The Works of DANTE - Issue 4

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.