THE MAGAZINE FROM THE GÉANT COMMUNITY | ISSUE 20 2015

SUPERCHARGINGEU-CHINA ICTCOLLABORATIONNEW 10GBPS LINKSTRENGTHENSPARTNERSHIP

ICT FOR HEALTHSUPPORTINGMD-PAEDIGREE ANDCARDIOPROOF

BEYOND THE CAMPUSEDUROAM IN PUBLICPLACES

WOMEN IN ICTTIME TO CLOSE THEGENDER GAP

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CONNECT is the quarterly magazine from the GÉANTcommunity; highlighting the activities of Europe’s leadingcollaboration on e-infrastructure and services for researchand education. We give insights into the users who dependon the network, and the community that makes GÉANT whatit is. We welcome feedback at paul.maurice@geant.org

Published by GÉANT. | Editors: PPaauull MMaauurriiccee aanndd TTaammssiinn HHeennddeerrssoonn..

Hyperlinks: CONNECT is produced as a digital magazine also made available in print. To view the digital edition and benefit from hyperlinks to further information, please see: http://connect.geant.org

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CONNECT magazine was shortlisted forthe 2014 CorpComms award for bestnot-for-profit publication.

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leading or closely involved with. Yourfeedback is of course welcomed.

Finally, and with a heavy heart,the community has been greatlysaddened by the sudden loss of ourclose colleague, Jim Buddin. Jim wasintegral not just to the training andevents work he was so heavilyinvolved with, but to the warm andfriendly atmosphere he helped create at those events. He will besorely missed.

reputation for, and the new 10Gbpslink connecting Europe and China(page 5) will supercharge the EU-China partnership and further cementICT collaboration, benefiting over 80million researchers, academics andstudents across the two continents.

Whilst we narrow the gapsbetween continents and bridge digitaldivides, so we also need to closeanother gap: the gender gap. Strongcollaborative efforts are alreadyunderway (page 10) and yourinvolvement is welcomed, whicheverchromosome you harbour!

You may notice in this issue theintroduction of a new type of article:opinion pieces. Our community ishappily never short of them, and weinvited two experts in their respectivefields (pages 12 and 30) to share theirviews on areas of work they are either

These are exciting times forthe GÉANT community!Following the launch of thenew unified branding earlier

this year at TNC15 and the start of thenew GÉANT project, the recentannouncement of GÉANT’s new CEO(page 3) has been very well received.Steve Cotter is well known across theglobal research and educationnetworking community, and hisjourney to GÉANT is the culmination ofmany years of building collaborativerelationships and driving innovation.Steve’s leadership and vision, a globalperspective on research andeducation networking, and the abilityto hit the ground running will stand ourcommunity in good stead as we lookahead to new opportunities.

A strong global perspective issomething GÉANT has an excellent

EEddiittoorrssPaul Maurice & TamsinHenderson

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GGÉÉAANNTT AAPPPPOOIINNTTSSSSTTEEVVEE CCOOTTTTEERR AASS NNEEWW CCEEOOIn August GÉANT announced the appointment of its newCEO, Steve Cotter. His mission: to complete the restructuringof the organisation and take on the challenges of a rapidlychanging global science environment.

WHAT LED STEVETO GÉANT? Steve’s journey to GÉANT is theculmination of many years of buildingcollaborative relationships and drivinginnovation. He recognises this as aunique opportunity to not just think bigbut act big: to make things better, faster,smarter and position GÉANT as theundisputed world leader in its field. Justas important, Steve says, “it’s a chanceto ignite a sense of excitement within theorganisation, making GÉANT a fun,invigorating, thought provoking place towork. I have always believed in buildinga strong sense of community withinevery organisation where I’ve workedand cohesion, at this juncture, is acritical component to GÉANT’ssuccess.”

Bob Day, Executive Director of Janet(the UK’s NREN) and former Chair ofDANTE, took on an interim CEO role toallow the restructuring of GÉANT toproceed whilst a permanent CEO wassought. He will continue in that role untilSteve comes into post in November.

Steve is presently CEO ofREANNZ, New Zealand’sNREN (National Research andEducation Network). Under his

tenure, the company achieved its firstsurpluses after operating in the red sinceinception, re-architected its network andadded specialised capabilities to providea faster, resilient and more customisedservice to its members. As a result, thenetwork is now “essential” to 98.6% ofREANNZ members, up from 53% whenhe joined.

Steve will assume his new role atGÉANT in November, where he will beresponsible for creating and executingthe organisation’s strategic vision,through streamlining GÉANT’s day-to-day operations, strengtheningrelationships with NRENs and theEuropean Commission; and developingmajor international collaborations.

Steve brings a successful trackrecord of working with governmentfunders and research and academicusers. Formerly Department Head ofESnet, he also ran the networkoperations for U.S. NREN Internet2, andwas in charge of the network build-outfor Google in Europe, the Middle Eastand Africa.

““WWee nneeeeddeedd aa CCEEOO wwiitthh aa gglloobbaall ppeerrssppeeccttiivvee oonnrreesseeaarrcchh aanndd eedduuccaattiioonn nneettwwoorrkkiinngg,, ccoouupplleedd wwiitthhssttrroonngg lleeaaddeerrsshhiipp aanndd vviissiioonn,, ttoo ccoommpplleettee tthheerreessttrruuccttuurriinngg pprroocceessss aanndd ttaakkee uuss iinnttoo tthhee nneexxttpphhaassee.. SStteevvee bbrriinnggss aann uunnddeerrssttaannddiinngg ooff tthheeNNRREENN eennvviirroonnmmeenntt aanndd ssuubbssttaannttiiaall eexxppeerriieennccee iinncchhaannggee mmaannaaggeemmeenntt.. HHee iiss aallrreeaaddyy vveerryy wweellll--kknnoowwnn aanndd rreessppeecctteedd bbyy tthhee GGÉÉAANNTT ccoommmmuunniittyyaanndd ssttaaffff,, iinn hhiiss ccaappaacciittyy aass cchhaaiirr ooff tthhee GGÉÉAANNTTEExxtteerrnnaall AAddvviissoorryy CCoommmmiitttteeee,, ssppeeaakkeerr aatt oouurraannnnuuaall TTNNCC ccoonnffeerreennccee,, aanndd ppaarrttiicciippaanntt iinn tthheeGGlloobbaall RR&&EE NNeettwwoorrkk CCEEOO FFoorruumm.. WWee wwiisshh hhiimmwweellll aanndd llooookk ffoorrwwaarrdd ttoo tthhee bbeenneeffiittss hhee wwiillll bbrriinngg ttoo tthhee ccoommmmuunniittyy..””

Pierre Bruyère, Chairman of GÉANT

““II aamm ddeelliigghhtteedd tthhaatt tthhee BBooaarrdd hhaass bbeeeenn aabbllee ttooaappppooiinntt iinn SStteevvee aa lleeaaddeerr wwhhoo wwiillll bbee aabbllee ttoo hhiitttthhee ggrroouunndd rruunnnniinngg aass tthhiiss wwiillll ggiivvee GGÉÉAANNTT aanndd iittss ssttaaffff tthhee ccoonnttiinnuuiittyy nneeeeddeedd ttoo mmaaiinnttaaiinn aannddddeevveelloopp tthhee wwoorrlldd ccllaassss sseerrvviicceess eennjjooyyeedd bbyy oouurruusseerrss,, aalloonngg wwiitthh tthhee ccaappaacciittyy ttoo aaddddrreessss tthheemmaannyy nneeww ooppppoorrttuunniittiieess tthhaatt aarree wwaaiittiinngg ttoo bbee ttaakkeenn..””

Bob Day, Interim CEO of GÉANT

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NNEEWW 1100GGBBPPSS LLIINNKKSSUUPPEERRCCHHAARRGGEESS LLOONNGG--TTEERRMM EEUU--CCHHIINNAAPPAARRTTNNEERRSSHHIIPPGÉANT and CERNET sign MoU to strengthenICT collaboration at EU-China Summit

GÉANT and CERNET look back atover a decade of fruitful partnership,initiated in 2005 by setting up TEIN, theregional network for Asia-Pacific and,subsequently, by establishing direct EU-China connectivity via the EC-fundedORIENT and ORIENTplus projects(2007-2015) which now seamlesslycontinues thanks to the new link. Prior toconnecting with the GÉANT network,CERNET interconnected with Europe viaa link to the German network DFN(1994-1998) and via a circuit betweenCERNET and the UK NREN Janet(1998-2005).

UNDERPINNING EU-CHINA R&ECOLLABORATIONS Running between Beijing and London,the circuit connects the Chinese NRENs(CERNET and CSTNET) to the 50 millionusers of the pan-European GÉANTnetwork. It underpins a wide range ofdata-intensive and/or time-criticalscientific collaborations between Europeand China including participation in theLarge Hadron Collider (LHC)experiments, cosmic ray observation,radio-astronomy, agriculture, severeweather forecasting and life sciencesprojects. The high-capacity link alsoopens new possibilities for students andacademics, supporting interactiveknowledge transfer through innovativee-learning tools and stablevideoconferencing, thus overcoming thecomplexities of multi-cultural andinterdisciplinary learning.

BUILDING ON ASTRONG BRANDWhilst the partnership agreement opensa new chapter of EU-China R&Enetworking collaboration, CERNET andGEANT can build on the achievementsof ORIENTplus. Although theORIENTPlus project has nowsuccessfully completed the ‘brand’name will be retained for continued jointactivities to promote the route forinnovative EU-China collaborations.

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LINKING CHINAAND EUROPE Over 80 million researchers, academicsand students across Europe and Chinaare set to benefit from a new 10GbpsR&E internet link, formally inaugurated atthe EU-China High Level People-to-People Dialogue (HPPD) Summit heldon 15 September in Brussels.

Jointly funded and operated byGÉANT and its Chinese counterpartCERNET, the link provides long-termdirect and super-fast connectivitybetween the two regions, enablinginnovative EU-China R&E collaborationsto flourish. Operational since the end ofJuly, the circuit is contracted for a 10year term and, with costs of less than 4cents per user over its lifespan,represents a substantial cost savingcompared to the current connectivity.

CEMENTING THEPARTNERSHIP This cost-effective, long-termconnectivity solution is a clear reflectionof the increasingly close relationshipbetween GÉANT and CERNET whichthey further underpinned by signing aMemorandum of Understanding at theSummit, witnessed by Chinese VicePremier Liu Yandong and EC EducationCommissioner Tibor Navracsics in frontof over 250 delegates from both regions.

The signatories intend to formaliseand further strengthen ICT collaborationbetween the European and ChineseR&E communities. They agreed, inparticular, to monitor and review linkutilisation and plan for higher capacity tomeet user needs with the aim ofachieving 100Gbps+ as soon asrequired and affordable. In addition toconnectivity provision, the partiescommitted to supporting thedeployment of advanced networkservices (e.g. eduroam and perfSONAR)as well as of Future Internet testbedsand to jointly undertaking outreach anduser support activities within their R&Ecommunities.

““CCEERRNNEETT hhaass bbeeeenn cclloosseellyy lliinnkkeedd ttoo tthhee GGÉÉAANNTTccoommmmuunniittyy ffoorr oovveerr 1100 yyeeaarrss.. FFrroomm ssttaarrttiinngg oouuttttooggeetthheerr iinn 22000055 ttoo bbuuiillddiinngg aa rreeggiioonnaall RR&&EEnneettwwoorrkk aaccrroossss AAssiiaa--PPaacciiffiicc,, wwee qquuiicckkllyyeessttaabblliisshheedd tthhee ffiirrsstt ddiirreecctt ccoonnnneeccttiioonn bbeettwweeeennGGÉÉAANNTT aanndd CChhiinnaa tthhrroouugghh tthhee OORRIIEENNTT aannddOORRIIEENNTTpplluuss pprroojjeeccttss,, wwhhiicchh wweerree jjooiinnttllyy ffuunnddeeddbbyy tthhee EEuurrooppeeaann CCoommmmiissssiioonn,, tthhee CChhiinneesseeggoovveerrnnmmeenntt aass wweellll aass tthhee CChhiinneessee aanndd EEuurrooppeeaannNNRREENNss uunnttiill tthhee eenndd ooff 22001144.. WWiitthh tthhee nneeww lliinnkk,,wwhhiicchh iiss bbaasseedd oonn eeqquuaall ccoosstt sshhaarriinngg,, wwee hhaavveegguuaarraanntteeeedd sseeaammlleessss ccoonnttiinnuuiittyy ooff nneettwwoorrkkccoonnnneeccttiivviittyy ttoo ssuuppppoorrtt mmiilllliioonnss ooff uusseerrss.. WWee aattCCEERRNNEETT llooookk ffoorrwwaarrdd ttoo ccoonnttiinnuuiinngg oouurr ffrruuiittffuullwwoorrkkiinngg rreellaattiioonnsshhiipp wwiitthh GGÉÉAANNTT oovveerr tthhee nneexxttddeeccaaddee aanndd bbeeyyoonndd””..

Professor Jianping Wu, Director of CERNET Center

““TThhee ggrroowwiinngg nnuummbbeerr ooff rreesseeaarrcchh pprrooggrraammmmeessaanndd aaccaaddeemmiicc ccoollllaabboorraattiioonnss bbeettwweeeenn EEuurrooppee aannddCChhiinnaa cclleeaarrllyy hhiigghhlliigghhtteedd tthhee nneeeedd ffoorr hhiigghh--ccaappaacciittyy ccoonnnneeccttiivviittyy ttoo ccoonnttiinnuuee ppoossttOORRIIEENNTTpplluuss.. FFoorr mmaannyy aapppplliiccaattiioonnss wwiitthhssiiggnniiffiiccaanntt eeccoonnoommiicc iimmppaacctt iinn tthhee lloonngg tteerrmm,,ssuucchh aass tthhee IITTEERR gglloobbaall eenneerrggyy ffuussiioonnpprrooggrraammmmee,, tthhiiss nneeww lliinnkk wwiillll bbee tthhee oonnllyy vviiaabblleessoolluuttiioonn.. WWee aarree pprroouudd ttoo bbee aabbllee ttoo pprroovviiddee tthhiissssoolluuttiioonn jjooiinnttllyy wwiitthh oouurr CChhiinneessee ppaarrttnneerrss””..

Pierre Bruyère, Chair of GÉANT Board of Directors

PPiiccttuurreeProfessorJianping Wu,Director ofCERNET Center,and PierreBruyère, Chair ofGÉANT Board ofDirectors signingMoU tostrengthen theirpartnership,witnessed byChinese VicePremier LiuYandong and ECCommissionerTibor Navracsics

(where data is conveyed as audiosignals as opposed to visual illustrationssuch as graphs) can improve standardtechniques currently used inspectroscopy stem cell analysis.

The preliminary study was launchedrecently at the 20th InternationalConference on Auditory Display. It is acollaboration between GÉANT, AngliaRuskin University, Birmingham CityUniversity and the University of Central Lancashire.

At ICT 2015 delegates can listen to the different sounds that datasonification can produce to aid fastercancer diagnosis, and DomenicoVicinanza will explain to delegates thedifference between the sounds andwhat they mean.

More information: What is Data Sonification? DomenicoVicinanza explains in this 2-minutevideo: hhttttppss::////wwwwww..yyoouuttuubbee..ccoomm//wwaattcchh??vv==nnddLLkkPP--bbNNLL11ss

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This October GÉANT will be exhibiting at ICT 2015, the high profile 3-day event running from 20-22 October in Lisbon. ICT 2015 is an interactive exhibition that will dynamically showcase thebest-in-class results of existing European ICT Research & Innovation; advanced products fromindividual companies that started with, and have grown and benefited from European funding.

paediatric diseases, allowing thepersonalisation of treatments andsimulation of outcomes, thanks tomature VPH modelling, ready to bevalidated. In modern healthcare, the useof such data is key to patient safety andtreatments efficacy.

For an in-depth look at MD-PAEDIGREE and CARDIOPROOF,please see pages 24-27 of this issue.

More information: hhttttpp::////wwwwww..ccaarrddiioopprrooooff..eeuu//hhttttpp::////wwwwww..mmdd--ppaaeeddiiggrreeee..eeuu//

DATA SONIFICATIONFOR CANCERRESEARCH Could data sonification deliver while-you-wait cancer diagnosis? Convertinghuman tissue spectroscopy data intosounds could enable GPs to makeinstant, non-invasive cancer diagnosesduring a routine check-up. A recentstudy shows how data sonification

With the GÉANT network aflagship e-infrastructurekey to achieving theEuropean Research Area,

and contributing to Europe’s economicgrowth and competitiveness, GÉANThas been invited to exhibit in the ECVillage, one of six areas within the mainexhibition under the title of Open Science.

