Building the SEE human and eInfrastructure network MARNet/UKIM development Prof. Dr. Aneta Buckovska MARNet MB Prof. Dr. Margita Kon-Popovska MARNet MB

About MARNet MARNet is organizational unit of the Ss Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje establish in 1994 year by auspices of the Ministry of research of R. Macedonia Mission –Provide international and national networking services to the Macedonian academic research & educational community and support to their research and educational activities, –Promote and disseminate the use of ICT in the academic and research sector. Role –Connection to the international networks with basic IP provision; –Maintain and management of the national DNS, –International memberships, –National academic network policy and development.

MARNET actual/ potential users &MANI/GMON SEEREN/SEEREN2 connectivity Actual and potential users (estimation) UnitsIndividuals SEEREN 4 +1 mbps SEEREN2 34 mbps 2006 MANI/ GMON 1 gbps University Ss Cyril & Methodius SKOPJE34 Staff Academic & administrative3600 yes Students40000 University Ss Climent Ohridski BITOLA 11 Staff Academic & administrative400 yes 64 kbps yes 64 kbps no Students16000 University SEE TETOVO 7 Staff Academic & administrative300 Students5000 University TETOVO 4 Staff Academic &administrative Students Research /development units & companies12Staff 200 Research / independent R&D institution7Staff200 National and University Library SKOPJE1Staff150yes 128 kbpsyes2 mbps Faculty libraries, SKOPJE53Staff70yes University Library Bitola,1Staff20yes 64 kbps no Public libraries, Special libraries, Archives, Museums, Cultural heritage 145Experts/librarians900 Research associations10Experts Middle schools (75 libraries)100Pupils90000ON NET gateway Elementary schools/ clones (340 libraries)370Pupils / ON NET gateway Government 1Staff300yesѕес no

Global idea eInfrastructure + GRID + human network geographical coverage in the region Towards e-Infrastructure and e-Science

GEANT (plan up to 100 GB in 7FP).

The vision… Source: GEANT

The Vision Contribute to building up a Pan-EU eInfrastructure by expanding the eInfrastructure inclusion into South-East Europe

Administrative Overview IST Programme (FP5) Project name: SE European Research and Education Networking Project Acronym:SEEREN Call Identifier:IST B Contract No.: IST Project type: Preparatory, accompanying and support measures Start date: 01/12/2002 Duration:25 months Total Budget: 1,297,481 Є Funding from the EC:1,297,481 Є Total Effort: 56.1 person-months Project web-site:

On line Picture of the Interconnections Macedonia 4 mbps 2004

SEEREN2 6FP Start September 2005, continuation, upgrade, if possible lease dark fiberhttp://

Macedonia 34 mbps mbps М Є

SEFIRE project (FP6) South-East Europe Fibre Infrastructure for Research and Education Find potential owners of fibre in SEE The SEEFIRE Consortium consists of: TERENA (co-ordinating contractor)The Netherlands GRNETGreece CESNETCzech Republic new partner NIIF/HUNGARNET Hungary AMREJSerbia and Montenegro DANTEUnited Kingdom RoEduNetRomania ISTFBulgaria MARNetMacedonia ASAAlbania BIHARNETBosnia and Herzegovina Provide input for preparing the next-generation networks for research and education in the region. Duration: 12-month, start 1 March 2005

SEELIGHT Project South-East European Lambda Network Facility for research and education HIPERB Hellenic Plan for the Economic Reconstruction of the Balkan SEELIGHT

Two of possible routes

MARNet NATO NIG MANI and CISCO donation MANI- MARNet Advanced Network Infrastructure –Dec –Dec 2004 –Status: Operational Sept 2004 –Budget: 200 K€ (NATO Science Programme funding) –Objective achieved Established MAN in Skopje area based on wireless links and gigabit multilayer switches to interconnect University campuses’ LANs –Participants: Faculties and Research institutes in Skopje

MARNet GMON GMON Gigabit MARNET Metro Optical Network –Start: Apr. 2003, Duration 18 months –Budget: 190 K€ (Austrian Government Grant) –Main Objective: To establish MAN in Skopje area based on optical fiber links that will interconnect University campuses’ LANs –Participants: Faculties and Research Institutes in Skopje

Gigabit Metro Optical Network Facts & Figures Owned by MARNet - University Sts Cyril and Methodius Total length: 17 km Throughput: 1 Gbit/sec Optical cable with fibers More than 95% students and academic staff of the University are covered

MARNet development underpinned by SEEREN/NATO NIG MANI/GMON. institutions MARNet users connectivity to NOC Bandwidth Up to 2004 December 2004 SEEREN/MANI Jun 2005 SEEREN/MANI/GMON No. of institutions% % % N/A919%817%48% %5 48%  %1225%1021%  817%36%24%  %1 00%  2Mb 715%12%1  b 00%1429%613% 10Mb48%00%0 1GB00%48%2144% 48100%48100%

