1. GPPC Network Group Progress Report
13th October2015
Mauro Campanella, Yannis Mitsos, Janos Mohacsi,
Christian Grimm, Matthew Scott

2. Basic guidelines for the work of the GPPC Network group
The groups is following some basic guidelines in reviewing the proposal for the networking activities in the networking White Paper:
The ranking from the NRENs votes
Grouping similar proposals in a coherent activities
Foster activities that plan for reducing the cost of the network and the project
Professionalize further service provisioning and maintenance
Identify innovative ideas to develop, based on users’ requirements

3. Status Some gaps found and improvements suggested
VCs 25 Sep, 28 Sep, 2 Oct, 13th Oct
VC with some AL's a 25 Sep and 6 Oct
Reviewed activities' list and NRENs' ranking. Of the 45 proposed in the questionnaire,
24 are proposed for GN4-2,
2 are funded independently
7 proposed for funding in other projects
Some gaps found and improvements suggested

4. Recommendation for improvements
Rationalise the service catalog for point to point services (implies having a single interface for the users, optimising service management, reducing protocols). Refers to (NETCS3) GÉANT+, (NETCS6) GÉANT lambda, (NETCS5) MD-VPN, L3-VPN, (NETCS4) BoD. Monitoring capabilities to be presented as the minimum level and accessibility by the users. Consider and illustrate also KPI.
Schedule effort to evaluate technical and financial implication of a use of greater optical resource sharing between NRENS and GEANT, strengthening use of CBF and bringing higher capacity to all countries (as suggested by teh wrk programme). The effort is in addition to regional studies. It includes (NETFS9) Shared Fiber Infrastructure, (NETC4) NREN Fiber integration, (NETFS10) Optical Platform
Although the SDN-focused proposals have received low marks, the analysis of SDN capabilities (and NFV functionalities) for the GEANT network is considered of interest. SDN (not limited to OpenFlow) and NFV may provide simpler solutions to BoD, or less expensive switching/routing elements.

5. Grouping proposed Network Task in themes (all above threshold tasks)
Research and
Develoment
Production
Production/
development
Production/
development
Not included:
Network standard activities: design, planning, implementation, operation
Security

6. Next ongoing steps
Draft list of activities and task, consulting White Paper authors
Dependencies with other groups (identified mainly security, brokering, support)
Budget and financial assessment to be finalized in steps and according to GA decisions
Comments
Early scenarios and division of maximum budget for activities' groups is key to finalize list of task and their budgets
A stronger review process on activities is suggested, which also involves expert from NRENs outside the project, with focus on achievements. This "gated" project is essential for the agility in the project development after the three years.