Academic Supercomputing in Europe

Pan-European research networking

This chapter presents European organisations involved in networking at multinational level and pan-European research networks. National academic and research networks are described in chapter 3 where the situation in each country is depicted.

Network organisations

• DANTE

  DANTE is a not-for-profit company established in 1993 by European research networks to provide international network services for the research community. DANTE plans, builds and operates pan-European research networks. Since 1993 DANTE has played a pivotal role in successively EuropaNET, TEN-34, TEN-155, GÉANT and now GÉANT2.

  http://www.dante.net

• ENPG

  The European Network Policy Group has as its mission the development of strategies for European Research Networking. National funding agencies of 20 European countries are member of this platform.

  http://www.enpg.org

• RIPE

  RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens) is a collaboration of more than 3800 European Internet providers with the objective to co-ordinate the operation of a pan-European IP network. RIPE's Network Co-ordination Centre (RIPE NCC) is one of the four Regional Internet Registries in the world.

  http://www.ripe.net

• TERENA

  TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association) promotes and participates in the development of a high-quality international network infrastructure for research and education. TERENA will be strongly involved in the GN2 project, which will provide GÉANT2, the next pan-European research backbone.

  http://www.terena.nl

Operational networks

• GÉANT

  GÉANT is the pan-European Gigabit research and education network. GÉANT's DWDM based backbone operates at 10 Gbps and 2.5 Gbps. National networks can couple at 10 Gbps. GÉANT interconnects more than 3,500 research and education institutions in 33 countries. Total transatlantic connectivity is 12 Gbps.
  Services on GÉANT are provided by DANTE.
  The European Commission announced in September 2004 that it will contribute € 93 million over 4 years to the upgrading of GEANT.

  http://www.dante.net/geant

• NORDUnet

  This network interconnects the national research networks of the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and provides their international connectivity. The core operates at 10 Gbps (except the link to Reykjavik which is 155 Mbps). NORDUnets international links include 10 Gbps to GÉANT and 1 Gbps to St. Petersburg.
  The Nordic Governments finance the Nordunet2 programme that focuses on network-based applications. One of the projects funded is the NorduGrid project.

  http://www.nordu.net

Networking projects

• GÉANT2

  GÉANT2 is the next generation pan-European research and education network. This 4-year project began officially on 1 September 2004. The network will operate from 2005 on until 2008.
  GÉANT2 will connect 30 European NRENs. The network will be hybrid (routed IP plus dedicated multiple 10Gbps wavelengths). GÉANT2 is co-funded by the EU and by the European NRENs. DANTE manages the project.

  http://www.geant2.net/

• SEEREN

  The South-East European Research and Education Networking initiative has linked the NRENs of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) to GÉANT.

  http://www.sereen.org

• Virtual Silk highway

  This satellite technology based network connects at 3 Mbps speed the academic networks of eight countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. SILK has a connection to GÉANT via DESY (Hamburg).
  This NATO project has a budget of US$ 3.4 million and will provide connectivity until the beginning of 2005.

  http://www.silkproject.org

List of abbreviations

• DANTE Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe
• ENPG European Network Policy Group
• GEANT Gigabit European Academic Network
• NREN National Research and Education Network
• RIPE Réseaux IP Européens
• TERENA Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association