European Research Networking Kevin Meynell, TERENA

European NRNs Approximately 40 countries in Europe + assorted international treaty organisations. All have some form of academic/research network. Generally three types: –Run by government department. –Run by non-governmental organisation. –‘Private’ initiative (non-profit company, bilateral agreements or single institution lead). Most (if not all) funded directly or indirectly by national governments. Some additional funding from EU, NATO etc.. Different stages of development, esp. Eastern Europe.

Pan-European Organisations TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association) –Formed through merger of RARE and EARN (BITNET) in –Consists of over 40 national, international and associate members. –Not-for-profit association funded mainly by subscription. DANTE (Delivery of Advanced Networking to Europe) –Formed in 1993 as a limited non-profit company. –15 shareholding NRNs. EU + Czech Rep, Slovenia & Poland CEENet (Central and Eastern Europe Networking Organisation). –Loose association of Eastern European and FSU countries.

TERENA Based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. 10 staff. Runs Conferences and Workshops: –TERENA Networking Conference (formerly JENC) –NATO Advanced Networking Workshops Provides legal framework for new services: –EuroCERT –RIPE NCC Lobbies EU and national governments + represents membership at external organisations Technical Programme –Task Forces (TF-TANT, TF-CACHE, TF-ESME) –Projects (SCIMITAR, REIS) Doesn’t run a network!

DANTE Based in Cambridge, UK. 15 staff. Established to operate pan-European Research Network. Extremely expensive to lease cross-border lines. –EU telecommunications deregulation on 1 Jan 1999 (except Portugal and Spain) should reduce costs, but still monopolies in non-EU countries. –Would actually be cheaper to interconnect via US! Funded 40% by European Union, remainder by fees from NRNs. –Networks planned on EU funding cycles (4th & 5th FP). –Current projects = QUANTUM & Q-MED. Also have 2 x 155 Mbps to US used by smaller NRNs. Connections to STARTAP and Japan (2 Mbps) planned.

QUANTUM & Q-MED QUANTUM (QUALity Network Technology for User-oriented Multimedia) project funded by 5th Call of EU Fourth Framework Programme. 3 goals: –A pan-European network running at speeds of up to 155 Mbit/s. Known as TEN-155. –Provision of bandwidth for research purposes. –Advanced technology testing programme. Q-MED is a complimentary project to connect Cyprus and Israel to TEN-155.

TEN-155 Pan-European network based on ATM over STM-1 circuits. Single provider unlike previous networks (KPN). Managed bandwidth provides a number of services (production IP traffic, VPN for research, Mbone, native IPv6). ATM considered the only mechanism that is capable of fulfilling these requirements (at the moment). Research VPN allocated 2-15 Mbps. –Access speed can be determined by each NRN. –May be used by approved EU projects + TF-TANT –Usage charging applies (in theory). –Used to determine suitability of new technologies for production environment.

TF-TANT Joint activity between TERENA and DANTE. Works on voluntary basis. NRNs + commercial vendors. Determines suitability of new technologies for future networks (also applicable to NRNs). Test programme includes: –MPLS (completed). –Differentiated Services & RSVP (in progress). –Native IPv6 network (established). –Mbone running MBGP (established). –ATM SVCs with QoS (part of acceptance tests). –Policy Servers (in progress). –Traffic charging mechanisms (in progress).