The Works of DANTE

A bi-monthly electronic newsletter reporting on the activities of DANTE, the company that organises pan-European research network services for the European research community.

No.21, June 1997

THE LAUNCH: START OF A DIALOGUE

On May 20th the official launch of the TEN-34 network took place. DANTE had organised a half-day symposium in Cambridge to address the accomplishments of TEN-34 as well as the challenges for the future of European research networking. The symposium was attended by representatives from the three key parties in European research networking: the National Research Networks, the Telecom Operators and the European Commission. M. Robert Verrue, Director-General of DG- XIII of the European Commission, performed the official opening over a video-link from Brussels. In his speech he recognised the necessity of continuity in the provision of a high-quality pan-European network for R&D and referred to a measure that will be taken as part of the 5th Framework Programme (which will combine all former Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) programmes into a single Information Society Technology (IST) Programme): 'Next Generation European "Intranet" for Collaborative Research and Education'.

At the end of the afternoon a panel discussion took place which involved all major players: the EC (Mr Magnus Lemmel, Deputy Director of DG-III), the telecom operators (Jan Van de Kraats of Unisource and Steven Andrews of BT), the European Parliament (Mr Alan Donnelly MEP, Chairman of the Working Group on the Information Society), the user organisations (Juergen May of CERN and Juergen Harms of SWITCH) and DANTE (Dai Davies).

From left to right: David Hartley, Juergen May, Steven Andrews, Juergen Harms, Alan Donnelly, Magnus Lemmel, Jan Van de Kraats, Dai Davies.

Mr Lemmel recognised the need to build on the success of TEN-34 and expressed the hope that the European marketplace for telecommunications would rise to the challenge of sustaining TEN-34 and emphasised the need to maintain the momentum of liberalisation.

Mr Donnelly expressed concern that the TEN-34 project has a limited lifetime and felt that a network such as TEN-34 which played an pivotal role in the support of co-operative Research and Development should be a permanent feature of European Union sponsored research and development.

Juergen Harms (Switch) and Juergen May (CERN) both reviewed TEN-34 from a user perspective. They both expressed their pleasure that, really for the first time, European researchers had a network capable of meeting current user demands. Juergen Harms commented that demand had historically grown nationally by a factor of two per annum and raised the question of how TEN-34 could develop to support a similar Europe wide growth given the high cost of international telecommunications.

For the Telecommunications services suppliers both Steven Andrews of BT and Jan van de Kraats of Unisource stressed that the international marketplace in Europe was changing and that their respective organisations would be in a position to offer effective pan-European services as quickly as market liberalisation permitted. Both BT and Unisource stated that they were making major investments in pan- European infrastructure and expressed confidence in meeting the future requirements of TEN-34.

The main objective of the symposium was to bring the parties involved in European research networking together, get a better understanding of their different perspectives and give them the opportunity to talk to each other face to face. We think this objective was reached and hope that the TEN-34 launch event will contribute to a fruitful further dialogue and closer cooperation in this area.

TEN-34: NEW CONNECTIONS, PLANNED CONNECTIONS

More of the TEN-34 network is now up and running. The connection to Austria came into service on 8th May and that to Hungary on 29th May. There are several other NRNs which have plans to connect later this year, as follows: GRnet (Greece) by July with a line to Milan, ARNES (Slovenia) by August with a line to Vienna, BELNET (Belgium) by August with a line to Amsterdam and a share of an upgraded SURFnet access, CESnet (Czech Republic) by August with a line to Frankfurt, and RESTENA (Luxembourg) by October with a line to Frankfurt. RCCN is obliged to issue an invitation to tender for a connection to one of the existing TEN-34 PoPs. An additional trunk line from Vienna to either Frankfurt or Prague will be necessary to handle the increased traffic passing via Austria.

The TEN-34 topology brochure (A-4 folded, map on the back) or glossy A-2 poster can be obtained by sending a message with 'send TEN-34 brochure' or 'send TEN-34 poster' and your postal address in the body to dante@dante.org.uk

THE TRANSATLANTIC CONNECTIVITY ISSUE

More than three years after first mentioning its plans, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued its solicitation for the establishment of high-performance connectivity between the NSF's very High Speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) and high performance networks of major international research partners. The solicitation is for a range of global connectivity from the USA and requires a response led by an American organisation but envisages a number of such awards to consortia involving non-US partners. The scope of the solicitation is somewhat limited in terms of financial support and it also envisages a number of restrictions on connectivity both in terms of a requirement to interconnect in Chicago and restrictions on the non-US users who may benefit from co-funding. Nevertheless DANTE is evaluating, co-operatively with interested parties in North America and with the European NRNs the possibility of DANTE being the European partner in a US led consortium.

In the meantime DANTE has submitted plans to the TEN-34 consortium for the addition of intercontinental connectivity to the TEN-34 backbone. A number of commercial offers are currently being evaluated which are likely to lead to the provision of a 34Mbps or 45 Mbps connection between Frankfurt and the USA. The service will be available as a separate offering from DANTE to those countries who are currently using shared capacity or would like to take advantage of sharing a high capacity circuit.

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: FURTHER ACTION

Earlier this month DANTE, in collaboration with the NRNs from the Phare countries, submitted a proposal to the EC for funding support in the provision of a connection between TEN-34 and each of the countries concerned in the region. The proposal is being put forward in the context of the EU-CEEC Forum on the Information Society.

The EC's Phare 1991 and 1994 R&D Networking Programmes have promoted international connections and use of the global Internet in support of R&E activities in the past six years. The Programmes have had considerable success, the principal evidence being that the capabilities of the NRNs in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovenia have advanced sufficiently for them to be accepted as full participants in TEN-34.

TEN-34 is now the backbone research network, used (since April 1997) by all Western European NRNs as the high speed successor to EuropaNET. There is now strong interest in connecting to TEN-34 from all countries in the CEE region (including countries from the former Soviet Union) if the financial and national infrastructural difficulties can be overcome.

DANTE ANNUAL REPORT 1996 AVAILABLE

In this year's Annual Report we have included a German, French and Italian versions of the activity report in addition to the English version. There is an extensive description of the TEN-34 project, the network as well as the TF-TEN ATM experiments. The purpose of this is to spread the news about TEN-34 among an as wide as possible audience, on the one hand to inform people on the progress made but also to raise awareness about the future challenges in setting up a high quality pan-European network infrastructure. In addition there is a focus on the development activities in the context of the NameFLOW-Paradise directory service.

Copies can be ordered here.

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