Demonstrating its support of abreadth of research and educationdisciplines, GÉANT will be hosting 2 ICTfor Health projects on its booth,highlighted below.

SUPPORTING ICTFOR HEALTH GÉANT and two ICT for Health projects,MD-PAEDIGREE and CARDIOPROOF,will showcase revolutionary applicationsto support clinical diagnostic anddecision making directly at the point ofcare. The projects will demonstrate howBig Data can be accessed for diagnosis,care planning, and follow-up of

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This year’s SC15 focuses on how HPCtransforms. HPC is transforming oureveryday lives, as well as our not-so-ordinary ones. From nanomaterials to jetaircrafts, from medical treatments todisaster preparedness, and even theway we wash our clothes; the HPCcommunity has transformed the world inmultifaceted ways.

GÉANT will have an exhibition boothin the research area of the show. Ifyou’re visiting, you can find GÉANT atbooth number 3218,for a series ofdemonstrations and pioneeringcollaborations – as well as a chance tospeak to the experts directly.

Annually the event attracts over10,000 attendees at the show, who visiteach year to discover the latest solutionsthat will keep them at the leading edgeof their professions.

There’ll be demos featuring GÉANTtestbeds and the world premiere of“Modern Symphony on 5Supercomputers and InfiniCortex” andmany others. People will also get thechance to hear about excitingdevelopments with perfSONAR awidely-deployed test and measurementinfrastructure that is used by sciencenetworks and facilities around the worldto monitor and ensure networkperformance.

From 16-19 November this year the international supercomputing community willgather in Austin, Texas for SC15 spotlighting High Performance Computing (HPC),scientific applications, and innovations from around the world.

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Kent Engström (SUNET and LinköpingUniversity, Sweden) has received thisyear's research and educationnetworking Community Award. Kentwas honoured for his contributions tothe Trusted Certificate Service (TCS –formerly known as TERENA CertificateService), which helps to increasesecurity in online transactions byfacilitating the deployment of digitalcertificates.

Kent had developed andmaintained the ‘Djangora’ softwarethat was a vital part of the service for

around six years. The selection wasmade after open nominations anddeliberation by a panel of judges. Theprize was presented during theclosing plenary session of this year’snetworking conference, TNC15, inPorto, Portugal.

The award was presented onbehalf of the judges by João NunoFerreira, who was a director of theTNC15 host organisation, FCT|FCCN.He said: "Kent was instrumental inputting together Djangora and themeans for delivering thousands ofcertificates across Europe. This workwas voluntary and that’s anoutstanding contribution."

The fact that Kent had done allthis work without seeking the limelightwas seen as a plus by the judges."Picking out someone who's not wellknown who's doing somethingfabulous for the community is whatthese awards should do," said João.

ABOUT KENT ENGSTRÖMAND DJANGORAKent Engström is a Systems Expert atthe National Supercomputer Centre atLinköping University in Sweden and

22001155 CCOOMMMMUUNNIITTYY AAWWAARRDDWWIINNNNEERR:: KKEENNTT EENNGGSSTTRRÖÖMM

regularly works with SUNET, theSwedish national research andeducation network (NREN)organisation. Six years ago, when theTCS provider's web interface provedtoo complicated, Kent programmed'Djangora' on top of the secure APIand then maintained it with newversions. Djangora is credited as theessential piece of software that madescaling up delivery of servercertificates and code-signingcertificates possible, and with turningout more than 100,000 certificates.

With the advent of the new TCSservice since 1 July 2015 Djangora isno longer required. However, Kent hascontinued to dedicate his time andexpertise to the new service too.Alessandra Scicchitano, ProjectDevelopment Officer at GÉANTexplains: "Kent has participatedactively in the transition phase, testingthe main features of the new TCS,giving suggestions about new featuresand how to improve the service, on a voluntary basis. Through thistransition, his work has beeninvaluable for me and for the entire community."

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JJIIMM BBUUDDDDIINN ––2266//0077//11997744 TTOO1122//0099//22001155In September, with great sadness GÉANT announced the untimely death of staff member Jim Buddin, who passed away on Saturday 12 Septemberafter a sudden illness. As GÉANT’s training coordinator and, for manyyears, an events organiser, Jim had become well known in our community,especially through the GÉANT Project symposia and online ‘Showcases’,and among the TRANSITS and TF-CSIRT security groups. Known amonghis colleagues for his hard work, loyalty and sardonic wit, Jim has already been much missed.

friendly terms and did biking togetherseveral times. I also remember a drivetogether with a lot of deeper talk. Underhis irony, Jim was very serious - and hada heart for people. A kind soul.”

Bob Day, interim CEO of GÉANTadded on behalf of the whole Board:“These and other tributes all go to showthe respect and affection our communityhad for Jim. We know also how muchhe was an invaluable part of the team inAmsterdam, always ready to help andturn his hand to what was needed. And,as many others have said, with just theright sense of humour to maintain thesanity of all around him. He will truly bemissed.”

These and many other messageswere collated in a booklet by Jim’scolleagues and shared with his familyand fiancée. Any further messages canbe sent to LLaauurraa..DDuurrnnffoorrdd@@ggeeaanntt..oorrgg.

A web page with further informationis at hhttttpp::////wwwwww..ggeeaanntt..oorrgg//NNeewwss__aanndd__EEvveennttss//PPaaggeess//JJiimm__BBuuddddiinn..aassppxx

tone that both trainers and traineesneeded to get the most out of our timetogether. Even though the courses wereoften held in out-of-the-way places, weknew that the organisational thingswould just work and that we didn't needto worry. His suggestions on how wecould improve the training were alwaysgood: a lot of the success of theTRANSITS programme was thanks to him.”

Jacques Schuurman, another of theTRANSITS trainers, said: “Jim was aperson who, in the true spirit of ourcommunity, contributed to its growthand strength, and I do not remember asingle occasion in which something thatwas asked of Jim, proved too much ordifficult for him.”

Don Stikvoort, TRANSITS headtutor, coordinated a letter highlightingmemories of Jim from the global CSIRT(Computer Security Incident ResponseTeam) education community, withsignatures from several world regions. “Iworked closely with Jim for I don't knowhow many years,” he said. “We were on

Within moments of theannouncement beingmade, tributes began to arrive.

“Super Jim" was praised by SabineJaume (Renater) for “his smile, hisenergy, his professionalism”. From withinthe GÉANT Project, Michel Wets andAndres Steijaert expressed theirsadness and how the cloud servicesteam “valued Jim very much in helpingus think about underlying questions. Hewas able to bring out the best in others.That is what a true trainer does and wewill miss him immensely”. On behalf ofCERN, David Foster expressed “ourgreat sadness at Jim’s untimely passing.He served our community so well andwith much enthusiasm. I personally willretain very happy memories of Jim.”

Andrew Cormack first met Jim whenpresenting TRANSITS training coursesfor new Computer Security IncidentResponse Team (CSIRT) staff. “He wasalways a friendly and reassuringpresence at any event. He was an idealhost, setting the relaxed and welcoming

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espite women having along history in ICT (thinkAda Lovelace forstarters), comprising halfthe world’s population

and making up a significant proportionof the professional workforce, they areconsiderably under-represented in thesector - particularly in technical anddecision-making positions. This is widelyrecognised; dozens of ambitiousinitiatives, regional and nationalorganisations, task forces andacademics are studying the issuesbehind this problem and fuelling thesearch for solutions that will usher in anage of true gender diversity and equality.

The motives behind these efforts godeeper than the need for equalopportunities and treatment. Researchshows that diversity benefitsorganisations in terms of productivity,profitability, creativity and innovation.

The EC's “Women active in the ICTsector” report concludes that the lack ofwomen in ICT roles is costing theEuropean economy €9bn in lostrevenue. It found that only 3% of womenhave a degree in ICT subjects comparedwith 9% of men; and that womenstruggle to reach the top roles in thesector with 19% of ICT workers having afemale boss compared with 45% ofnon-ICT workers.

SO HOW IS THE R&E NETWORKINGCOMMUNITY DOINGWHEN IT COMES TOGENDER DIVERSITY?At first glance, it appears that the NRENcommunity, which is closely tied toacademia and government, enjoys agreater diversity compared with theprivate sector. But following a number ofsessions on the subject at TNC15, it isclear we still have a long way to go.

Ann Harding, head of GÉANTproject’s Trust and Identity services anda member of the AAI team at SWITCH,the Swiss NREN, is spearheadingcommunity efforts on the issue, callingon all to join the effort toward solutionsto assure NRENs of a pipeline of femaleICT skills, with an open career path oftheir choosing, from technical tomanagement.

During her Lightning Talk at TNC,Ann described how the idea that girlsare less well equipped for technicalsubjects is rooted in early experiences inwhich “a boy simply makes mistakes asan individual but a girl makes mistakeson behalf of her gender”.

In the panel discussion on Womenin ICT, chaired by Nicole Harris (GÉANT),Cathrin Stöver, GÉANT’s ChiefInternational Relations andCommunications Officer, noted that men tend not to attribute their success

to external factors as women often do -such as luck or a good boss – andurged women to have a stronger beliefin their own abilities.

During her TNC plenary speech,Avis Yates Rivers, President and CEO ofTechnology Concepts GroupInternational, talked about unconsciousbiases that we have at individual andorganisational levels. She sharedresearch and observations on the waysin which gender biases intersect withthose on race, religion and sexuality, aswell as institutional barriers such asbiased recruitment.

There are many differences betweencountries and we have much to learnfrom one another on how to break downdeeply ingrained cultural attitudes, andunconscious biases, towards gender,career and personality stereotypes in the workplace.

WWoorrddssAudrey Gerber(IUCC), andMelaniePankhurst(GÉANT)

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IN FOCUS

PPiiccttuurreessTop: Women in ICT paneldiscussion,TNC15.Nicole Harris(GÉANT), CathrinStöver (GÉANT),Ingrid Melve(UNINETT), Avis Yates Rivers(TechnologyConcepts GroupInternational) andAna Hunsinger(Internet2).

Left: AnnHardingpresenting atTNC15

Actions of course speak louder thanwords, and the NREN community isrising to the challenge. Led by Ann andCathrin, an impromptu BoF session atTNC15 attended by 22 women andmen led to the formation of an onlinecommunity, NREN-WIT.

Active email-list discussions andsharing has begun, and web resourcesare planned for sharing of best practiseand ideas to reduce the gender gap inour community. “These efforts are awork-in-process, and will take time anda lot of collaboration,” says Ann. “Weneed to work together, and build thepractical tools to share information andaffect change but are well on our way.”

CONNECT readers are invited toparticipate in the NREN-WiT community by sending a blank email to: nnrreenn--wwiitt--ssuubbssccrriibbee--rreeqquueesstt@@lliissttsseerrvv..hheeaanneett..iiee.

WHAT CAN WE DO?A FEW DOS AND DON'TS• Don’t lower hiring standards• Don’t slap a boilerplate diversity

statements on job adverts• Don’t form development teams

with just a ‘lone’ diverse engineer• Don’t depend on

underrepresented employeesto advance diversity goals

From “Unconscious Biases: Addressing Stealth Barriers to Innovation & Productivity”’presentation delivered at TNC15 by Avis Yates Rivers, CEO of Technology Concepts Group international and Director, National Center for Women & IT (NC-WIT)

• Do remove biased languagefrom job descriptions

• Do evaluate interview questionsand include diverse representation

• Do audit physical spaces, andreview processes for unconsciousbiases

• Do assure inclusive teammeetings and social events

LEARN MOREHeForShe-UN Solidarity Movement forGender Equalityhhttttpp::////wwwwww..hheeffoorrsshhee..oorrgg//

The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)hhttttppss::////wwwwww..nnccwwiitt..oorrgg//

TNC2015 Presentationshhttttppss::////ttnncc1155..tteerreennaa..oorrgg//ccoorree//pprreesseennttaattiioonn//117744hhttttppss::////ttnncc1155..tteerreennaa..oorrgg//ccoorree//pprreesseennttaattiioonn//119911hhttttpp::////wwwwww..ggeeaanntt..oorrgg//NNeewwss__aanndd__EEvveennttss//PPaaggeess//iimmppoorrttaannccee--ooff--wwoommeenn--iinn--IICCTT..aassppxx

International Girls in ICT @ITUhhttttpp::////wwwwww..iittuu..iinntt//eenn//aaccttiioonn//wwoommeenn//ggiirrllss--iicctt--ddaayy//PPaaggeess//22001155..aassppxx

EC Digital Agenda for EuropeInitiativeshhttttppss::////eecc..eeuurrooppaa..eeuu//ddiiggiittaall--aaggeennddaa//eenn//wwoommeenn--iicctthhttttppss::////eecc..eeuurrooppaa..eeuu//ddiiggiittaall--aaggeennddaa//eenn//ppiillllaarr--vvii--eennhhaanncciinngg--ddiiggiittaall--lliitteerraaccyy--sskkiillllss--aanndd--iinncclluussiioonn//aaccttiioonn--6600--iinnccrreeaassee--ppaarrttiicciippaattiioonn--wwoommeenn--iicctt

Every Girls Digital FacebookCommunityhhttttppss::////wwwwww..ffaacceebbooookk..ccoomm//ggiirrllssddiiggiittaall

Ada Awards Recognisingoutstanding girls and women in digital fields hhttttpp::////aaddaaaawwaarrddss..ccoomm//

Women in HPChhttttpp::////wwwwww..wwoommeenniinnhhppcc..oorrgg..uukk//

Anita Borg Institutehhttttpp::////aanniittaabboorrgg..oorrgg//

Grace Hopper - Celebration ofWomen in Computinghhttttpp::////ggrraacceehhooppppeerr..oorrgg//aabboouutt//

Women active in the ICT sectorhhttttpp::////eeuurrooppaa..eeuu//rraappiidd//pprreessss--rreelleeaassee__IIPP--1133--990055__eenn..hhttmm

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TTHHEE GGÉÉAANNTT NNEETTWWOOrrkk::CCOOssTT--EEffffEECCTTIIvvEE AANNDDllEEAADDIINNGG--EEDDGGEE NNEEEEDD NNOOTT bbEE mmuuTTuuAAllllyyEExxCClluussIIvvEEmArk jOHNsTON, CHIEf NETWOrk OpErATIONs OffICEr, GÉANT

e GÉANT network is one of the most advanced terabitnetworks in the world. We have an infrastructure that delivers anexcellent user experience and gives European researchers a datanetwork for today—and one secured to meet future needs.

WWOOrrkk HHAAss OONNllyy jjuussTTbbEEGGuuNN To build the current network is a huge achievement, but the workhas only really just started. We need to ensure GÉANT deliversoperational excellence and remains at the leading-edge ofnetworking technology.

Doing this and operating a cost effective network aresomewhat contradictory, and I think there’s still a gap in people’sunderstanding of what’s needed to keep the GÉANT networkperforming in the way users demand.

Compare building the GÉANT network to buying a house.It’s not just a case of laying down the deposit and securing themortgage. ere’s the total cost of ownership to consider.

The GÉANT network was upgraded to be 100Gbpscapable and to be able to provision large volumes ofcapacity rapidly and simply. Operating a highperformance 100Gbps capable network that delivers

uncontended bandwidth is inherently expensive. e pressurescreated by the Eurozone uncertainty, reduced governmentincomes and the start of Horizon 2020, leading to a changing ECagenda resulted in pressures from the community to reduce thecost of the GEANT network.

ere is a programme of continual improvement that runswithin GEANT Operations with a focus on continualoptimisation of the network and the way we work to increaseefficiency and effectiveness and to ensure costs are controlled anddriven down. Even so in 2014, an even greater focus had to beapplied to very quickly to address the cost of the network andredesign parts that had only been built in 2012. is requiredclose collaboration with the community to ensure everyone’s needs were met while driving down costs as value for money was a concern.

One of my biggest challenges is addressing the short-term demands ofmultiple users, while also evolving the network for the future. Against abackdrop of Qnancial uncertainty, we also have the additional challenge of not just doing the same with less, but doing more with less.

