and Europe’s GÉANT2 partners. The aim is to provide a direct link for the many projects involving collaboration between European and Chinese institutions.

The project will be 50% funded by the Chinese Government, with the remaining financial contribution provided by the European Commission and the participating European NRENs. The project will be co-ordinated by DANTE, and involves the following NRENs: CERNET (China), Consortium GARR (Italy), DFN (Germany), RENATER (France), UKERNA (United Kingdom), GRNET (Greece) and CESNET (Czech Republic).

The project will complement the upcoming TEIN2 project by providing additional links from Europe to the region, to cope with the anticipated increase in collaborative research traffic. The additional bandwidth provided by the project will be available to all TEIN2 partners.

The European Commission very much welcomes ORIENT as it strengthens ongoing collaborative research efforts and extends research communities in important areas of science such as radio astronomy and grid infrastructures.

An ORIENT website is currently in development which will provide further details on the project and its progress.

ALICE news – new connections keep on coming

RAGIE, the Guatemalan NREN, was the host for the 4th ALICE project meeting, which took place in Antigua, at the end of July. Project partners from across Latin America joined representatives from the European Commission, CLARA and DANTE to discuss progress in the project.

Development continues of the User and Projects’ Database being developed by REUNA (Chile) and all ALICE partners have been encouraged to contribute. This forms an essential part of the sustainability work that Florencio Utreras (Chief Executive of CLARA) outlined in his recent interview with The Works of DANTE. He stressed the need to develop a customer base in order to create a large enough community of users to fund the network.

The expansion of the network continues with “Best and Final” offers having been made for connectivity to Cuba, Honduras and Paraguay. Meanwhile, contract negotiations have been initiated for the connectivity of Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.

A number of launch celebrations will take place over the coming months. The Peruvian NREN RAAP officially launched

 its recent connection to RedCLARA at the end of September. A launch event is planned to announce the connection of the Uruguayan NREN, RAU, to RedCLARA. This is scheduled to take place in Montevideo from 28-30 November. The next ALICE project meeting will also be held at this event, and the outcomes of that meeting will be reported in the next edition of The Works of DANTE. Finally, an event is planned for December in Caracas, Venezuela to formally acknowledge REACCIUN2’s connection to the network. Look out for representatives from CLARA and ALICE who will be exhibiting at the event.

To learn more about the NRENs about to connect to RedCLARA visit:

• ALICE Home
• www.redclara.net

EUMEDCONNECT news

EUMEDCONNECT recently participated in a meeting held by the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation, in Alexandria, Egypt.

The Foundation was established in the wake of September 11 as a network for cultural exchange. It aims to promote political, economic, and social ties between European states and their neighbours in the Mediterranean and Middle East. The foundation was named after Sweden’s late foreign minister, in honour of her role in promoting cross-cultural dialogues.

Discussions are currently underway between EUMEDCONNECT and the Foundation to see how they can make use of the network. It is also hoped that the Foundation’s headquarters in Alexandria can be connected to the Egyptian NREN (EUN). This would open the gateway to the rest of the region and to Europe, via EUMEDCONNECT’s links to GÉANT2.

In particular, the Foundation will promote knowledge, recognition and mutual respect between the cultures, traditions and values of both regions. The recent meeting in Alexandria brought together a diverse range of partners, with social, political and technical backgrounds.

Organisations represented included Euromed Heritage, the Euro-med Human Rights Network, World Wildlife Fund Mediterranean Programme and the Euro-Mediterranean Youth Platform.

Visit the homepage of the Anna Lindh Foundation at http://www.euromedalex.org/En/AboutUs.htm

Latest EUMEDCONNECTions

• The 45Mbps connection between Jordan and France was installed at the end of July.
• A connection from the Palestinian Territories to the UK is due for installation soon.
• New plans are in place for Israel to connect to GÉANT2 via Greece and Italy, rather than via the Netherlands.

An updated topology map will be available soon. Keep checking the website www.eumedconnect.net for the latest.

TEIN2 news

The 7th meeting of the TEIN2 Technical Committee took place in Tokyo at the end of July. David West, DANTE’s Project Manager for TEIN2, reported that negotiations with service providers had been productive, with best prices now being offered for connectivity. Real progress has been made on the planning of the network. As a result, an initial working topology is being drawn up and will shortly be available online.

