SERENATE Study into European Research & Education Networking As Targeted by eEurope Karel Vietsch TERENA CEO Internet2 International Task Force meeting Arlington VA, 6 May 2002

Europe > 40 independent countries European Union 15 member states Accession states Others

Status of research networking in Europe Historically, always trying to catch up with North America Currently, leading position in many aspects of networking Challenge of Gigabit networking taken up: GÉANT and number of national networks core of 10 Gbps and wide coverage of 2.5 Gbps Moving to truly optical networks and >100 Gbps in foreseeable future

SERENATE – why? The European Commission needs inputs for preparing “costed initiatives” to the Council of Ministers for setting up a trans-European research network at 100 Gb/s But also for the research networks, governments and funding bodies and industry it is a good moment for some strategic thinking about research networking from now till 2010: bandwidth has become really cheap but equipment becomes the bottleneck with GÉANT, for the first time we have a European interconnect with capacities as large as the most advanced national research network we may be moving to truly optical networks there may be opportunities for new models of acquisition, new business models Grids may bring new demands from users ………

SERENATE – what is it? Series of studies to investigate the strategic aspects of the development of “superfast” research networks, looking into the technical, organisational and financial aspects, the market conditions and regulatory environment Funded by the European Commission with 960 kEUR 1 May 2002 – 30 September 2003 Partners: TERENA, the Academia Europaea, Center for Tele- Information (CTI), DANTE, the European Science Foundation (ESF) but very active participation needed from research networking organisations, telecom operators, equipment manufacturers, governments and funding bodies, and users!

SERENATE – how is it organised? Steering Committee consisting of: Marko Bonac (ARNES) Ian Butterworth (Academia Europaea) Dai Davies (DANTE) Sabine Jaume (RENATER) Fernando Liello (GÉANT) Tony Mayer (ESF) Knud Erik Skouby (CTI) Karel Vietsch (TERENA, project manager) David Williams (TERENA, chairman of the Steering Committee) 14 distinct work items, each led by a member of the Steering Committee

General Workshops Initial Workshop, September 2002 Workshop for telecom operators, October 2002 Final Workshop, June 2003

Regulations, forecasts and models Study into the development of the regulatory situation, June-November 2002 Study into expected evolution of international connectivity in Europe and to other continents over the next five years, December 2002 – February 2003 Case studies and workshop on “alternative models” of infrastructure ownership, August-December 2002

Infrastructure and equipment availability Review of status – current or planned for near future – of available transport infrastructure, including (development of) pricing, June-November 2002 Study of expected availability and characteristics of necessary equipment for large-scale long-distance networks at >100 Gbps, July-December 2002

User needs and priorities Collection of user requirements – questionnaire and workshop, August 2002 – January 2003

Extension and coverage Report on a number of initiatives for extending research networks to education and other user communities, December 2002 – March 2003 Report identifying issues related to the geographic coverage of European research and education networking, December 2002 – March 2003

Consolidated views Future scenarios for funding of research networking infrastructure, December 2002 – February 2003 Scenarios concerning likely costs and time schedule for infrastructure evolution, March-May 2003 Summary report on SERENATE studies, June-August 2003

Final objective “By the end of the project, the relevant policy makers, funders and managers of research networks in Europe will have at their disposal a set of recommendations and background material that will enable them to set their policies for the further development of European research and education networking.”