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e ongoing maintenance and repairs. e Qxtures and Qttings.e renovations and upgrades. you’ve got to keep that housesecure and running efficiently—then update it as necessary. peoplehave short memories – we need to remember that investment isrequired after the initial purchase.

yyEEAArr--OONN--yyEEAArr IINNvvEEssTTmmEENNTTTo keep the network running efficiently, we must continually ask:how can we better deliver services and network infrastructure?How can we utilise resources differently? How can we offer valuefor money and keep pushing the boundaries of networking? isrequires year-on-year investment.

After all, pushing the boundaries is one of the reasons we’rehere. And it’s why the EC regards GÉANT so highly. We’re hereto implement next-generation networking technologies—toprovide scientists and researchers with uncontended capacity—toenable them to do great things. And to keep Europe at theforefront of research and networking innovation.

As I mentioned earlier, I think there are misunderstandingswithin the community of what is needed to keep the GÉANTnetwork running and performing in the way users demand. In thepast, we’ve struggled to communicate the complexities around thedecisions we make and the costs associated with the network, tothe wider community. As a result, I think we’ve suffered from afew misconceptions.

uuNNDDEErrssTTAANNDDIINNGG AANNDDCCOOmmmmuuNNIICCAATTIINNGGOOppEErrAATTIIOONNAAll CCOOssTTss A 100Gbps network is expensive. Operational Qbre networks areexpensive. Operating latest-generation technology is expensive.beyond the initial investment, there will always be crucialincremental and long-term costs, for a network with suchcapabilities and capacity. I needed to ensure this was fullyappreciated by the community.

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so in 2014 we put together brieQngs to make the networkcosts more visible and transparent, to explain why the networkcost what it did and how much we spend on the various networkcomponents: Qbre, lease circuits, support, pop housing – as well ashow much we typically have to invest each year to meet thegrowing needs of the community.

is culminated with a presentation to GÉANT’s members inDecember 2014, during which we shared the cost make-up andcategories of spend. At the same time we went through our plansto address those costs—and these were very well received.

ppuuTTTTIINNGG ppllAANNss IINNTTOOAACCTTIIOONN In 2015, we set to work putting the plans into action. Our team,together with procurement, have cut the cost of operating theservice desk by €250k. We’ve reduced transatlantic connectivitycosts by €500k and saved over €1m on European lease lines. We’veavoided spending over €1m on equipment by better utilisingnetwork resources. And we’ve saved a further €250k fromoptimising network infrastructure.

We’re in the process of putting together a deal to save €300kon pop housing and will soon be signing another to save €400kon support for the InQnera optical platform, while obtaining a€300k saving on hardware.

We’re also working to reduce the support costs of theIp/mpls platform. We’ve achieved everything we said we would;but 2016 will be the Qrst year where we will be signiQcantlybalancing the reduction of costs with investing for the future.

DDOOIINNGG mmOOrrEE WWIITTHH llEEssss::TTHHEE ffuuTTuurrEEIn 2016 we’re looking at the longer term evolution of the network,beyond the expiration of the Qbre connects in 2020. A big focus ofthat work will be to investigate and develop plans to use moreNrEN infrastructure so the costs of the GÉANT network can besigniQcantly reduced by using infrastructure that the NrENs havein place to meet their national needs, rather than buyingindependent infrastructure to build this pan-European network.We’ll be doing a lot of work to understand how we join theNrENs national networks together to create an internationalinfrastructure.

We also want to take advantage of the research workundertaken by the joint research Activities (jrAs) as part of theGÉANT project. for instance, we’re starting to see there’spotentially production ready sDN solutions that we need toevaluate.

I need to make sure that the money to invest in those changesis protected. We spend a lot of time working with procurement,looking at contracts, market trends, anywhere we can get lowermarket rates or take advantage of market price erosion.

We’re always considering how we could do things differentlyto reduce costs without reducing effectiveness. for example we’relooking at supporting the equipment in the Qeld with communityresource rather than paying vendors for this service; if this isfeasible we will investigate to come to a conclusion. support for all the equipment deployed in over 100 locations across Europe is expensive. e implications to availability and time to repairhave to be thoroughly assessed – so we don’t impact the service we provide.

With over 100 suppliers to manage, it takes a lot of time andresource. We need to balance this carefully to ensure we don’t takevaluable resource away from the network, while keeping enoughback to reQne and evaluate better ways of doing things.

CCOOmmppAArrIINNGG rr&&EENNEETTWWOOrrkkss WWIITTHHCCOOmmmmEErrCCIIAAll NNEETTWWOOrrkkssWith economic uncertainty comes belt tightening. e fundingstreams of our National research and Education Network(NrEN) partners appear less certain and we’ve seen peoplecomparing GÉANT network costs against commercially available Ip transit.

but you can’t design an r&E network to have the sameeconomics as commercial Isps—they’re doing two differentthings. r&E networks are designed for high performance andhigh availability. ey’re built to support high throughputs andbursts of traffic, rather than highly contended best efforts traffic.

so the cost per megabit is going to be very different. Andwhilst there may be doubts over GÉANT using resources to carrytraffic destined for the internet (the GÉANT Open service) if thiscan be done at very little incremental cost and at the same timesave our members money, it does make sense. Certainly, as morer&E e-infrastructures are being formed out of commercial e-infrastructures, so more and more traffic to the internet is nowclassiQed as research traffic – again blurring the lines.

is is one of our biggest challenges: to meet the needs ofresearchers who need high capacity and high performance, andthose of who need more standard commercial type services. We work very hard to balance the needs of all NrENs whiledelivering a cost effective network.

OOppEENN CCOOmmmmuuNNIICCAATTIIOONN We need to ensure GÉANT’s members have complete conQdencein our ability to provide a cost-effective network, and fulltransparency about costs and cost-saving plans is crucial to this.erefore, going forward we’ll be communicating regularly on theprogress of making those savings.

When we reported back to our members in february 2015,we showed that we can deliver cost savings, while securing thefuture of network. but the pressure is still on to do more—and thechallenge ahead is signiQcant. I’m conQdent we can continue toevolve the network at a sustainable rate, as long as we seek outRexible solutions that scale and grow with the needs of individual NrENs.

I’d like to end this post by extending an openinvitation to anyone in the community—ourpartners and members—to visit us here inCambridge. my team and I would welcome theopportunity to show you what we do here inoperations, to show you what we are doing everyday to ensure maximum value for money, and toanswer your questions. If a trip to Cambridge istoo far, you can also call me directly on +44 1223 371374 or write to me atmmaarrkk..jjoohhnnssttoonn@@ggeeaanntt..oorrgg.

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GGÉÉAANNTT TTEESSTTBBEEDDMMAAKKEESS NNEETTWWOORRKKUUPPGGRRAADDEESS EEAASSIIEERR

WWHHAATT DDOOEESS TTHHEETTEESSTTBBEEDD AARRCCHHIITTEECCTTUURREELLOOOOKK LLIIKKEE??“Our testbed has three layers. FourJuniper MX routers simulate the GÉANTcore. Customer edge routers simulateNREN connections and a set of virtualmachines simulate NREN traffic. Wealso go a level deeper to simulate theGÉANT backend with netflow collectors,packet sniffing hosts, traffic generationsoftware to generate unicast andmulticast traffic over IPv4 and IPV6.”

IISS TTHHEE TTEESSTTBBEEDDCCOOMMPPLLEETTEELLYYOOPPEERRAATTIIOONNAALL??“We have completed the baselinecertification on the current productionenvironment. We are still ramping upand expect to be able to complete typecertification testing on target codeversions within a two week period.James Burnett is working on this fulltime. Aleksandr Kurbatov, Niall Donaghyand Sebastiano Buscaglione and I workon it in our ‘spare time’. Eventually weexpect our Network Engineering teamwill be able to keep the testbed up andrunning as part of their regular workload.”

HHOOWW DDOOEESS GGÉÉAANNTTBBEENNEEFFIITT FFRROOMM TTHHEETTEESSTTBBEEDD??“By verifying new versions of code andtesting if new services work and do notadversely affect network performance,we get a real head start on smoothupgrades and updates. Also, if we dofind bugs in the lab environment, we canfix them and check the fixes. In the end,this will result in a better performingproduction network. And because wehelp our vendors discover problemsthey may never even know existed, weare like ‘beta users’ and maintain a closeworking relationship with them. In fact,Juniper added GÉANT’s routerconfiguration to their regression testing”.The bottom line is that the testbed savesGÉANT time, reduces downtime andhelps us be more responsive to ourusers’ needs”.

WWHHEERREE DDIIDD TTHHEE IIDDEEAA OOFF DDEEVVEELLOOPPIINNGG TTHHEETTEESSTTBBEEDD CCOOMMEE FFRROOMM??“It was actually developed organically.Upgrades invariably mean finding bugs,stopping work, rolling back, findingworkarounds, or waiting for the vendorto find a fix. All this means delays inscheduled upgrades, support andservice roll out.

“The fact that we find these bugs isno surprise. Despite the fact that ournetwork deploys hardware and softwarefrom leading vendors like Juniper andCisco, a lot of what we do is not typicalfor our vendors’ ISP customers. LikeMDVPN or multicast. When we querythese bugs, we often can’t find anythingin the knowledge bases. If we had aplace to stress the software exactly thesame way it is used in production andrun a known set of certifications, wecould anticipate problems before theyoccur and avoid delays. That’s how theidea for the testbed was born just ashort time ago.”

Imagine when notice of a networkupgrade doesn’t conjure up images offrantic backups, reworking schedulesand making sure there is enough

coffee for the anticipated “all-nighters”ahead. GÉANT’s Network Engineeringteam have found a way to make thedream of easier, faster and painlessupgrades become a reality.

The GÉANT network testbed is ascale replica of the entire productionnetwork that lets GÉANT networkengineers stress software to duplicatereal production conditions to accuratelyevaluate the impact of the proposedchanges on services and hardwareperformance.

Rick Havern, GÉANT Head ofNetwork Engineering, tells CONNECThow this testbed lab came into being,how it makes the network more agileand how it keeps GÉANT on top of the‘’power curve” with cutting edgenetwork technology.

IInntteerrvviieewwAudrey Gerber,IUCC

PPiiccttuurreeLeft to right:SebastianoBuscaglione,AleksandrKurbatov, James Burnettand Rick Havern

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EEDDUURROOAAMM BBEEYYOONNDD TTHHEECCAAMMPPUUSS

EEDDUURROOAAMM VVIISSIITTOORRAACCCCEESSSS ((EEVVAA))Institutions in the Netherlands cannow offer eduroam to visitors too,by using the eduroam VisitorAccess service. Since February2015 the ROC MN school isoffering eVA through receptiondesks in all school buildings, whichare spread over six townsthroughout the country. Temporarypersonal visitor accounts are givento individuals. It is also possible toprovide secure eduroam access tolarge groups of visitors duringevents and seminars. Frank Pinxt,ICT Manager at ROC MN: “Visitors are very happy with this service,and it works great!”

both the country’s second-largest townEsch-sur-Alzette and LuxembourgInternational Airport offer eduroam.

TTHHEE NNEETTHHEERRLLAANNDDSSSURFnet, the Dutch NREN and inventorof eduroam, has of course adopted itright from the start. Throughout thecountry, eduroam is heavily used ineducation and research institutions. Agood example is the ROC Midden-Nederland school. They are one of thebiggest educational organisations in theNetherlands, catering to over 28,000students, and they’ve been usingeduroam for over ten years.

Frank Pinxt, ICT Manager at ROCMidden-Nederland says, “We’re veryhappy with eduroam, especially sinceour organisation doesn’t need toconfigure and maintain it. On top of that,outages are almost non-existent. Another benefit is that we can useeduroam outside of the school premisesas well. Recently, I experienced thismyself, when I had to visit a hospital inAarhus (Denmark). When I was waitingin the hallway, all of a sudden I sawemail messages coming in, and Idiscovered I was automaticallyconnected to eduroam.”

David Foster, Deputy head of the ITdepartment at CERN, underlines theimportance of eduroam: “Collaborationis fundamental to global research andCERN is a first class example of globalscience collaboration. It is importantthen that the tools and infrastructure thatfacilitate global collaboration aredeveloped and deployed. This is whyCERN supports the ability forresearchers to be connected whereverthey are, and eduroam is key to gettingconnectivity, anywhere, anytime, in atrusted and easy manner. Theinstallation of eduroam at Geneva airportis a great service for the manyresearchers and students that travel toand from CERN and extends the reachof eduroam in Switzerland.”

NNOORRWWAAYYIn Norway, the use of eduroam is evenmore widespread: the nineteen biggestairports in the country all offer theservice. Additionally, in several townsthere’s eduroam coverage in publicspaces, offered by the local university.“Trådløse Trondheim” (WirelessTrondheim) provides coverage at anumber of addresses throughout thecity and a similar solution is provided inKristiansand. Similarly, eduroam isprovided in a number of hospitalsthroughout the country. In the future,UNINETT hopes to expand the serviceto secondary schools as well.

LLUUXXEEMMBBOOUURRGGThe ability to expand eduroam beyondthe education community issuccessfully demonstrated inLuxembourg, where a partnership existsbetween RESTENA (the LuxembourgNREN) and hotcity S.A. which owns aWi-Fi infrastructure in many places,including the downtown areas of themajor cities. This partnership deliverseduroam to a big percentage of theLuxembourg populace in denselypopulated areas. eduroam usage data(March-July 2014) shows that onaverage more than 10,000 distinctdevices are connected in any givenmonth, most of which belong tostudents of the University ofLuxembourg. Outside of the capital,

EEUURROOPPEE LLEEAADDIINNGG TTHHEEWWAAYY IINN EEDDUURROOAAMMAACCCCEESSSSeduroam has grown substantially overmore than a decade and now GÉANTwants to push the boundaries further byinviting public, commercial and city Wi-Fi initiatives to offer the service.Already eduroam can be found inairports, city centres and other publicspaces throughout Europe. Someforerunners can be found in Switzerland,Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands,and in Sweden.

SSWWIITTZZEERRLLAANNDDSWITCH, the Swiss National Researchand Education Network (NREN) haspushed the eduroam service beyonduniversities, schools and research labs.In Switzerland, you can also useeduroam in the university hospital ofBern, in libraries (Zentralbibliothek,Zürich; Pädagogisches Zentrum, Basel-Stadt / Bibliothek) and last but not leastat Geneva Airport.

WWHHAATT IISS EEDDUURROOAAMM??eduroam (education roaming) isthe secure, worldwide roamingaccess service developed for theinternational research andeducation community. Since itslaunch in Europe in 2003,eduroam has gained popularitythroughout the research andeducation community and is nowavailable in 74 territoriesworldwide. eduroam allowsstudents, researchers and stafffrom participating institutions toobtain internet connectivity acrosscampus and when visiting otherparticipating institutions quicklyand easily without the need to findlocal login details. The next stepfor eduroam is to further expandinto public places, to provide anever-increasing mobile platform for its users.

WWoorrddssKarim Mostafi,GÉANT

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EEDDUURROOAAMM CCOONNQQUUEERRSS SSWWEEDDEENN

Pär Weilow is the Product Ownerin charge of mobile solutions atSwedavia Airport Telecom AB. Henotices a keen demand for the service.“In May 2012 we started offering freeWi-Fi connections to all visitorsthroughout all Swedavia airports. Atthat point, we had to restrict the usage,but that was not a popular move.Despite quite generous amounts ofdata we soon got feedback from manycustomers about the data limitations.But, when we launched eduroam thecomplaints almost disappeared. Itturns out it was mostly studentscomplaining about restricted usage ofWi-Fi. Overall, airport visitors are acrowd that expect excellence, and Wi-Fi is an extremely important part of theexperience. So, today we are veryhappy to be able to offer eduroamtogether with SUNET and The Cloud.”

Roald Sandén, General Managerof The Cloud Nordics adds: ”Thebenefit from the eduroam service isapparent not only for the users, butalso for our venue partners in allsegments.” He continues: ”Thetransport segment where we cover theairports in cooperation with AirportTelecom, and the railway stations incooperation with Jernhusen was theinitial focus, but the benefit of offeringservices in the public, hospitality, andretail/fast food sectors is also obviousfor our partners in those segments.”

What is in the pipeline when itcomes to eduroam? The target isthreefold: Increasing awareness abouteduroam amongst students, lookinginto monitoring of the service andsetting up automatic testing. “Two veryexiting things ahead are firstly, anagreement with the Swedish schoolfederation in order to provide eduroamin all elementary schools, says MariaHäll, in charge of SUNET. “Andsecondly, we need to make a neweduroam procurement, within a coupleof years from now.”