A contract has been awarded for the running of the TEIN2 NOC (Network Operations Centre) Services. Tsinghua University in Beijing, which runs China’s CERNET's network, will carry out the work on behalf of TEIN2.

The first TEIN2-sponsored workshop was held in early September, in Bangkok. Adequate partner training is essential if the network is to be a success and workshops and training days are key to achieving this. Two streams of training were provided. One stream was for junior engineers, and one for senior engineers and operations managers from across the project partners. Trainers were provided by the APAN NOC, AARNet, Interlab/WIDE and the European Union.

A natural consequence of the TEIN2 project is the stimulated development of the national networks of the project partners. Recent progress and plans were reported at the last meeting:

• Singapore – SingAREN’s plans to establish the SingAREN Gigabit Internet Exchange are still on schedule for late September.
• Indonesia - Internet traffic is growing rapidly in Indonesia. With its TEIN2 connection, ITB (the Indonesian NREN) plans to extend connectivity to research and education centres on other Indonesian islands via satellite and to utilise MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) technologies.

The 8th TEIN2 Technical Committee meeting was held in Hong Kong in the week beginning 26 September. It featured a network progress report, an outline of plans for the TEIN2 NOC, and discussions on sustainability and on the planning of a network launch event. The next edition of The Works of DANTE will report further on the outcomes of the meeting.

To learn more about TEIN2 visit www.tein2.net.

Partner profiles

This issue sees the introduction of a new feature where we talk to a project partner – to learn more about who they are and what they do, and discover the “hot topic” that is most important to their users. For this first profile, we spoke to Zoran Birimisa, Head of International Relations at CARNet, a project partner in GÉANT2.  

1) What is CARNet?

CARNet is the Croatian Academic and Research Network. It was created in 1991 as a project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Croatia. In 1995 the Government of the Republic of Croatia issued a Decree on the founding of the CARNet institution.

CARNet serves a community of about 150,000 end users (students, lecturers, researchers) and connects around 200 institutions from the academic and research community to the CARNet network. This number will rise significantly in the coming months, as we begin connecting primary and secondary schools.

Apart from 61 employees, CARNet has about 30 external associates.

2) What's new in research networking in Croatia?

At the moment, CARNet is extending connectivity to primary and secondary schools, which is a huge but exciting challenge. CARNet also recently completed the development of videoconferencing infrastructure in its member institutions. CARNet has also taken its first steps towards the establishment of a national CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team).

3) What's most important to your end users?

We have several groups of users depending on differing usage levels and the kind of service that is required. At the moment CARNet provides its users not only with the bandwidth they require, but also provides onward links to research and education institutes throughout Europe via the GÉANT2 network. This enables Croatian researchers to be a part of the wider European research community, which is of real importance to our users.

Advanced services are being developed simultaneously with growth of the number of users, and for that reason the process of upgrading the entire network backbone to support multicast or IPv6 will be slowed a little.

As the upgrade of our network is a continuous process, there will always be generally satisfied customers, but CARNet does its best to predict their needs and offer them the best available technologies and services.

4) What other activities do you undertake for the RN community in Croatia?

CARNet organises online courses and develops programmes for distance education, the latest of which is the eLearning Academy (ELA).
CARNet also maintains several national services, such as DNS, CARNet CERT, WWW.HR, News, NTP, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Distribution Lists, and Directory Services.

5) How do you communicate with your end users?

CARNet uses multiple channels to communicate with its users.

• Our PR service is in charge of the website and press releases, as well as organising press conferences and developing strong relationships with the media.
  
  
• Individual services and departments use different mailing lists to inform users about daily changes, news and other important issues. Internal communication within our community is a necessity for close collaboration.
  
  
• Our Marketing and Promotion department is responsible for the design, production and distribution of promotional materials, as well as organising specialised events.
  
  
• We also work hard to link pilot projects with external partners. These pilot projects are organised in co-operation with external partners who come up with proposals for technology usage in different aspects of science and arts.
  
  
• The International Relations department tries to connect CARNet institutional users with potential partners for international ICT projects that require advanced infrastructure on a wide scale.
  
