1. User views from outside of Western Europe MarkoBonac, bonac@arnes.si Arnes, Slovenia

2. Candidate countries: great potential EC document: Science, Technology and Innovation in EU+ 2002:  Candidate countries spend relatively less for R&D in relation to GDP.  Number of patents is low (due to the rather recent emergence of intellectual property rights regime).  Many candidate countries perform relatively better in the production of scientific papers.  Candidate countries have high number of researchers (17,8 % of that in the EU).  Candidate countries possess a huge potential capacity to produce scientific and technological knowledge. Integration of candidate countries in the Framework Programme and the European Research Area opens new dimensions and opportunities for Europe

3. Typical story from less developed European country  We have many universities  They are distributed over the country  They have not enough academic staff except the ones in mayor cities  There are not enough libraries  The laboratories lack modern equipment  Salaries are low  Our computer network is the only tool to access information and to collaborate in international projects

4. The user requirements are similar in more and less developed European countries SERENATE questionnaire: “Does your current or foreseen research involve Digital Libraries ?” More developed: yes 46 % Less developed: yes 51 %

5. The user requirements are similar in more and less developed European countries SERENATE questionnaire: “Do you use video conferencing or other forms of remote conferencing in your research ?” More developed: yes 22 % Less developed: yes 16 %

6. The user requirements are similar in more and less developed European countries SERENATE questionnaire: “Is Grid computing being considered in your research area ? ” More developed: yes 15 % Less developed: yes 12 %

7. The research collaboration is similar SERENATE questionnaire: If your research involve distant collaborators, what fraction of them are from other institutions in your own country –More developed: 31 % –Less developed: 34 % in a different European country –More developed: 41 % –Less developed: 43 % outside Europe ? –More developed: 28 % –Less developed: 23 %

8. The network traffic is similar SERENATE questionnaire: What fraction of your network traffic, coming in or going out, involves European institutions –More developed: 59 % –Less developed: 58 % and what fraction involves institutions outside Europe ? –More developed: 41 % –Less developed: 42 %

9. Hierarchy in research networking  local network  access network  metropolitan network  national backbone  international connectivity For the end user it is often difficult to know where the problems (e.g. congestion) are.

10. The gap is becoming bigger Comparing research network elements in more and less developed European countries: International capacity: 1:1000 National links: 1:5000 The gap is bigger than ever before.

11. From TERENA Compendium 2002  International connectivity is not a problem any more for those NRENs who can afford Gbps access to GEANT network.  International connectivity is still a problem for less developed countries.  For more developed countries the congestion is more often in –local network and/or –access network and/or –metropolitan network.

12. Networking is relatively more expensive in less developed European countries  GDP per capita in Candidate countries is 25 to 70 % of the EU average.  Telecommunication infrastructure is missing.  Telecommunication market is often not yet liberalized - high prices for leased lines.  Most of less developed countries are small – this brings additional problems.

13. NREN budget par capita 2002 It is dependant on size of the country and not on its GDP per capita (as one would expect) ! NREN budget per capita in 2002 (Terena Compendium) 0,5 EUR/cap 1 EUR/cap More than 1 EUR/cap -------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- France Czech Rep. Ireland Germany Estonia Portugal Italy Lithuania Croatia Spain Latvia Slovenia Denmark The Netherlands Belgium Norway United Kingdom Finland Switzerland

14. Running an NREN in small country is expensive In a small country it is more expensive (calculated per user) to provide the same level of service.  Relatively more international capacity is needed  Low capacity circuits are relatively more expensive  Circuits of the same capacity are often more expensive  The NREN needs the same effort to introduce a new service

15. International capacity needed (2001) NREN total int. pop. capacity/ in country capacity mil.pop  Germany 1000 8212  France 850 5914  UK 800 6013  Slovenia 45 223  Ireland 120 3.732  Switzerland 300 743  Luxembourg 20 0.4 50

16. Average traffic received from GEANT July 2002 Average received traffic per capita in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Switzerland was at least 6 times greater than in France, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain

17. Price for international circuit is not a linear function of capacity

18. Circuits of the same capacity are more expensive in small countries  There is less demand for high capacity circuits  Telecommunication market is often not yet liberalized  In many cases there is only one operator  Telecommunication regulator has the same task and so it is understaffed

19. What should be done to narrow the digital divide ? What is done:  Governments are supporting research networks in less developed countries.  5FP (and 6FP) supports international connectivity. What should be done:  Countries should accelerate the liberalization process in telecommunication sector.  The EC should find ways to finance other components of research networks.

20. A wish from Greece (SERENATE questionnaire) Currently, each simulation takes 40 hours of real time on the largest available supercomputer in Europe and the vizualization takes another 10-20 hours on local workstations. To obtain useful resuls, we need to explore dozens of such simulations. With a 10Gbps network and grid computing, our simulations would run much faster and the vizualization could be done remotely on a parallel supercomputer. In this way, we could rapidly explore dozens of simulation, arriving at useful conclusion much faster than today. Still, definitive answers to our research problem could be given only by very high-resolution simulations and such simulations will be possible only when networks of 100Gbps will become available.

21. Global connectivity - where are the priorities ?

22. Current status  GEANT provides good international connectivity among most European countries  There is good connectivity between Europe and USA.  It is difficult to provide good connectivity to countries in other continents –as they have no pan-continental network and –sometimes not even a national research network.

23. Where are the priorities ?  Where are priorities from research point of view ? Japan, China, Russia, India …. How to find this out ?  There are also priorities from political point of view.

24. How to achieve the priorities ?  Should Europe finance the lines to chosen countries ? Pay for half of the costs ?  Should Europe try to export its model: –one research network per country –one pan-continental network in every continent ?