Sweden is a worldwide leaderwhen it comes to public ICTinfrastructure, and so it’s easyto understand why it’s one of

the leading countries in offeringeduroam in public spaces.

eduroam was initially offered toSwedish universities and colleges, andalmost all of them run eduroam today.More than 100,000 unique devices areauthenticated per month, roughly500,000 individuals are active withinhigher education in Sweden. Theimplementation and usage of eduroamin Sweden has indeed been a greatsuccess, but Sweden is aiming even higher.

The Swedish National Researchand Education Network SUNET soughta partner to provide eduroam in placeswhere students hang out outsidenormal campus areas. The solutionthat was chosen is to offer eduroam viaSUNET’s provider The Cloud throughtheir existing access points, says ValterNordh who is in charge of eduroam atSUNET, Sweden.

The first places targeted weretravel hubs, such as airports andrailway stations. Today, SUNET canprovide eduroam in 934 locationsthrough 16,146 access points all overSweden. The locations are universitiesand colleges, municipalities as well ascommercial venues. City centers,railway stations, ten of Sweden’sairports, ferry terminals, municipalbuses and libraries. Hotels, fast foodrestaurants, cafés, gas stations andmalls also offer connection througheduroam.

Stockholm Arlanda Airport is thebiggest airport in Sweden with morethan 22 million passengers on a yearly(2014) basis. Stockholm ArlandaAirport is operated by Swedavia AB, aSwedish nationally owned companythat owns and runs ten major airports.In total more than 35 millionpassengers are travelling fromSwedavias ten airports (2014).

Some of the commercial venues providing eduroam in Sweden:

HHootteellss::Best Western Park InnClarion RadissonFirst Hotel Quality Hotel

RReessttaauurraannttss,, ccaaffééss && bbaarrss::Burger King O’LearysStarbucks Stars and StripesBarista

SSwweeddaavviiaa AABB iiss aa SSwweeddiisshh nnaattiioonnaallllyy oowwnneeddccoommppaannyy,, wwhhiicchh oowwnnss aanndd ooppeerraatteess tthhee tteenn mmaajjoorraaiirrppoorrttss ooff SSwweeddeenn::

Åre Östersund AirportGothenburg-Landvetter AirportKiruna AirportLuleå AirportMalmö AirportRonneby AirportStockholm-Arlanda AirportStockholm-Bromma AirportUmeå AirportVisby Airport

LLiinnkkss::hhttttppss::////mmeettaa..eedduurrooaamm..ssee//hhttttpp::////wwwwww..tthheecclloouudd..nneett//hhttttppss::////eenn..wwiikkiippeeddiiaa..oorrgg//wwiikkii//SSwweeddaavviiaa

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EEDDUUGGAAIINN GGAAIINNSSTTRRAACCTTIIOONN IINNGGRREEEECCEECCRROOSSSSIINNGG OOCCEEAANNSS TTOO CCOONNNNEECCTTThe appropriately named ~okeanos service is an ambitious Infrastructureas a Service (IaaS) rolled out by GRNET, Greece’s NREN in 2011. Okeanosis the Greek word for ocean – a symbol of abundance. Oceans are a forcethat transforms our world by storing and delivering energy, oxygen and life to our planet – an unfailing well of resources.

AANN IINNTTUUIITTIIVVEE,, SSIIMMPPLLEEAANNDD EEFFFFEECCTTIIVVEEAAPPPPRROOAACCHH TTOO AACCHHIIEEVVEEEEUURROOPPEEAANN--WWIIDDEE AAAAIIIINNFFRRAASSTTRRUUCCTTUURREEThe eduGAIN interfederation serviceenables Identity Federations to uniteacademic and research institutions andparticipate in a global network viaREFEDs (Research & EducationFederations). This allows users toseamlessly connect and collaborate withcolleagues across the globe via WebSingle Sign On (Web SSO) and ensurestrustworthy and secure identity,authentication and authorization, locallyand in collaboration with partnersaround the world. With simplifiedadministration, institutions only have tobe responsible for their own users’accounts. Content providers andmember institutions can reach a largeracademic audience with more services,and users enjoy a diverse serviceportfolio.

eduGAIN is leading the way for moreintuitive, simpler access and increasedservice adoption throughout the GÉANTnetwork.

Every day over 40 federationsacross the globe participate in, or are inthe process of joining eduGAIN, withapproximately 1,500 identity providersand 1000 service providers. eduGAIN ishelping them to leverage the power ofonline services that are crucial toresearch and education.

When the developers of ~okeanosexpanded their reach to offer theservices to the global R&E community,having eduGAIN in place and workinghelped them gain visibility for the servicethroughout the world. According toPanos Louridas, project manager forGRNET’s cloud initiatives, this “softpower” approach has paid off. “Weknow a great deal of people have used~okeanos-global, and so through thatthey have become more familiar with ourservices. Today, we have users all overthe world adopting ~okeanos. Webelieve that this growth comes fromspreading knowledge by word-of-mouth, so the investment in theeduGAIN infrastructure has paid off.”

Based on this success, GRNET isconsidering integrating more “GRNET-grown” services via eduGAIN. “For quitea while, we have been operating aproduction quality e-polling and surveysystem called Zeus. The next step is tomake it available throughout GÉANT sothat people can carry out fullyanonymised, verifiable surveys and polls,rather than relying on Doodle orproprietary systems.”

~okeanos delivers production-qualityIaaS to the Greek Academic andResearch Community so that students,professors, and researchers can diveinto the 'ocean' for free and get the fullpower of virtual infrastructures incomputing, networking and storage –easily and cost effectively. The service isrun from their own data centres, overtheir own dark fibre network.

What this means is that users can“build” their own computer, alwaysconnected to the Internet, withoutworrying about hardware failures,spaghetti cables, connectivity hiccupsand software troubles. Users canmanage, destroy, connect and doalmost anything they like to the virtualmachines and network all from insidetheir favourite web browser. They canalso store your files online, share themand access them anytime, fromanywhere in the world.

Is the spirit of making computingand access as easy as possible, GRNEToffers federated login using Shibboleth.This has enabled GRNET to offer~okeanos-global (hhttttppss::////ookkeeaannooss--gglloobbaall..ggrrnneett..ggrr), an ~okeanosinstallation available through eduGAIN.Greek ~okeanos users have alwaysbeen able to use the same credentialsthey use to login to university orresearch centre accounts; eduGAINusers can also get a taste of ~okeanosby using their home credentials to loginto ~okeanos-global.

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GGÉÉAANNTT’’SS OONNOOSS IICCOONNAADDEEPPLLOOYYMMEENNTT DDEELLIIVVEERRSSBBEENNEEFFIITTSS OOFF OOPPEENN SSOOUURRCCEESSDDNN TTOO EEUURROOPPEE’’SS RREESSEEAARRCCHHAANNDD EEDDUUCCAATTIIOONN NNEETTWWOORRKKSS

experimentation and early pilotdeployments of new technology ordistributed applications.

“ON.Lab and its ONOS networkoperating systems are a great exampleof emergent network paradigms thatwould be difficult or impossible to test orevaluate at full European scale withoutthe infrastructure provided by theGÉANT network and the virtualizationcapabilities provided by the GÉANTTestbeds Service,” said Jerry Sobieski,GTS Activity Leader.

“We are thrilled to support andcollaborate directly and through GÉANTto the development and research in newnetworking technologies using theONOS platform,” says GARR Researchand Development Coordinator, MauroCampanella. ”A joint international effortgreatly facilitates the innovation towardsan open source SDN productionenvironment.”

Links:hhttttpp::////sseerrvviicceess..ggeeaanntt..nneett//ggttsshhttttpp::////oonnoosspprroojjeecctt..oorrgg//hhttttpp::////oonnllaabb..uuss//hhttttpp::////wwwwww..ccrreeaattee--nneett..oorrgg//

In August, GÉANT and the Opensource SDN Network OperatingSystem (ONOS) community activelydeployed ONOS on the GÉANT

Testbeds Service network allowingresearchers to define, build, test andrebuild highly scalable, high capacityvirtual networks quickly, easily and cost-effectively.

The research experiment inGÉANT’s Testbeds Service is running anew Inter Cluster ONOS NetworkApplication (ICONA) – developed byCREATE-NET and the University ofRome Tor Vergata/CNIT in collaborationwith the ONOS project – to manage theintercommunication of geographicallydistributed ONOS clusters and deliverfaster controller response time duringnetwork events such as failures orcongested links.

For similar experiments,organisations may connect to a networkslice offered on the GÉANT TestbedsService (GTS), a virtual networkenvironment where pools of virtualizedresources can be programmed andreserved using a Domain SpecificLanguage to create and accesspowerful self-contained networks for

GGTTSS TTEECCHH++FFUUTTUURREESS WWOORRKKSSHHOOPP –– BBUUIILLDDIINNGG AA RROOAADDMMAAPP FFOORR TTHHEE FFUUTTUURREE OOFF GGTTSSIn order to help guide future developments in GTS and tointroduce potential new users to GTS in GÉANT isrunning a GTS Tech+Futures Workshop at theNORDUnet offices at Kastrup, Denmark on 20-22October.

The primary purpose of this Workshop is to gatherinformation for the evolution of the GÉANT TestbedsService and discuss new features and a long-termroadmap. There will also be a large community ofinterested GTS users to share experiences and see howtheir know-how and proficiency can affect GÉANT andsteer the evolution of the GÉANT Testbeds Service. Thiswill help set the future direction, feature sets, anddevelopment priorities. The workshop will also be of great interest to researcherswho may not have had a chance to try out the TestbedsService and are new to GTS, but are searching for anetwork platform to support their experiments.

For more information visit services.geant.net/gts orthe events booking page athhttttppss::////eevveennttss..nnoorrdduu..nneett//ddiissppllaayy//GGNN44SSAA22//WWeellccoommee

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WWIIRREELLEESSSSCCRROOWWDDSSOOUURRCCEEDDPPEERRFFOORRMMAANNCCEEMMOONNIITTOORRIINNGG AANNDDVVEERRIIFFIICCAATTIIOONNYour wireless network rocks, or sucks, depending on who you ask and whenyou ask them. The problem can be attributed to a range of components inthe provision of a service but we often can’t tell which until it’s too late.

WWHHAATT IITT DDOOEESSOnce we have this in place, we canlearn what’s going on. Nothing replacesthe objective measurements fromprobes or a network managementsystem. But we can add to this theexperience of users on their owndevices:

• If a number of users in a single roomshow poor performance, there’s a problem in that room.

• If a single device shows poor performance in many locations, it’s probably a problem with the device.

points. It turns out that most of theingredients for this are already in place.So for troubleshooting, the address-to-device mapping is already recorded bywireless networks.

But how do we run the performancetests? If we ask the user to run an app,we’ll get occasional results but not abroad, ongoing view of the network.However, much like APNIC’s use ofadvertisements to test DNS and IPv6connectivity [1], we can use JavaScripton a frequently-visited website (such asa virtual learning environment [VLE] or aconference program) to run our ownseries of tests.

When a user reports aproblem with wirelessconnectivity on campus,often the data for

troubleshooting isn’t available. So was it their device? Was the room toocrowded with devices competing forwireless connectivity? Is there faultyequipment? Have we under provisionedthe network for the number of users?And typically the only information thehelpdesk gets is that “the internet is tooslow.” All the helpdesk can do is sendsomeone to the room after everyone hasleft - which is often too late. Our usualapproach of attempting to replicate theproblem fails. There has to be a better way.

AANN AAPPPPRROOAACCHHToday, a helpdesk has three mainsources of information on performancemeasurement:

• The access points and controllers themselves.

• Network Management Systems, including probes that periodically provide objective tests.

• The end user’s device.

We think that on a user’s device, itdoesn’t pay proper attention today. Itwould change a lot if we could get abetter view of what the experience isreally like on the device. What we wouldneed to do then, is find a way to runnon-invasive bandwidth tests on users’devices, report the results back, andcoordinate them by clusters of access

This is much clearer! Most of theresults are clustered in a range of about20-30ms (milliseconds), which shows apretty healthy network. There areoutliers, but none are repeated, so itdoesn’t look like any device wasshowing a particular problem. Andclearest of all, at the bottom you can seeno test took less than about 40ms or so- showing the distance to our test serverin another city.

HHOOWW TTOOPPAARRTTIICCIIPPAATTEEWe are thrilled with the results fromTNC15, but we’re even more excitedabout iterating on it, and deploying atmore sites as we develop now. Thisproject comes from a real world problemidentified by one of HEAnet’s clients, and we’re very interested in hearing fromany institutions that would be interestedin trying it out or working with us on a service angle. If you are interested in please contact us at ggnn44--11--ssaa33tt33wwiiffiimmoonn@@lliissttss..ggeeaanntt..oorrgg.

RREEFFEERREENNCCEESS:: [1] hhttttpp::////ssttaattss..llaabbss..aappnniicc..nneett//iippvv66//

and hhttttpp::////ssttaattss..llaabbss..aappnniicc..nneett//ddnnsssseecc

[2] hhttttppss::////ccooddee..ggooooggllee..ccoomm//pp//nneetttteesstt//

[3] hhttttpp::////ggeeaanntt..2233vviiddeeoo..ccoomm//ttnncc1155--88aa--tthhuunnddeerrccllaapp--ttaallkkssbeginning at 39m30s.

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AABBOOUUTT TTHHEE AAUUTTHHOORRSS:: Dave Wilson (HEAnet) is Service Desk Manager forHEAnet, the Irish NREN. Having previously worked onNaaS and Bandwidth on Demand, he is now mounting apersonal battle against the phrase "The internet is slow."Contact at: ddaavvee..wwiillssoonn@@hheeaanneett..iiee

James Healy has been Network Manager at Dublin CityUniversity for over twenty years. He is always looking tomake his life easier. His goal has been to build a networkinfrastructure that allows him to go and play golf in theafternoons (not that he plays golf, but would like theoption anyway). Contact at: jjaammeess..hheeaallyy@@ddccuu..iiee

Vasileios Kokkinos (CTI), PhD, Computer and InformaticsEngineer at Research Unit 6 of Computer TechnologyInstitute and Press "Diophantus" and member of GN4-1-SA3T3. Contact at: kkookkkkiinnooss@@ccttii..ggrr

Kostas Stamos (CTI), PhD, Computer and InformaticsEngineer at Research Unit 6 of Computer TechnologyInstitute and Press "Diophantus" and member of GN4-1-SA3T3. Contact at: ssttaammooss@@ccttii..ggrr

Arne Oslebo (UNINETT), PhD NTNU, ProjectLeader/Technical Architect at UNINETT. Contact at:aarrnnee..oosslleebboo@@uunniinneetttt..nnoo

Jiri Melnikov works as an administrator of high-resolutionmultimedia laboratory in CESNET, the Czech NREN.Currently developing applications for displaying andrecording high-resolution content on tiled display wallsand video transmissions in real-time with minimal latency.Contact at: jjiirrii@@mmeellnniikkooffff..oorrgg

Kurt Baumann (SWITCH), MSc UZH in mathematics,Project Leader/System engineer at SWITCH and TLGN4-1-SA3T3. Contact at: kkuurrtt..bbaauummaannnn@@sswwiittcchh..cchh

As a picture builds up over time, we canevaluate this information that may beuseful, e.g. for capacity planning.

AA FFIIRRSSTT TTRRIIAALL –– TTNNCC1155 IINN PPOORRTTOO,,JJUUNNEE 22001155But that’s all very well in theory. Wewanted to try it out, somewhere wecould find a few hundred people whowould all be repeatedly visiting the samewebsite. We asked the TNC web teamto add Nettest [2] on the TNC15website. We IP locked it so the testswouldn’t trigger for people who are off-site. Then, during the week of theconference, we got to work analysingthe RADIUS logs so we could work outwhich test came from which room. Itworked! After performing some combat-scripting and analysis over the firstcouple of days, we presented the resultsduring the lightning talk session on thepenultimate day of the conference [3].Now that we’ve had a bit of time to lookat them, here are some more results.

The first image is the downloadspeeds we saw in the plenary room overthe whole week. Each symbol is adifferent access point. We were a littledisappointed when we saw this at first –there’s no clear pattern to pick out. The image size we picked, 1 megabyte,was probably too small to get reliablemeasurements. But then we looked at latency.

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WWEEBBRRTTCC ––WWAALLKKIINNGG TTHHEE TTAALLKK

the cloud service delivery activity ofGÉANT is working closely together withthe real time communication experts toensure the balance.

