SEEFIRE The SEEFIRE project is co-funded by the European Commission under the FP6 IST contract no South-East Europe Fibre Infrastructure for Research and Education Valentino Cavalli SEEFIRE Project Manager TERENA

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Content SEEFIRE Overview Partners background Objectives Main (expected) results Current fibre deployments in SEE

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June SEEFIRE Overview Specific Support Actions (SSA) project funded by the EC (6 th FP) Start date: 1 March 2005 End date: 28 February 2006 Project budget € 416,273 - EC contribution € 350,000 SEEFIRE builds on the results of previous IST projects (SEEREN, SERENATE and GN1) Main goal To produce studies on the options available for acquiring an optical fibre network infrastructure and strategies for the development of research and education networking in southeast Europe, with a specific emphasis on Western Balkan countries.

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Partners 11 Partners: TERENA (NL) Claire Milne (Antelope Consulting/TERENA) GRNET (GR) CESNET (CZ) NIIF/HUNGARNET (HU) AMREJ (CS) DANTE (UK) RoEduNet (RO) ISTF (BG) INIMA (AL) BIHARNET (BH) MARNET (MK)

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Background There is a significant digital divide in Europe which affects many countries in southeast Europe The SEEREN initiative helped in providing international connectivity to countries in the region However, longer-term, cost-effective solutions are needed in the future SERENATE recommended the acquisition of dark fibre by NRENs as a way of decreasing the digital divide in a cost-effective way There are dark-fibre deployment experiences in the region, which should be sustained and supported Southeast European countries are entering the eInfrastructures community Long-term vision: to create a southeast European fibre backbone fostering collaboration of researchers and students

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Objectives To provide a benchmark of existing and potentially available optical fibre for NRENs in the southeast European region To analyse the technical options available for the deployment of dark fibre and the management of optical transmission by NRENs in the region To study regulatory and legal issues To develop an economic model for the acquisition and operation of own network connectivity by NRENs To disseminate information and increase awareness about dark-fibre deployment both at technical and policy-making levels

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Timeline / Milestones

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Study on (dark) fibre acquisition July 05, Dark Fibre database to identify the fibre availability in the SE region Deliver a database of available (dark) fibre (and planting projects) in SEE that will assist SEE-NRENs in their National and International fibre acquisition roadmaps I dentify (dark) fibre interconnection points and cross-border connections in SEE (and determine which ones should be established for seamless interconnection) that will assist SEE-NRENs in National and International interconnectivity plans Aug 05, Report on the status of owned national connectivity in SEE Report on the status of SEE NRENs that will assist SEE NRENs in benchmarking their progress and update their sustainability plans Describe and assess the status of (all) SEE NRENs owned national connectivity and related acquisition projects that will accelerate (via best practices) SEE NRENs fibre acquisition plans

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Transmission technology study Oct 05, Report on NREN-empowered dark-fibre transmission technologies focus on available technologies and equipment for enabling a dark-fibre infrastructure at different levels: metro, national, regional and international. evaluate a multiplicity of approaches and technological options in terms of equipment for lighting dark fibre and creating point-to-point lambdas. provide detailed information on technical specifications of equipment provide technical and financial aspects of deployment alternatives. Dec 05, Guidelines for support of deployment of NREN-empowered fibre infrastructure Guidelines for future deployment of own fibre infrastructure by NRENs, transition from telco-SDH services to a dark-fibre based network, gradually upgrade transfer rate on heavy-traffic lines Examples of documents and specifications successfully used for procurement of DF and transmission equipment Describe SEE NRENs experience about equipment functionality, installation principles, redundancy and protection issues

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Regulatory and economic study Nov 05, Study on the regulatory and legal framework Current regulatory status and plans for adopting the EU communication package Status of competition to supply dark fibre in the country – price dependency Procedures and costs for obtaining permissions for civil works (also about cross-border links) Strength and independence of the regulatory body Etc. Feb 06, Economical model for the acquisition and operation of dark fibre networks in SE Europe Cost Categories -Fibre (basis for acquisition) -Hardware – Granularity of Costs -Management and Maintenance -Housing costs Demand Analysis

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Workshops and white paper July 05, SEEFIRE Technical Workshop (Sofia, Bulgaria) to discuss technical aspect of dark fibre deployment Jan 06, SEEFIRE Policy workshop Feb 06, White paper – strategic report on SEE Fibre Infrastructure for NRENs

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Serbia and Montenegro AMREJ DF backbone (according to the contract with Telekom Srbija) So far only Subotica - Novi Sad, Novi Sad – Belgrade and Belgrade – Kragujevac are in production DF implementation is very slow because in almost all end institutions and PoPs DF local loops have to be made The situation in cities is better. Many nodes in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac are connected with DF On all DF lines 1Gbps Ethernet is used Subotica – Novi Sad has 4x1Gbps CWDM Next step – Cross-border connection to Hungary. All permissions obtained, contract about to be signed

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June FYR of Macedonia 10S Macedonian Railways 10 Macedonian Railways Planned corridors for installing optics Electric Power Company – MEPSO Existing Optics over Power Lines

TNC2005 – Poznan, 6-9 June Other SEEFIRE countries Romania SC “Telecomunicatii CFR” SA Railways telecommunication service branch: > 4,000km Single Mode fibre – 8,000km extension planned RDS group – RCS 3,000km intercity fibre – extension to 4,000km Teletrans, branch of Transelectrica - ~2,700km intercity fibre Albania Fibre owned by ALBTELECOM, both nationally and internationally (Trans Balkan Line and ADRIA 1) Alternative owners? Bosnia and Herzegovina Fibre owned by Telecom oprators Alternative owners? Bulgaria Both Telecom operators and facilities companies but no favourable market conditions