  
• The International Relations and Marketing departments also handle our Internet Users Conference – CUC (CUC is an acronym coming from the original name – CARNet Users Conference).

6) What’s happening at this year’s Internet Users Conference?

CUC 2005 will be held at the University of Dubrovnik on 21-23 November 2005. CUC is an English speaking conference, with a 3 year strategic goal to become a regional conference for Internet users.

The 7th CUC will offer 4 keynote speakers, around 40 papers, 3 tutorials and 6 workshops, 2-3 round tables and panel discussions.

This year’s programme was shaped by an international Programme Committee. It will include Japanese, British, American and Dutch keynote speakers on ICT. The opening ceremony will see a presentation by Joichi Ito, Chairman of Creative Commons International who will talk about "The Sharing Economy”.

On the second day of the conference Shirley Wood, Customer Support Director at UKERNA, United Kingdom, will discuss “Have we given the users’ what they want over the last 20 years?”  ”Understanding the Risks: Is Safe Computing Possible?” is the title of the presentation to be given by Robert D. Cowles on the third day of the conference. Cowles is the Computer Security Officer at a leading US research laboratory SLAC, at Stanford University, USA.

At the closing plenary Klaas Wierenga, manager of Middleware Services at SURFnet, the Dutch national academic and research network, will be presenting ”eduroam: towards a pan-European research and education federation”.

Anyone interested can register via this link.

Community Conference Round up

BELNET  

The annual BELNET user day will be held on 27 October 2005 at the President Hotel in Brussels. The workshop session will focus on “Next generation Networks", with presentations from international guest speakers. The infrastructure and possibilities of new networks will be discussed, including the future BELNET GigaNet2-network, and GÉANT2. For further information visit www.belnet.be

RedIRIS JT 2005  

RedIRIS, Spain’s Research and Education Network will hold a conference on 24-28 October in Logroño. The JTs (Jornadas Técnicas/Technical days) serve as a forum for engineers, network managers and researchers to share knowledge and experience. You can find more details at http://www.rediris.es/jt/jt2005/

HEAnet 2005  

HEAnet’s annual conference will take place in Athlone, Ireland, on 10-11 November.

The Conference will attract IT Service Managers, Senior Technical personnel and key academics and researchers from HEAnet's clientele of Universities and other Irish Third Level Institutions.

This event will offer a unique opportunity to present and discuss technical, practical and strategic aspects of providing advanced Internet services and applications to the Research and Education community in Ireland.

Experts from within the HEAnet Community and further afield will deliver in-depth information on current Internet issues and practical hands-on workshops.
To register for the event, or to learn more about the programme visit http://www.heanet.ie/conferences/2005/

Lights. Camera. Action!

The new GÉANT2 video dispels the theory that “sequels never live up to the standard of the original”. This latest film features interviews with a number of users, including CERN, German Weather Service, e-Science Centre UK, and the BioCASE project, with each explaining how GÉANT2 will benefit their research.  In addition there is an interview with Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

The movie acts as a trailer for the upcoming DVD, which will be brimming with extras and additional material. Case studies, user interviews, NREN profiles and web links will create the most comprehensive GÉANT2 product yet. To see the movie visit www.geant2.net/media and follow the links.

Order the new GÉANT2 brochure

The second edition of the GÉANT2 brochure is now available to order. It has been updated to reflect recent developments in the project and now includes the initial topology map. There are also expanded sections on the joint research activities and the development of advanced networking services. The brochure can be viewed online at the GÉANT2 media centre (www.geant2.net/media)

Next stop the Olympics for DANTE runners?

   DANTE was among over 400 teams to brave a chilly September Sunday morning to race around the streets of Cambridge for the annual Chariots of Fire relay race. DANTE entered two teams consisting of twelve members of staff and their friends in the event, which sees each runner race 1.7 miles around the historic town centre and through the famous University colleges. This year’s event was held in aid of the East Anglia Children’s Hospices (EACH), who provide care and support for terminally ill children and their families, in and around the Cambridgeshire region.

DANTE’s participation in the Chariots of Fire is an annual event, and this year’s teams put in the company’s best ever performance. The Works of DANTE would like to extend a huge thank you to all those who took part and the “support team” ready with cameras and refreshments. Let training commence for next year…