Moreover, the GÉANT task force onWebRTC - that is open to all interestedcommunities, even to commercials andindustry - is liaising with the GÉANTProject to shed light on all the possibleaspects of this disruptive technologyand its obvious benefits for the researchand education community.

The demand for these services isundoubted as can be clearly seen by thesuccess of the Rendez-vous service ofRENATER. Therefore, the GÉANTproject has decided to not just talk butwalk and build a GÉANT infrastructure ofWebRTC compliant video servers usingthe Jitsi open source software platform.RENATER, NIIF and NORDUnet havealready engaged while GRNET,SURFnet, FCT and UNINETT areconsidering joining the infrastructure. Anopen Application Programming Interface(API) will also be available to this multi-NREN Jitsi platform and will be providedfor innovative application developers tocome up with any crazy application pilotnot only targeting but originating fromthe research and education community.

TTHHEE FFUUTTUURREE??Latest trends show that real time videois not enough for research andeducation. There must be addedfunctionality for real-time sharing,annotation and content viewing. Thisincludes document sharing, video,audio, images and graphics, with theability to markup and embedpresentations. The standard nature ofWebRTC and the open Jitsi API providean ideal platform for innovation and forfuture application development. Fromthe video conferencing serviceperspective, the future is in thecommunity agreement for aninfrastructure-agnostic service layer thateffectively brings the traditionalinfrastructure together with the newWebRTC-based platforms and includesall the crucial functionalities for servicescalability and robustness. We are justbeginning to “walk the talk”.

For more information on theWebRTC Task Force and how to takepart visit wwwwww..ggeeaanntt..oorrgg

GGÉÉAANNTT AANNDD TTHHEE NNRREENNSS–– WWOORRKKIINNGG TTOOGGEETTHHEERRTTOO EEXXPPLLOOIITT WWEEBBRRTTCCA group of dedicated NRENs and otherorganisations with undisputed expertisein real time communications gatheredunder GÉANT to answer the questionsof the community: how to get quickbusiness benefits without risking thelong term strategy and what is theexecutable roadmap then for researchand education to follow?

Finding the way in the rapidlydeveloping cloud market is not thateasy. The biggest challenge is to stay inline with the technology trends andlonger term strategic visions oftomorrow while seeking for quickbusiness benefits of today. Therefore,

It’s not enough just to talk aboutWebRTC, we must talk usingWebRTC. But what is WebRTC, whydid this buzzword suddenly turn the

traditional video conferencing upsidedown and what should NRENs do tokeep up with the growing demand forweb-based real time communications?

WWEEBBRRTTCC ––CCHHAALLLLEENNGGIINNGG TTHHEESSTTAATTUUSS QQUUOOWeb-based Real Time Communicationsrelying on the WebRTC protocol seeksto deliver cost effective, easy-to-usevideo conferencing across manyplatforms using IP connectivity andwithout the need for expensivededicated equipment and software. Itsattractiveness for the service providershas grown as it has become clear thatmaintaining and operating traditionalGatekeeper (GK) and Multipoint ControlUnit (MCU) based video conferencinginfrastructures is expensive and doesnot provide a long term sustainablesolution.

The new entrants into thecommercial video conferencing spacesuch as Vidyo, Zoom, or BlueJeans areoffering similar video and audio qualityfor the fraction of the price. This is dueto their cutting-edge software platforms,gateways for any-to-any interoperability,easy-to-use clients and, last but notleast, cloud based delivery models thatrequire no local IT support. Adaptingthese tools and services by NRENsseems to be the logical step but with thecurrent risk of vendor lock-in.

The key success factors of theWebRTC technology – that is alsobehind the aforementioned tools - are inthe standard protocol natively adoptedby browsers and mobile platforms andin the seamless interoperability andbridging capabilities. However, the fullstandardisation and platformcompliance is yet to come. The bridgingcapability for instance is expected to beincreasingly important to enable linkingtogether the still existing traditional videoconferencing infrastructures with theemerging web based platforms that is inthe interest of NRENs.

EEDDUUCCOONNFF ––SSUUPPPPOORRTTIINNGG NNRREENNSSWith a large installed base of VideoConferencing facilities, NRENsneed to maximise the return ontheir existing investments andcontinue to provide solutions tousers while planning the nextgeneration of services. TheeduCONF service of GÉANT helps support the traditionalinfrastructure of NRENs and theirconnected institutes, with growingattention to the developingcountries, and ensures thereachability of video end-points to make inter-domain calls more reliable.

Visit eedduuccoonnff..ggeeaanntt..nneett formore information on the eduCONF service

and NetSage (#1540933). The team isidentifying small, inexpensive, devicesthat are able to perform at gigabitnetwork speeds for rapid deploymentwithin a network architecture. Thesetesters will enable a “plug and check”capability, allowing for faster diagnosis of performance problems.

For more information on perfSONARvisit hhttttpp::////wwwwww..ppeerrffssoonnaarr..nneett

For more information on TheInternational Conference for HighPerformance Computing, Networking,Storage, and Analysis (the SCconference) visit:hhttttpp::////sscc1155..ssuuppeerrccoommppuuttiinngg..oorrgg

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GGÉÉAANNTT OOPPEENN FFOORR BBUUSSIINNEESSSS

PERFSONAR HELPS SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HPCThe International Conference for HighPerformance Computing, Networking,Storage, and Analysis, better known asSC, brings together the internationalsupercomputing community—anunparalleled ensemble of scientists,engineers and researchers all viewingand demonstrating the latestdevelopments in High PerformanceComputing (HPC).

During the week of the SCconference, many demonstrationsshowcase cutting-edge technologiesand applications in HPC and “big data”science. To run these latest and greatesttechnologies, the network, built by acommittee of volunteers, needs to beextremely fast and reliable. This networkis called SCinet(hhttttpp::////sscc1155..ssuuppeerrccoommppuuttiinngg..oorrgg//sscciinneett).

Components of the perfSONARproject (a collaboration between ESnet,GÉANT, Indiana University, andInternet2) have been used to supportthe high performance network, SCinet,built specifically to support the SC

GÉANT is always looking to enhance the business of research connectivity; to improve the productivityof the research cycle through connectivity and ICT improvements. Improved connectivity can bridgeboth academic disciplines and provide greater interoperability between the many e-infrastructuresserving the research community, both commercial and funded from EC or national sources.

The overall requirement is to deliverimproved collaborative abilities for theresearch community benefitting bothindividual researchers and supportingthe strategic aims of national and ECpolicy.

The use cases include supportingthe long tail of science, where researchis produced by small groups ofresearchers with budgets under €1mversus the large science and technologyprojects.

Having analysed thesecommitments, GÉANT will continue to support the research community witha number of targeted developments;

1. An expansion of GÉANT Open Exchanges across Europe to enhance collaboration between European research and innovation, industry and international partners. For example to allow access toHigh Performance Computing (HPC)and e-infrastructures for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises).

2. Developing self-service networking capabilities to enable cost effective collaboration for research projects across Europe and the world, regardless of their local network capabilities.

3. Enhancing network access for European and global research networks with further developments in dynamic circuit provisioning. Large projects and e-infrastructures will be able to build network access into their end-user applications.

These developments will serve tosupport improvements in productivitythrough the use of cost effective self-service networking, allowing industry toaccess high value e-infrastructures toaccelerate product development. Lastly,GÉANT will support the multitude of e-infrastructures with network buildingblocks allowing applications to intelligentlybuild paths to researchers and resources.

conference each year, since 2004. The perfSONAR tools enable both theorganizers of the event, as well asattendees, to visualize networkperformance in real-time. Additionally,perfSONAR is a critical tool fortroubleshooting the end-to-endperformance of demonstrations at theconference such as those featured inthe SC15 Workshop on Innovating theNetwork for Data-Intensive Science(INDIS)(hhttttpp::////sscc1155..ssuuppeerrccoommppuuttiinngg..oorrgg//sscchheedduullee//eevveenntt__ddeettaaiill??eevviidd==wwkksspp110055)and the SCinet Network ResearchExhibition(hhttttpp::////sscc1155..ssuuppeerrccoommppuuttiinngg..oorrgg//ccoonnffeerreennccee--pprrooggrraamm//rreesseeaarrcchh--sscciinneett).

Beginning this year for SC15,members of the perfSONAR team, incooperation with Indiana UniversityInternational Networks team, will beshowcasing small-form factorperfSONAR devices. This work is in partsupported by the US National ScienceFoundation grants for ACE (#0962973)

PPiiccttuurreeA number ofsmall-form factor,single-boardLIVA boxes willbe runningperfSONAR testsduring SC15.These nodeshave 1 Gigabit-per-secondinterfaces with 64GB of memory.

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MMDD--PPAAEEDDIIGGRREEEE –– AA CCLLIINNIICCAALLLLYY--LLEEDD,,MMOODDEELL--DDRRIIVVEENN,, EEUURROOPPEEAANN PPRROOJJEECCTTMD-Paedigree stands for Model-Driven European Paediatric DigitalRepository. It leverages an information processing and knowledgediscovery evolutionary framework for personalised and predictivetreatment in paediatrics, leading to newly defined model-basedclinical workflows, directly available at the point of care.

• Furthermore, MD-Paedigree will also make it possible to get outcome analyses and patient-cohort stratification through CaseReasoner’s further developments.

MMDD--PPAAEEDDIIGGRREEEE AANNDD TTHHEE BBIIGG DDAATTAACCHHAALLLLEENNGGEEMD-Paedigree moves from theassumption that only by applying dataanalytics and model-computation tomassively available biomedical data,clinicians can adequately simulateperspective outcomes and preventpatients from undergoing ineffectivetreatments. In other words, using dataand computer-models to acquire adeeper understanding ofpathophysiological processes will resultin effective knowledge discovery andultimately in healthcare improvements,making personalised medicine a reality.

• Physio-pathological models for patient-specific simulation and prediction;

• Patient-specific clinical workflows

Beside these core features, MD-Paedigree provides a whole set of toolsuseful for the clinicians to use moreeffectively the available datasets:

• The data anonymization tools make it possible to automatically anonymise and thus safely share the datasets, uploading them onto the MD-Paedigree online platform without jeopardising the patients’ privacy.

• The data curation and validation tool (DCV), a web application that provides a (semi-) automatic cleaning process able to handle the heterogeneous MD-Paedigree datasets, spotting out the missing or inconsistent information.

• Hypothesis generation service, which helps the clinicians to formulate prognosis on the basis of the available information on anamnesis and symptoms, by directly querying these elements of information in the system.

MD-Paedigree focuses on fourpaediatric disease areas:cardiomyopathies, obesity-related cardiovascular

disease risk, juvenile idiopathic arthritis,and neurological & neuromusculardiseases.

Using MD-Paedigree tools,physicians are able to select highlyindividualised treatment options, and toreceive on-the-spot support inpredicting treatment outcome based oneach patient’s personal medical data,also making it possible to reduce thetimeframe from disease evidence tomedical treatment.

MD-Paedigree builds diseasemodels taking into account also routineclinical data gathered from sevenhospitals, with the aim of applying bigdata analytics tools to provide three key functionalities:

• Similarity search, through the CaseReasoner tool developed by Siemens, enabling clinicians to access “patients like mine” (therefore finding decision support for optimal treatment based on comparative outcome analysis), and allowing patients to get in touch with “patients almost exactly like me”;

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AA PPAATTHH TTOOWWAARRDD TTHHEE TTRRAANNSSLLAATTIIOONNTTOO TTHHEE CCLLIINNIICCAALLEENNVVIIRROONNMMEENNTT:: UUSSEERRRREEQQUUIIRREEMMEENNTTSS AANNDD VVAALLIIDDAATTIIOONNThe final clinical acceptability andusability of the implemented tools is acore objective of MD-Paedigree, whichis a clinically-led project. To ensure asmooth translation to the clinicalenvironment, an agile methodology hasbeen adopted, prompting a continuousiteration between clinicians and technicalpartners, in order to effectively take intoaccount the end-users’ requirementsand clinically validate the developedmodelling tools.

To this end, the ongoing iterative“agile process” is aimed at checkingwhat answers can be given to questionssuch as: “what kind of parameter andinformation are the clinicians interestedin extracting from the models?”, or“what kind of data management andanalytics tools and features are theclinicians most interested in?”

In parallel, a multi-phase validationprocess of the developed models is alsoongoing, as phase being a fundamentalstep for getting closer to theimplementation of the modelling toolsinto the daily clinical practice.

CCAASSEERREEAASSOONNEERRCaseReasoner is a prototype Decision Support System (DSS) developed bySiemens over the last 9 years, in conjunction with a number of EC fundedprojects (Health-e-child, Sim-e-child, and now MD-Paedigree). It gives users the ability to browse and query patient records in a visually meaningful way.CaseReasoner allows to visualise existing clinical data from the patient history,inter-patient similarities, and patient-cohort stratification, integrating all clinicaland imaging data with other knowledge, for example in the form of ontologies.

TTHHEE MMDD--PPAAEEDDIIGGRREEEE MMOODDEELLSS In paediatric diseases, predicting response to treatment, and selecting andtiming the appropriate treatment for a specific patient, can be particularlychallenging. Computational models of physiology may provide some of thoseparameters that belong to the patterns of risk factors. These models may giveaccess to parameters that otherwise cannot be directly measured, or onlyinvasively. MD-Paedigree expects that such parameters can be seen asabnormal well before the development of hard intermediate outcomes,increasing, as such, the predictive value of measurements as such currentlyalready available in the clinical environment. The first need is therefore modelpersonalisation, i.e. the process of tuning the parameters of the model to makeit patient-specific. Once personalised, a model will mimic the patient’sconditions. The second requirement is that these personalisation methods needto work with data that are routinely available and necessitate only little manualinteraction. The processing time needs also to fit a routine clinical workflow. Thelast requirement deals with the presentation of the model outcome tophysicians. Biophysical models can provide additional clinically usefulinformation, but all outcome parameters may not be easily understood byphysicians and there may be an excessive quantity of information.

SSEEEE UUSS OONN TTHHEE

GGÉÉAANNTT BBOOOOTTHH

AATT IICCTT 22001155

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CCAARRDDIIOOPPRROOOOFF –– AA PPRROOOOFF--OOFF--CCOONNCCEEPPTT OOFF MMOODDEELL--BBAASSEEDD CCAARRDDIIOOVVAASSCCUULLAARR PPRREEDDIICCTTIIOONNCARDIOPROOF aims to ascertain the applicability andeffectiveness of predictive modelling and simulation tools for cardiology, validating them in interrelated clinical trialsconducted in three European centres of excellence in cardiac treatment (in Germany, Italy and the UK).

FFRROOMM LLAABBSS TTOOHHOOSSPPIITTAALLSS::BBRRIINNGGIINNGG MMAATTUURREECCVV MMOODDEELLSS TTOO TTHHEE CCLLIINNIICCAALLEENNVVIIRROONNMMEENNTTSSCARDIOPROOF aggregates informationfrom multiple biological levels with regardto the patient-specific disease state, andpays particular attention to user-friendliness as a key component ofclinical usability. While improving usabilityand interoperability, CARDIOPROOFaims also to enhance the role of thephysician in the modelling process chainby markedly improving datamanagement, allowing to access cloud-based central resources, and makinguse of user-friendly human interfaces.

(CoA), predicting the evolution of bothdiseases and the immediate and mid-term outcome of treatment. With morethan 50.000 interventions per year withinthe EU, the diseases addressed byCARDIOPROOF have a significantsocio-economic impact.

In brief, using already developedmodelling methods, the primaryobjectives of CARDIOPROOF are to:

1. Conduct validation trials in patients with AVD or CoA that reflect a real-world approach by covering and comparing the complete spectrum of cardiovascular treatment

2. Provide first data about comparative clinical and cost effectiveness of in silico approaches compared to conventional diagnostic and treatment algorithms.

3. Accelerate the deployment of CV model-based methods by improving their usability and interoperability in the clinical context.

Previous research effortsdeveloped some powerful toolsfor computer-based modellingof various cardiovascular (CV)

diseases, raising significant expectationsto make such tools available for earlydiagnosis and for predicting diseasebehaviour and evolution as well astreatment outcomes. The translation intoa routine clinical environment has,however, remained challenging andsubstantially bounded. In fact, despitean increasing interest from the medicalcommunity to apply modelling methodsto CV diseases, limited results havebeen achieved so far: currently, clinicalguidelines are highly complex and relymostly on imaging diagnostics andclinical parameters, without benefiting,as yet, from patient-specific diseasemodelling based prediction.