SEE-GRID FP6 project SEE-GRID –Start: May 2004, Duration 24 months –Main Objective: To migrate and test Grid applications developed by pan-European Grid efforts in the regional infrastructure. To demonstrate one more Grid application of regional interest –Total budget around 1M eur –Participants: CERN Swiss, Tu, Cro, Al, B&H, Bg, MK, S&Mn, Gr, Hu and Ro. Third parties –Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics –Faculty of Electrical Engineering

National GRID Infrastructure – Clusters installed Start with 3 clusters M01 (6 nodes), M02 (3 nodes) and M03 (3 nodes) with CERN (Red Hat) Linux 7.3 and LCG_2 GRID middleware Merge the MK01 and MK02 clusters into the new MK01 cluster under Scientific Linux and LCG-2_4_0 throughout –Preparation and upgrade from RedHat Linux 7.3 to Scientific Linux and installation of LCG-2_3_0 –Upgrading to LCG-2_4_0 –Certification of RA, GIM and two host nodes grid.-ce.ii.edu.mk and grid-se.ii.edu.mk Production phase of the cluster MK01

National Grid Initiative -MARGI MARGI – Macedonian Academic and Research Grid Initiative was launched at ‘Ss. Cyril and Methodius’ University on April 15, 2005 National Grid Initiatives (NGIs) can be defined as concentrated efforts taken at National level in order to deploy, operate, and expand grid infrastructures in a coherent and coordinated way

Ongoing/planned services InfrastructureCurrent New Essential future Potential future development Will follow other NRENs Giga Ethernetx Lambda testbed Accessx Lambda Service Deploymentx Wireless LANx Diffserv/QoSx MPLS Service Deploymentx IP version 6x Mobile IPx Multicastx Access for roaming end-usersx 802.1x Authenticationx Grid Servicex Grid Software Developmentxx Grid Production Services x European Grid Projectsxx Middlewarex

Planned Services InfrastructureCurrentEssential future Potential future development Will follow other NRENs User Authenticationx In house PKI development/deploymentx In house Certification Authorityx Directory Servicesx Caching/Indexing/Mirroringx Securityx Other CSIRT/CERT servicesx Coordination of incident handlingx Application level Teaching and learning methodsx Video conferencingx Streaming mediax VoIPx Management Traffic monitoringx Charging/ billing systemsx Web Server content managementx Web server usage analysisx Information Content Indexingx Disaster preparednessx Performance Emergency Responses Teamsx

The European perspective - eEurope

Access to advanced services EU Geant  binds national networks and creates a high performance production network for Europe EGEE  will bind national Grid infrastructures - focussing all activities towards establishing a production quality Grid for Europe Both together constitute the eInfrastructure

SEE-GRID: Contribute to building a Pan-EU eInfrastructure by expanding the “eInfrastructure inclusion” into South-East Europe SEEREN Contract No.: FP6-RI Project type: Specific Support Action (SSA) Start date: 01/05/2004 Duration: 24 months Total Budget: 1,215,000 Є SEEREN > Access to advanced services

E-learning for Improving access to Information Society for SMEs in the SEE Area EU Initiative INTEREG IIIB CADSES project October June 2008 Goal … improving the access to knowledge and the information society of SMEs in South-East Europe, through close cooperation of academic and business communities at a transnational level, by transferring EU best practice training know-how and by developing national training strategies. Emphasis is given to SMEs from rural and distant areas in Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Serbia-Montenegro.

Future Plans Build on the tremendous brain potential in the region; Focus not only on easing the digital divide, but on achieving it in a sustainable way! Go for new opportunities and projects towards the upgrade of networking infrastructure/equipment, under –FP6, FP7, NATO, ERDF, Government sponsorships, Vendor sponsorships, Bilateral programmes UNDP, EIB, WorldBank, USAID, etc.

Conclusions Thanks to SEEREN, SEEGRID, SEFIRE and wider international and national financial support, remarkable results were achieved: –eInfrastructure –GRID cluster included in regional and European EGEE GRID network –Human network in region Thanks to established infrastructure and human network, new joint international projects where enabled (SEEREN2, SEEGRID2, SEEGRID- SCI) Significant experience in management of the multi country projects were gained Complementing EC Framework Programs with regional/national initiatives (e.g. in the case of SEE initiatives like the Balkan Action Plan), EU structural funds, support/funding programs from global organizations like NATO, UNESCO, donations from industry HP, CISKO, SUN, etc., can contribute to the sustainability of the effort We expect further international support mainly through the joint projects in high performance networking, e-Science and e-Education and believe that sustainability will be achieved with expected Governmental financial support and MARNet own resources.