CARDIOPROOF goes beyond thecurrent state of the art by conductingvalidation trials aimed at covering andcomparing the complete spectrum ofcardiovascular treatment in aortic valvedisease (AVD) and aortic coarctation

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AA TTRRIIAALL TTOO EEXXPPLLOORREETTHHEE IIMMPPAACCTT OOFF TTHHEEAAPPPPLLIICCAATTIIOONN OOFF IINNSSIILLIICCOO MMOODDEELLSS IINNTTHHEE CCLLIINNIICCAALLDDEECCIISSIIOONN--MMAAKKIINNGGPPRROOCCEESSSS To prove the concreteness, effectivenessand significance of in silico modelling,CARDIOPROOF evaluates the impact ofthe cardiac simulation modelling tools ascompared to current standard practiceon clinical decision making.

A comparative effectiveness study is underway, to evaluate whether theadditional parameters that are madeavailable through image-basedsimulation modelling would result indifferent clinical decision making. Indoing so, the questions addressedthrough randomized controlledexperiments are aimed at ascertainingwhether taking into account image-based modelling results clinicians wouldbe led to adopt different decisions ascompared to current clinical practiceguidelines.

In collaboration with its three clinicalpartners, two separate imaging datasetsare generated for each of the patientsrecruited in CARDIOPROOF. The firstdataset includes the imaging parameterscurrently recommended by clinicalpractice guidelines (referred to as“limited dataset”). The second datasetincludes an expanded list of parameters,inclusive of information that is availablefrom traditional imaging parameters (asrecommended by the guidelines) andsimulation modelling (referred to as“image-based modelling dataset”).

A computerized random-samplefunction is used to randomly allocateinterventional cardiologists (not directlyinvolved in CARDIOPROOF) into twoseparate groups. Each group is thenprovided with one set of imaging data,either the limited dataset or the image-based modelling dataset. Thus, it can bechecked whether the two groups comewith different treatment decisions, due tothe information made available by theimage-based modelling dataset.

VVIIRRTTUUAALL SSTTEENNTTIINNGGOne of the tools implemented within CARDIOPROOF isthe virtual stenting software, which facilitates thetreatment of the aortic coarctation. This simulator,developed at Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen, can beinstalled on Windows or Mac OS operating systems andallows clinicians to simulate treatment options prior to theintervention. The virtual stenting allows them to theextract the patient-individual anatomy, to assess the pre-interventional haemodynamics, and to interactivelysimulate the stent placement and deformation.

EELLEECCTTRROO--MMEECCHHAANNIICCAALLMMOODDEELL OOFF TTHHEE HHEEAARRTTThe team of Prof. Plank at the Medizinische Universität ofGraz, is working on the development, application andvalidation of a modelling methodology for performingpatient-specific in-silico simulations of ventricular electro-mechanics. Such simulations provide deformation data,which become usable as boundary condition for fluidsflow simulation in other modelling activities withinCARDIOPROOF. This model development targets bothcardiac anatomy and physiology, with sufficient detail tofacilitate a direct clinical interpretation of computedsimulation results. Besides serving as input for CFDsimulations, physiologically important parameters such asregional distribution of strains, stresses, myocardial workand energy consumption are also computed.

CCOOMMPPUUTTIINNGG TTHHEE PPRREESSSSUURREE--DDIIFFFFEERREENNCCEE FFIIEELLDD FFRROOMM 44DDFFLLOOWW DDAATTAAKnowledge of pressure and velocity of blood flow in thehuman cardiovascular system can be decisive for clinicalevaluations (initial and post-procedural) and procedureplanning. For example, the severity of the cardiovasculardiseases targeted in this project (CoA and AVD) can beassessed by intraluminal pressure gradients. The team ofscientist at SIEMENS has developed a method to non-invasively compute, from magnetic resonance imaging(MRI), the relative pressure within the aorta. Thistechnique has been applied to some firstCARDIOPROOF patients, delivering sound results evenwith still limited data. The whole pipeline will now bevalidated using the coarctation cases, which includeinvasive pressure measurements. This way, it will becomepossible to directly compare the simulated pressures withthe measured ones, and to investigate the relationshipbetween treatment outcomes and simulation results.

SSEEEE UUSS OONN TTHHEE

GGÉÉAANNTT BBOOOOTTHH

AATT IICCTT 22001155

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HHOOWW CCEERRNN DDEEAALLSSWWIITTHH TTHHEE DDAATTAA TTOORRRREENNTTExperiments at CERN generate colossal amounts of data. The Data Centre stores it, and sends it around the world for analysis.

Research and education networks such as GÉANT and its European NREN (NationalResearch and Education Network) partners provide the high-capacity bandwidth requiredby CERN to transport this data all over the globe. Without them, these types of colossalscience projects—which have the potential to change our understanding of the world—could not take place.

In this article, extracted from the CERN website, CERN gives us a window into thewonderful world of high energy physics—and the vast, ambitious and collaborative Large Hadron Collider project.

©© CCEERRNN

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OONNEE PPEETTAABBYYTTEE OOFFDDAATTAA EEVVEERRYY DDAAYYThe Data Centre processes about onepetabyte of data every day - theequivalent of around 210,000 DVDs.The centre host 11,000 servers with110,000 processor cores. Some 6000changes in the database are performedevery second.

The Grid runs more than two millionjobs per day. While the LHC is running10 gigabytes of data may be transferredfrom its servers every second.

In addition, the LHC sciencecommunity makes use of GÉANT andits global partners to enable continualdata sharing at aggregate rates of 15 -20 gigabytes per second year round.

Published with kind permission of CERN.

The original articles can be found here:hhttttpp::////hhoommee..wweebb..cceerrnn..cchh//aabboouutt//ccoommppuuttiinngghhttttpp::////hhoommee..wweebb..cceerrnn..cchh//aabboouutt//uuppddaatteess//22001155//0066//llhhcc--sseeaassoonn--22--cceerrnn--ccoommppuuttiinngg--rreeaaddyy--ddaattaa--ttoorrrreenntt

The server farm in the 1450m2 main room of the DC forms Tier 0,the first point of contact betweenexperimental data from the LHC and the Grid. As well as servers and datastorage systems for Tier 0 and furtherphysics analysis, the DC housessystems critical to the daily functioningof the laboratory. The servers undergocontinual maintenance and upgrades tomake sure that they will operate in theevent of a serious incident such as anextended power cut. Critical servers areheld in their own room, powered andcooled by dedicated equipment.

By early 2013 CERN had increasedthe power capacity of the centre from2.9 MW to 3.5 MW, allowing theinstallation of more computers. In parallel, improvements in energy-efficiency implemented in 2011 have ledto an estimated energy saving of 4.5GWh per year.

CCOOPPIINNGG WWIITTHHIINNCCRREEAASSIINNGGRREEQQUUIIRREEMMEENNTTSSIn a complementary effort to cope withthe increasing requirements for LHCcomputing, the Wigner Research Centrefor Physics in Budapest, Hungary,operates as an extension to the DC. The Wigner Data Centre as a remoteTier 0, hosting CERN equipment. Thesite also ensures full business continuityfor the critical systems in case of a majorproblem on CERN's site at Meyrin inSwitzerland.

The Meyrin site currently providessome 120 petabytes of data storage ondisk, and includes the majority of the 110,000 processing cores in the CERNDC. The Wigner DC extends thiscapacity with 43,000 cores and 70petabytes of disk data.

Approximately 600 million timesper second, particles collidewithin the Large HadronCollider (LHC). Each collision

generates particles that often decay incomplex ways into even more particles.Electronic circuits record the passage ofeach particle through a detector as aseries of electronic signals, and send thedata to the CERN Data Centre (DC) fordigital reconstruction. The digitizedsummary is recorded as a "collisionevent". Physicists must sift through the30 petabytes or so of data producedannually to determine if the collisionshave thrown up any interesting physics.

AA CCOOMMMMUUNNIITTYY OOFF88000000 PPHHYYSSIICCIISSTTSSCERN does not have the computing orfinancial resources to crunch all of thedata on site, so in 2002 it turned to gridcomputing to share the burden withcomputer centres around the world.The Worldwide LHC ComputingGrid (WLCG) – a distributed computinginfrastructure arranged in tiers – gives acommunity of over 8000 physicists nearreal-time access to LHC data. The Gridbuilds on the technology of the WorldWide Web, which was invented atCERN in 1989.

In 2012, the Wigner Centrewas one of the firstbeneficiaries of GÉANT’sterabit network, utilisingmultiple 100Gbps links. At the time David Foster,Deputy Head of the CERNIT Department said, “TheGÉANT network isfundamental to our datatransfer needs, and we’redelighted that we will becontinuing this successfulrelationship.”

UUPPDDAATTEE:: CCEERRNNRREESSTTAARRTTSS MMOOSSTTPPOOWWEERRFFUULL AATTOOMMSSMMAASSHHEERRIn June this year, theexperiments at the LargeHadron Collider (LHC)started taking data atthe new energy frontier of13 teraelectonvolts (TeV) -nearly double the energyof collisions in the LHC'sfirst three-year run. Thecollisions, which occur upto 1 billion times everysecond, send showers ofparticles through thedetectors.With every second of

run-time, gigabytes of datacome pouring intothe CERN Data Centre tobe stored, sorted andshared with physicistsworldwide.

mmyy TTHHOOuuGGHHTTss OONNssOOffTTWWAArrEE DDEEffIINNEEDDNNEETTWWOOrrkkIINNGG AANNDD TTHHEE rrIIssEE OOff OOppEENNNNEETTWWOOrrkkIINNGGmICHAEl ENrICO, GÉANT CHIEf TECHNICAl OffICEr

houses. Either way, this software is “closed source” and evolves quiteslowly according to the measured shifts and changes that occur in theinternationally agreed standards that deQne the behaviours of therelevant protocols such as those administered by the InternetEngineering Task force (IETf).

moreover, the behaviour of the “forwarding plane” of networkdevices like switches and routers is traditionally fairly invariant. isdeQnes the way in which the data packets themselves are individuallyhandled – how they are examined upon receipt at a device, how theyare prioritised and queued, how they are re-marked in various waysbefore being forwarded to the next device in the network.

WWHHyy IIss ssDDNN DDIIffffEErrEENNTT?? e key thing about the contemporary paradigm of sDN (and, by theway, previous incarnations of the same ideas – more on this in a futurecolumn) is that it facilitates a much more intimate (low level) controlof the forwarding and control planes of a network by removing theembedded behaviours described above and requiring control throughstandard interfaces by external controllers. In essence these interfaces

ssOOffTTWWAArrEE HHAAss bbEEEENN TTHHEErrEE AAllll AAllOONNGGToday it seems that almost everybody in telecoms and networking istalking about or at least has heard about sDN – which stands for“software DeQned Networking.” What does this mean exactly? surelyall contemporary networking is deQned (or at least driven) by softwarein some form or other? Interestingly, although I refer to datacommunications networking here, I’d venture to say that anotherform of networking (the human variety) is also highly driven bysoftware in the form of the seemingly inQnite array of socialnetworking apps that we have at our disposal today.

returning to my question above, software clearly drivesnetworking equipment – for example, the routing and signallingprotocols that network operators have known and loved (and hated!)for years and which constitute the “control plane” of a network are, ofcourse, implemented as software modules. by and large these havebeen implemented by coders working “in-house” for the networkingequipment manufacturers or in the form of off-the-shelf softwaresuites developed and maintained by specialist networking software

In all areas of engineering endeavour there abound a myriad of ree letter Acronyms (TlAs) and atany given time you will hear or read about a handful of these over and above the others which, ofcourse, reRects the current trends and dare I say fads of the day. back in the mid-90s intelecommunications and network engineering these three letters were ATm (by which I refer toAsynchronous Transfer mode rather than Automatic Teller machines). is lasted for a few years untildevelopments in Ethernet and the Rowering of mpls (err, neither of which are TlAs!) had easily putpay to that particular future by the turn of the millennium. And now we have another TlA: sDN.

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are like application programming interfaces (ApIs) to the networkthrough which the coders of these controllers can exercise Qne-grainedcontrol over the network and how it handles the traffic it carries. It isthe software constituting these controllers that do the “deQning”referred to in sDN.

furthermore, this software can itself be centralised or distributed,purchased or home-grown, commercial or open-source. In ahierarchical fashion it can and does export other ApIs to other piecesof software that control at a more abstract level or that “plug in” toexisting software suites that constitute “network operating systems.”In principle this allows for the network devices themselves to becomemuch simpler and hopefully lower cost – some use the term “whiteboxes” to describe them – driven by this functional rationalisation andthe expectation (perhaps misplaced) of competition amongstmanufacturers of these more commoditised products.

To many network operations and technology strategists thepotential cost savings indicated above are the main driver for theirinterest in looking seriously at what the sDN paradigm can offer. Onedoes have to take care if this is the extent of one’s interest in sDN andall it stands for. e potential rewards that are brought by making thenetwork more programmable come with increased responsibility. eQne-grained control that is possible and indeed necessary to drivenetworks comprised of “dumber” devices means that your softwaremust tell the devices what to do with different traffic types in manymore situations than would be the case with more autonomoustraditional hardware. is can be likened to the driver of a car (withan internal combustion engine) being required to continuouslyoperate many more controls than just the obvious ones – including allthose subtle real time adjustments that are today handled by an enginemanagement system like fuel/air mix, ignition timing and so on (justlike it was in earlier days of motoring).

AA mmOOrrEE AAGGIIllEE AANNDDEEffffIICCIIEENNTT NNEETTWWOOrrkk Another tangible beneQt, and one that is I think of more interest tothe r&E networking community, is the facilitating of networkarchitectural agility and more rapid introduction of new capabilities inthe control and forwarding planes and hence novel services as andwhen the demand for such arises.

One of the protocols that has been at the heart of the currentbuzz about sDN is called “Openflow” which emerged from workdone at stanford university and is today further developed as part of astandards process administered by an industry membershiporganisation called the Open Networking foundation (ONf). isbrings me to the last point I wanted to make in this article and thiscentres on the rise of the principle of “openness” in contemporarynetworking. is is where the most interesting developments (in thiscase in network controller software) are done by communities ofdevelopers in an open and collaborative manner in much the sameway as we have seen the rise of open source operating systems such aslinux. is point is nicely illustrated by the names of the two mostinteresting suites of network control software that are the focus ofmost attention by those seriously exploring sDN – these being the“Open Daylight” controller (ODl) and the Open NetworkOperating system (ONOs). ere is also open source softwaredesigned to allow commodity server hardware to act as a packetswitching device. is is called “Open vswitch” and, of course, thisnow supports Openflow and the sDN-style forwarding describedabove. It is this – the rise of “open networking” that is the real reasonfor the innovation we have seen to date and should see more of in thefuture.

finally, what of the work done in the GÉANT project and itspartners in this area of the opening up and the “software-ization” ofcontemporary networking? Amongst the GÉANT partners there isactually quite a lot as indeed one would expect – ranging from in-depth evaluation of and familiarisation with numerous pieces of opennetworking software and the hardware that supports it up to activecontribution to some of the open controller suites. many of theexperts engaged in this currently participate in the network-relatedservice and joint research activities of the GÉANT project. In additionthere is all the sDN-focussed work that was funded through theGÉANT Open Call (6 out of 21 of the projects) and brought insubstantive expertise from industry and academia. is led to somegenuinely interesting results with real global impact (some of whichare being adopted in ongoing GÉANT activity) and a lot of whichwould not have been achievable but for the past and present efforts of the GÉANT project to support sDN-capable testbed facilities.ese are the GÉANT Testbed service or GTs and its predecessor –the GÉANT Openflow facility developed by the joint researchWork in the predecessor project, GN3plus.

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FIND OUT HOW CLOUD IS BEING USED IN EDUCATION

UCISA’s Chairman stated atJisc’s technology forum,‘cloud technologies andservices create some

challenges but certainly present greatopportunities in education’.

With that in mind Jisc the charitywhich champions the use of digitaltechnologies in education, undertooka survey to find out how and why it isbeing used.

What did theydiscover?One of the main findings was that thecollaboration and sharingopportunities offered by the cloudwere key benefits and drivers foradoption.

This could be because cloudsystems are not only more flexible for anormal user accessing their accountfrom a range of devices and locations– therefore supporting collaboration -but they are also often more costeffective.

Collaboration itself can save bothtime and money, and by sharing dataand resources organisations are able tolearn from each other, which oftensupports innovation. The ability tocollaborate on research projects is agood example here with 53% of HEproviders using private cloud and 34%using public cloud for this purpose.

Is everyone taking the sameapproach?The survey found a wide range andvariety of use across providers. Thereare now a huge number of cloudservices available offering differentbenefits and meeting different needs –whether that’s better integrationbetween the cloud and other softwareproducts, or because they offerflexibility to scale up or down asrequirements change. When youconsider this it’s only natural that theseservices are being deployed to suit the providers.

What were thechallenges?The survey found there are certainlystill barriers to cloud adoption. 61% ofrespondents said financial issues weretheir main challenge when trying touse cloud technologies. This isunderstandable as cloud can offersavings, but it can also work out moreexpensive if you’re using it for thewrong purpose. For example if youneed capacity only during specificpoints of the year, such as clearing,then renting from a cloud may becheaper than buying as you’re nothaving to pay for the tech when it’s notbeing used. At the other end of thescale, if you require anything otherthan the standard service on offer thisis likely to attract an additional charge.So cloud may be cheaper for standardor intermittently-used services, whilein-house can be more cost effectivefor specialised operations.

How can you findout more aboutcloud services?Jeremy Sharp, director of strategictechnologies, Jisc says: "Jisc havedeveloped national agreements withmajor cloud providers such asMicrosoft, Google and Amazon andpurchasing frameworks with a range of other Cloud providers. This allowsour customers to take advantage ofcloud services that have already beenthrough a stringent procurementprocess saving time and money,coupled with tailored terms andconditions for UK education andresearch.”

For more details on cloud servicesand brokerage deals offered by Jisc please visithttps://www.jisc.ac.uk/network/cloud

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have been impressed by theprofessional approach that Jisc andHPC Midlands have taken to thisproject, in particular around our toughinformation security and export controlrequirements, and we see a very brightfuture for our collaboration.”

Jeremy Sharp, Jisc's director ofstrategic technologies, continued: “It isno longer the case that academia andindustry operate in separate, parallelworlds. In an environment whereresources are increasingly constrained,both sectors need to understand howthey can work more closely togetherand learn from one another. I am verypleased that we have been able tocome up with a two such solutionsthat break down some of thesebarriers. Rolls-Royce signing up as thefirst company demonstrates just howvaluable these initiatives are tosupporting UK business and theeconomy to thrive.”

WEB PORTAL REVOLUTIONISES CLOUDOFFER FOR EDUCATIONAND RESEARCH

Anew model for cloud servicesoffering UK colleges anduniversities improved termsand conditions is gaining

attention globally.The bespoke central web portal

developed in partnership by Jisc, ArcusGlobal and Amazon Web Services(AWS) gives education and researchorganisations a simple, cost effectiveand flexible way of buying andmanaging access to AWS resources.

Customers are able to authoriseuse and set budget limits for individualuser accounts or departments. Jisc hasalso completed an OJEU compliantprocurement exercise that ensurescost and time savings through pre-negotiated contracts, controlledcosts, and volume discounts sharedacross members.

An additional benefit is that thecloud is peered to Jisc’s world classJanet network – the UK nationalresearch and education network(NREN) – to offer high capacityconnectivity to AWS technologies andreal-time data transfer.

Within six months of launching inOctober 2014, 24 organisations hadsigned up for the portal, includingKing’s College London, the Universityof Cambridge and NewcastleUniversity.

Dan Perry, director of products andmarketing, Jisc, said: “flexible access toworld leading EU based cloud servicesthat can be scaled up and down acrossindividuals and departments issomething our customers told us theywould value.

“We have worked with AWS andArcus to bring the benefits of one ofthe worlds largest cloud providers andcome up with a solution that offerscentralised management of useraccounts and better control of costs.Feedback has been overwhelminglypositive, and we expect this to grow asmore institutions subscribe.

Caleb Racey, systems architecturemanager, Newcastle University said:“The Amazon web services portal is anasset in delivering scalable, well-governed cloud services to ouruniversity.”

As AWS provides cloud serviceswithin the European Economic Area,there is an opportunity for otherNRENs in Europe to adopt this modeland Jisc is working with Géant tosupport this.

Dan added: “The project hasproven a success in the UK and we arecommitted to working with otherNRENs to explore how they canimplement similar models.”

Check out the portal or contactJisc’s service desk to find out aboutimplementing AWS.

ROLLS-ROYCE JOINS SUPERCOMPUTING INITIATIVE THAT BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA

Jisc is pleased to announcepower systems provider Rolls-Royce as the first company tojoin its high performance

computing (HPC) agreement.Through the brokerage scheme –

developed in collaboration withthe Engineering and Physical SciencesResearch Council (EPSRC) HPCMidlands - Rolls-Royce will have easyaccess to supercomputing equipmentworth up to £60m. There areenormous capital costs in setting upHPC centres and this agreement willallow Rolls-Royce to benefit fromadditional world-class HPC facilitiesand expertise, thereby supporting thecompany to be more innovative.

In addition, Rolls-Royce will also betaking advantage of a connection tothe Janet network, the high-speednetwork for UK education andresearch. Through Jisc’s Janet Reachscheme for industrial connectivity –which leverages £30m of public

investment in ultra-fast internet and issupported by BIS – a network circuitoperating at 10 Gigabits per secondwill be installed by Jisc, so that it is ableto fully-exploit the HPC centre.

The announcement follows areport by the Department for Business,Innovation & Skills’ (BIS) DowlingReview into the complexity of currentbusiness-university collaborations –which recommended as introducingeffective brokerage systems with‘simple as possible’ interfaces that ‘hidethe wiring’ to support innovation.

Rolls-Royce’s HPC lead, Dr YoonHo says: “For many years now we haveworked with universities and collegesacross the UK and internationally, andwe partner with a number ofinstitutions on research anddevelopment through our UniversityTechnology Centres. This agreementwas a natural next step to exploresharing facilities more broadly. We

PictureCC-BY JoaoCarlos Medau

CONTOURSOF THE FUTURE NETWORKEducation and research institutions in the Netherlands make use of a highly advanced network. It is essential to regularlyimplement innovations in the network to meet ever-increasinguser demands. As the network manager and developer, SURFnet has defined three pillars underpinning the next-generation network: unprecedented quality, valued service portfolio and an open programmable network.

Higher demands on the network"Users increasingly need specialistnetwork facilities, not only fast, secureconnections, but also easy access toservices such as computing andstorage. And those services shouldpreferably be available on demand",says Jac Kloots, network developmentteam leader at SURFnet. A goodexample is the study carried out by Dr. Henk Dijkstra (Utrecht University),who was able to give his research onclimate change an impulse byconnecting up four supercomputerswith 10 Gbit/s light paths: the Cartesiussupercomputer at SURFsara in theNetherlands and supercomputers inGermany, the UK and the USA. Byconnecting up the supercomputers, he obtained a more accuratesimulation of ocean vorticity.Questions of such a specialist naturemake ever-increasing demands on the network.

From managementorganisation tocontrolorganisationThe ever-accelerating pace ofdevelopments in ICT and theincreasingly specialist demands madeby users are making it more and moredifficult for ICT departments tocontinue to meet user demand. This

has prompted institutions to moreoften opt to outsource ICT services inthe cloud. Examples are Infrastructureas a Service, WiFi as a Service andFirewall as a Service. ICT departmentsare thus evolving from managementorganisations into controlorganisations, whose primary task is tobring together supply and demand.The actual provision of ICT servicestakes place externally.

Consequences of the cloud for thenetworkThe greater dependency on serviceprovision and data in the cloudrequires a network that is reliable butflexible at the same time. To achievethe desired level of flexibility, thenetwork architecture will need a majoroverhaul. The various networkcomponents should be less dependenton each other and the network mustbe open and programmable. With thisset-up the network will facilitate therapid development of new (cloud)services plus the development of the network itself.

Advancing towardsthe new network"It is both exciting and challenging toserve a demanding target group thatmakes such extensive use of thenetwork. To develop our new-

generation network, we would like towork with various market parties tofind out how we can meet these highdemands. The challenge is to pinpointprecisely what network users need sothat we can develop the network in theright direction", explains Kloots. "Basedon discussions with users we havedefined three pillars underpinning thevision set out in our Request ForInformation (RFI): unprecedentedquality, valued service portfolio and anopen and programmable network. This will enable us to make clear toprospective suppliers which directionwe believe the most significantdevelopments are headed". Eventhough a specific target group uses thisnew network, the demands imposedon it are relevant not only to SURFnetand its users. They are of interest to allnetwork managers and suppliers ofnetwork devices and services, giventhat they are bound to be faced withthe same developments sooner or later.

Highly automatednetworkinfrastructureSpeed (high-bandwidth) and stabilityare vital for a modern network: thevolume of data traffic has beengrowing every year, a trend which is setto continue for the time being.Numerous services are purchased inthe cloud and many devices in campus

WordsJan Michielsen,SURFnet

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data centres have meanwhile beenrelocated to the cloud. Big data andthe integrated use of services, such ascomputing facilities and data storage,demand a highly automated networkinfrastructure that can easily beintegrated into a broader e-infrastructure. Layered networking anddomain separation are the architectureprinciples required to create thatinfrastructure. And dynamic routing willhelp create a more stable and moreredundant network. Furthermore, thecore of the network is more intelligentand it can dynamically determine howtraffic is routed.

Fast and easyaccess to newservicesKloots: "Defining the requirementsimposed on a new-generationnetwork is at times a rather nebulousactivity. Innovative solutions are beingdevised across the globe. A service ourtarget group would like to use could belaunched on the market in a year'stime. Either that or SURFnet willdevelop a new innovative service incollaboration with its memberinstitutions. The flexibility to easilyprovide new services should be builtinto a new network. Users wantservices to be made available quickly.However, once a service has beenordered, a range of activities must beinitiated to supply the service.

Automation of the necessary activitiesin the network, or NetworkAutomation, will actually facilitate fastaccess to services. The transition toautomation has considerableimplications for network management.

Moreover, users want total controlover the services they purchase. Theyshould be able to order, configure andmanage them with ease. This will bepossible by making available a NetworkService Portal in which users will begiven control. To give them evengreater control an API should be madeavailable. An API will enable users tocontrol the network and the servicessupplied across it with their ownapplications/tools.

Software-DefinedNetworkingThe flexibility needed by the newnetwork is far easier to achieve withsoftware rather than hardware.Software-Defined Networking (SDN)offers a solution: each network device(switch, router, server, etc.) becomesprogrammable. A programmablenetwork will thus be created with theopen interfaces required to providenew services and to develop thenetwork itself. SDN offersprogrammable interfaces (APIs)enabling external controllers tooperate the network devices based onstandardised open protocols such asOpenFlow. SDN is expected tobecome extremely important for thefuture of network applications.

Initial marketexploration for the new SURFnetnetworkSURFnet published a Request ForInformation (RFI) on 20 July 2015,asking market parties to contributeideas for innovative solutions and theuse of advanced technologies.Responses to the RFI can be submitteduntil 30 September 2015.

SURFnet would like to upgrade itsexisting network infrastructuretogether with suppliers who cansupply the following: (part of) thenetwork solution, architecture anddesign consultancy, devices, software,and/or device and softwaremaintenance and support services.Prospective partners are also expectedto contribute to the furtherdevelopment of the networkinfrastructure in close collaboration with SURFnet.

Based on the initial marketexploration, the Request For Proposal(RFP) will be published in spring 2016and new partnerships will be enteredinto. In 2017, we will beginpreproduction of the new,programmable network. Together withthe institutions, we will examinewhether the preferences of the end-users have been fulfilled and whetherthe updated version of the network isworking properly. The openprogrammable network is scheduledfor completion in 2018. All institutionswill then migrate to SURFnet's newleading edge network.

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PRACE SUPERCOMPUTERSHELP RESEARCHERS CALCULATE MASS DIFFERENCE BETWEENNEUTRONS AND PROTONSWith the help of PRACE HPC resources, a team of physicists from France, Germany, andHungary headed by Zoltán Fodor, a researcherfrom Wuppertal, has successfully calculated thetiny neutron-proton mass difference. The resultsof this research, published in the 27 March 2015edition of Science, are considered a milestone by many physicists and confirm the theory of the strong interaction.

The fact that the neutron is slightlymore massive than the proton is whatgives atomic nuclei the propertiesaffecting the existence and stability ofatoms – the foundation of our world.Eighty years after the discovery of theneutron, Zoltán Fodor’s teamsuccessfully calculated this tinyneutron-proton mass difference of only 0.14% of the average of the two masses.

During the expansion of the earlyuniverse, the Higgs mechanism brokethis symmetry down and elementaryparticles acquired masses proportionalto their couplings to the Higgs field. Asthe universe continued to expand, aQCD (quantum chromo dynamics)transition took place, confining quarksand gluons into hadrons and givingthose particles most of their mass. Thissame theory today is believed to beresponsible for the tiny isospinsplittings, the topic of investigation forFodor’s team. To carry out thenecessary calculations, the teamdeveloped a new class of simulationtechniques combining the laws ofquantum chromodynamics with those

of quantum electrodynamics in orderto precisely determine the effects ofelectromagnetic interactions.

“Up to now, the most advancedsimulations have included up, down,and strange quarks in the sea butneglected all electromagnetic and up-down mass difference effects. Suchcalculations have irreduciblesystematic uncertainties. This limitstheir accuracy to the percent level,”says Zoltán Fodor. “With the calculatingpower of JUQUEEN and FERMI that wewere allocated by PRACE, we wereable to reduce these uncertaintiessignificantly, yielding a completedescription of the interactions ofquarks at low energy, accurate belowthe per mil level. This is definitely amajor step forward in my field. Wehave provided an indication of theextent to which the constants of naturemust be fine-tuned to yield a universethat resembles ours.” Fodor added. To exchange data between thesupercomputing resources used,Fodor’s team used national networks,as well as capacity provided by GÉANT.

WordsMarjoleinOorsprong,PRACECommunicationsOfficer

CreditsSome of the textin this article isrepublished from“Ab initiocalculation of theneutron-protonmass difference”found atarXiv:1406.4088v2 [hep-lat] 7 Apr2015. Seehttp://arxiv.org/abs/1406.4088

Project detailsFodor’s research team was madeof physicists from France,Germany, and Hungary. Fodor is aresearcher at University ofWuppertal, Jülich SupercomputingCentre, and Eötvös University. Theresults of Fodor’s research wererecently published in Science(Journal reference: Science347:1452-1455, 2015 – seehttp://arxiv.org/abs/1406.4088). This publication isconsidered a world-premiere infundamental physics.

His project entitled “QCDpQED –QCD plus QED and the stability ofmatter” received 91 million corehours on JUQUEEN @ GCS@FZJ,Germany through the PRACE 6thCall for Proposals for ProjectAccess

A joint initiative between the EU andArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia,Moldova and Ukraine, the EasternPartnership supports reforms in theregion for the benefit of their citizens.Part of the EaP digital agenda,EaPConnect aims to connect theresearch and education networks ofthe EaP countries and connect them tothe pan-European GÉANT network.

In Tbilisi, partners reflected onfurther ways to improve EU-EaPcollaboration on Digital Economy withMr Vassilis Kopanas from the EuropeanCommission Directorate General forCommunications Networks, Content &Technology (DG CONNECT).

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EU AND EASTERNPARTNERSHIP WELCOMEEAPCONNECT WITH OPEN ARMS

"Once completed, EaPConnectwill allow the research andacademic communities of the sixpartner countries to worktogether in virtual networks withtheir EU counterparts. It issuccess stories such as these, ourcommon needs and shared visionthat bring us together."

Andrus Ansip, EC Vice Presidentfor the Digital Single Market

Following the contract signature at the 1st Eastern Partnership (EaP) Ministerialmeeting on the Digital Economy held on June 11th in Luxembourg, theEaPConnect project received a warm welcome at the Horizon2020 informationdays in Tbilisi on 10-11 September. Gathering experts across Europe and theCaucasus, the H2020 information days on research and innovation in ICTmarked the kick-off of the EaPConnect project in the Eastern Partnership region.

During the event the 2016-2017Horizon2020 work programmes in ICTand research e-Infrastructures wereunveiled by Mr Morten Moller from DGCONNECT and EU policiesProgramme Officer Jean-Luc Dorel.

Seen as a tool to drive economicgrowth and create jobs, Horizon2020is the biggest EU Research andInnovation programme ever withnearly €80 billion of funding availableover 7 years (2014 to 2020). It supportscreative ideas and encouragescollaborative projects that will advanceresearch at a European and globallevel. By providing cutting-edge e-infrastructures to the EaP research andeducation community, EaPConnectwill facilitate the region’s participationto Horizon2020.

The partners also had theopportunity to explore applicationsthat will be supported by EaPConnect,such as earthquake monitoring anddisaster prevention, with Mr AndreasKüppers from the German ResearchCentre for Geosciences, or languagetools with Mr Dieter Van Uytvanck fromCLARIN ERIC in the Netherlands.

PicturesLeft: AndrusAnsip, EC VicePresident for theDigital SingleMarket, Image©EU

Right: PierreBruyère, Chair ofGÉANT Board ofDirectors, andGerhardSchumann-Hitzler, Directorat the EuropeanCommission’sDirectorate-General forNeighbourhoodand EnlargementNegotiations,signing theEaPConnectproject contract.Image ©EUGÉANT and EaPConnect presented

their activities and services to anassembly of 100 stakeholdersincluding policy makers, networkingorganisations, researchers andscientists from Europe and theSouthern Caucasus.

There is no doubt this successfulkick-off event will help strengthenfurther collaborations in the EasternPartnership and beyond.

You can find a link to the 2016-2017 H2020 draft work programmesfollowing the below link. Final versionswill be made available later this year:https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/draft-work-programmes-2016-17

"High-capacity connectivity provided via theEaPConnect project will enable researchers in theEastern Partnership to have fast and convenientaccess to language material archived at CLARINcentres worldwide and to make use of online linguisticanalysis tools.

This opens up exciting possibilities to study theunique languages and cultures in this area."

Mr. Dieter Van Uytvanck, Technical Director CLARINERIC, Netherlands

COMMUNITY NEWS

38 CONNECT ISSUE 20 2015

NEW HIGH-PERFORMANCENETWORK FOR SCIENCE,HIGHER EDUCATION ANDGOVERNMENT SERVICES IN BELGIUM

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Belnet, the Belgian nationalresearch network, is updating its IP network this autumn. The newnetwork will give Universities andother schools of Higher Education,research institutes and governmentagencies even faster connectionspeeds and more efficient networkservices. The updated network willalso be able to support as recenttechnologies as Software DefinedNetworking (SDN) and NetworkFunction Virtualization (NFV).

After last year's update of the opticalequipment, this autumn, Belnet will bereplacing the routers in its 'Points ofPresence’, the connection points thatmake up the Belgian research network.The new routers are considerably morepowerful and support a nearlyunlimited number of 10G interfaces.“However, that’s not all; our customerswill also be able to enjoy 100G Internetaccess and 100G national andinternational research bandwidth in thefuture - a first in Belgium,” says JanTorreele, Director of Belnet. Belnet isinvesting more than € 2,250,000 in thenew hardware. The project wasawarded through a European tender toSecureLink, which is assuming the roleof integrator. The equipment itself isbeing supplied by Juniper Networks.

More Reliable,Faster and MoreFlexibleBelnet currently has an IP network thatoperates as a layered model, with alltraffic passing through the centralrouters in Brussels. This will no longerbe the case with the new localnetwork. Thanks to the faster and morereliable connections, Universities andresearch centres, which often work onhighly data-sensitive projects, can lookforward to even greater continuity andperformance.

For the connected organisations,the new IP infrastructure also meansmore efficient access to Belnet’snetwork services. The new network isconstructed so that Belnet can offerSDN and NFV services in the future.“Our customers will be able to set up,configure and monitor their servicesthemselves. A University, for example,will be able to set up its own Point-to-Point connection between itsorganisation and our data centres inorder to use such services as cloudcomputing,” explains Dirk Haex, Headof the Network Service division.

The new IP equipment is alsosignificantly more energy-efficient. The energy consumption of therouters in an average Point of Presenceis expected to decrease by more than 50%.

World-ClassThanks toInnovative DesignThe optical layer of the network hastaken over a series of functionalitiesthat were previously performed by thecore routers. This enables Belnet to construct its IP network moreefficiently and to better utilise theavailable bandwidth. “The innovativedesign of the Belnet network provesonce again that our infrastructure isamong the best in the world and that isexactly what the Belgian science and academic community expects,” adds Jan Torreele.

COMMUNITY NEWS

40 CONNECT ISSUE 20 2015

ENERGY CHALLENGES IN ARMENIA

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The Institute for Informaticsand Automation Problems(IIAP) of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the

Republic of Armenia [1] is a leading ICTresearch and technology developmentinstitute in Armenia in the sphere ofapplied mathematics and informatics,as well as in the application domain ofcomputing technologies in variousfields of science and technology.

On a national level, IIAP isresponsible for e-infrastructures inArmenia [2], including the AcademicScientific Network of Armenia (ASNET-AM) [3] and the Armenian National GridInitiative (ArmNGI) [4].

ArmNGI aims to establish anadvanced infrastructure for scientificresearch and the application of newtechnologies in Armenia, and promotethe integration of its researchers andresearch institutions in the Europeanscientific and academic researchcommunity. It comprises an integrateddistributed computing environmentconsisting primarily of computer anddata resources located in the leadingresearch and educational organisationsof the country.

ASNET-AM is Armenia’s NationalResearch and Education Network(NREN), providing network connectivityand services to more than 60organizations in 6 cities in the country.It seeks to contribute to future networkevolution in Armenia throughdeveloping innovative services and

applications and introducing advancedtechnological tools to improve thequality of everyday life, reduceunnecessary travel, and improveefficiency in the country, so as toincrease its effectiveness andcompetitiveness within the Europeanand regional digital community.

Its national standing, its closerelationship with higher education andresearch institutions and its trackrecord of advocacy of leading-edgetechnology and applications, placeASNET-AM in an ideal position to fosterthe optimised use of energy andmaterial resources that is essential toensure that ICT services are botheconomically and environmentallysustainable.

It does this through adoptingenvironmental best practices andpromoting networking technology thatcan provide alternatives to currentpractices that result in high levels ofpollutant emissions. ASNET-AMrecently joined the GÉANT GreenTeam to work on these issues. Thisalready has been a positive stimuluswith developing an environmentalpolicy as one of the outcomes ofworking on the team. The policy willhelp the ASNET-AM to reduce theircarbon footprint and apply guidelineson the safe disposal of old technology.

At the same time, ASNET-AM isinvestigating the CPU power andmemory efficiency of HPC applicationsfor numerical weather prediction,

satellite image processing, moleculardynamics of complex molecules,monte carlo simulations, etc., with aview to optimising their performancein terms of power consumption andtime of execution, especiallyconsidering that most of theseapplications will likely be run on Cloudsystems in future. Research is alsounderway on live migration andimplementation of memory ballooningtechniques in virtual machines in orderto optimise power on servers.

All these steps it is hoped will go along way towards contributing to thedevelopment of a Green ICT and amore energy-aware society in Armeniain the near future.

ASNET-AM is a member of theEaPConnect project (see page 39).

References[1] Institute for Informatics and

Automation Problems, http://iiap.sci.am

[2] H. Astsatryan, V. Sahakyan, Yu. Shoukourian, Recent Developments of e-Science Infrastructures in Armenia, Reports of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Volume 113, No 4, 2013, pp. 352-356, ISSN 0321-1339.

[3] Academic Scientific Network of Armenia, http://www.asnet.am

[4] Armenian National Grid Initiative, http://www.grid.am

In consideration of the ever-growing importance ofthe IT industry, in the year 2000 the Government ofArmenia declared ICT to be one of the prioritysectors of the country’s economy. For the last 10years, Armenia’s ICT sector has seen a growth ofabout 27% per year. In 2008, the industry’s share in Armenia’s GDP was 1.2%, comparable to that ofIndia (1.4%) and Germany (1.3%).

42 CONNECT ISSUE 20 2015

COMMUNITY NEWS

SUDREN EX-CEOWINS NATIONALWOMAN ENGINEERAWARDDr. Iman Abuel Maaly Abdelrahman has just received the 2015Sudanese “Distinguished Arab Woman Engineer” award and is inline to compete for the same award at world level later this year.

The daughter of Aziza Mekki Osmanwho fought for Sudanese women’srights and remained a powerful socialactivist until her last breath, DrAbdelrahman carries a long list ofachievements including heading theDirectorate for ICT at the SudaneseMinistry of Higher Education, being theFounding CEO of the Sudanese REN

(SudREN) and currently serving asdeputy chair of the UbuntuNetAlliance, the networking organisationfor Eastern and Southern Africa.

Also the Head of the Departmentof Electrical and Electronic Engineeringat the University of Khartoum, Dr.Abdelrahman was delighted to answerour questions.

WordsDr. Iman Abuel MaalyAbdelrahman

What does thisaward mean toyou?I am honoured to be receiving thisaward. It is evidence to all youngwomen who do not believe that theycan have a family and meet their careergoals. Sudanese women have a greathistory of achievements in all fields;there are many women engineers inSudan, but very few of them reach theexecutive position and very few arepresent at the higher levels ofacademia. So, this award is an exampleto show them that it is possible to be aleader woman engineer. As to theglobal award, I would love to have theopportunity to cross borders and senda message to all women around theworld and say: ‘’If I succeeded in acommunity that’s known to have a biggender gap, what stops you?”. Thiswould mean a lot to me.

Talking about thegender gap, do youhave tips to helpreduce it?In my childhood my father was theman who drew the character I havenow because he believed in me. Healways encouraged me to be the bestat what I do as an individual, not as awoman. I would like to share this pieceof advice with all women.

Then there is resistance, from men.For years I’ve found myself the onlywoman in a meeting room full of men,

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COMMUNITY NEWS

We would like to thank Dr. ImanAbuel Maaly Abdelrahman forsharing such a valuable input withus and wish her the best of luck forthe globe award for DistinguishedArab woman engineer of the year.We are proud to support theAfrican R&E community inachieving a dream we share.

CONNECT readers are invited to participate in the NRENCommunity Forum supportingWomen in Technology, NREN-WiT, by sending a blank email to: nren-wit-subscribe-request@listserv.heanet.ie.

and in some cases I had to chair thosemeetings. It wasn’t easy to be a womanand win a negotiation over men whohad on their mind not to be defeatedby a woman! This type of resistanceneeds time and perseverance to besolved. But everyone, man or woman,can contribute to changing thementalities by showing that it ispossible to work efficiently togetherand by supporting women to achievetheir ambitions.

You are yourself amodel for allwomen and men,who inspires you?Since my childhood, my mother, AzizaMekki, has been my source ofinspiration. She was one of thewomen leaders who stood up andfought for women’s rights in Sudanand founded the Sudanese Women’sUnion in 1952. At the age of 82 anduntil the last day of her life she wasworking as a volunteer at the WomenInitiative Group that supports womenin Sudan, organising meetings in herbedroom when she could no longerget out of the house. She waspowerful, she was enthusiastic, shewas a leader.

After joining the UbuntuNetAlliance, I have been lucky to meet twowomen who inspired me: MargaretNgwira, the co-founder of the Alliance,from whom I learned that enthusiasmmakes me stronger. And I learnt fromCathrin Stöver, the GÉANT projectmanager for AfricaConnect, that self-trust is the first step towards success.

Beside inspiration,what allowed youto achieve somuch?Support. The support of my family, myfather who always believed in me, thencame my husband who encouragedme to do my PhD and who alwayssupported me. In my work field, Icannot forget those men who alwaysexpressed their trust in me and pushedme on the success ladder: Prof. ElSiddig, the former Vice-Chancellor ofthe University of Khartoum and Prof S.Sharief, the former Academic Secretaryof the university; then, after joining theUbuntuNet Alliance, I met Dr. Tusubira,the former CEO of the Alliance. I notonly learnt from his amazing leadershipskills, but also got the chance to flywith him towards the Alliance’ssuccess.

You are also anAfrican engineer,from yourexperience whatare the challengesfaced by theAfrican researchand educationcommunity? African countries have many similaritiesand if there were no borders betweenthem, they could be one country. Ibelieve the real borders and gapsbetween them are political. So Africanresearch and education communitiescan play a role in overcoming anyborders through connectivity andcollaboration, and through fosteringjoint research. The UbutuNet Alliance isa practical example of unifying Africansby giving them the chance to be onefamily. It is an organisation that hassucceeded at all levels: the humanlevel, the services level and theconnectivity level. All you need is ahuman network with the same goal,the same ambition, the same dream,and we have that ready forAfricaConnect2.

What is thatdream?I made a speech in 2010 at theUbuntuNet-Connect conference inJohannesburg that I had a dream of anAfrican continent that would be asdeveloped as Europe. In my opinionthis dream can be achieved withconnectivity. You just need to witnesswhat AfricaConnect has changed inEastern and Southern Africa. NRENs inlandlocked countries such as Ugandaand Zambia are now benefiting fromhigh quality high speed connectivity ataffordable prices.

I am not the only one to have thisdream. In fact we are millions to havethe same dream, including ourEuropean partners without whom wewouldn’t be able to do it. This is why Ibelieve it will come true.

Any advice on howto make it happensooner?It is happening in various places aroundAfrica. Kenya is going through atechnological transformation. Ethiopiais modernising at a very fast pace.Other examples abound. But it is veryimportant to reconnect the networksthat are ready and working and whichhave been cut off for political reasons.It happened in Sudan and other partsof Africa. These networks couldprovide connectivity to entire regionsand connect continents. They wouldhelp save a lot of money and improvemillions of lives, starting with ourchildren, the next generation ofresearchers and the entire human raceby accelerating scientificbreakthroughs.

44 CONNECT ISSUE 20 2015

ABOUT GÉANT

GÉANT is the leading collaboration on network and relatedinfrastructure and services for the benefit of research andeducation, contributing to Europe's economic growth and competitiveness.

GÉANT has 41 member countries and is owned by its core NREN membership, and also has Associate members including commercial organisations and multi-national research infrastructures and projects.

GGÉÉAANNTT AATT AA GGLLAANNCCEE

ABOUT GÉANT

45

INTERNATIONALCOLLABORATION GÉANT continues to cooperateclosely with research andeducation networks across theworld to ensure that the users’global connectivity and otherservice needs are being met. Thefocus of these global interactionscovers North America, LatinAmerica, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, theMediterranean, Central Asia andAsia-Pacific, and increasedemphasis is being placed ondialogue with partners incountries where Europeanresearch and education interestsare high: USA (Internet2 andESnet); Canada (CANARIE),Brazil (RNP), Chile (REUNA),South Africa (TENET andSANReN), India (NKN), China(CERNET and CSTNET) andJapan (SINET and JGN-X).Furthermore, GÉANT has signedMemoranda of Understandingwith TEIN*CC (Trans-EurasiaInformation Network *Cooperation Center) and withAPAN (Asia-Pacific AdvancedNetwork), to promote cooperationand collaboration between theorganisations on various levels.

AT THE HEARTOF GLOBALRESEARCH ANDEDUCATION The GÉANT network remains thebest connected research andeducation network in the world,and is driven by extensivepartnerships which continue toflourish. GÉANT successfullymanages regional networkprojects in other parts of theworld: in the Mediterranean(EUMEDCONNECT); Sub-Saharan Africa(AfricaConnect); and CentralAsia (CAREN). In addition,GÉANT coordinates the Europe-China collaboration (ORIENTplus)and continues to secure directChina-Europe connectivity via along-term contract.

HIGHPERFORMANCENETWORKSERVICESGÉANT’s range of connectivityservices, underpinned by thenetwork, covers everything fromrobust, high-bandwidth IP,through Virtual Private Networks(L3VPN), point-to-pointconnectivity (Plus) to bespokesolutions for long term, highlydata-intensive requirements(Lambda). As user needschange, the service portfolio hasto scale and adapt, in order toensure that GÉANT remains atthe forefront of networkingtechnology and service delivery.GÉANT advanced services inmonitoring, trust and identity,security and certification, mobilityand access, and media and real-time communications, all serve toenhance the user experience.

PAN-EUROPEANNETWORK The GÉANT backbone offerscapacities of up to 2 Tbps and,together with Europe’s NRENs,connects over 50 million users at10,000 institutions acrossEurope, supporting research inareas, such as energy, theenvironment, space andmedicine.

Learn more atwww.geant.org

www.geant.org

www.twitter.com/GEANTnews

www.facebook.com/GEANTcommunity

www.youtube.com/GEANTtv

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This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of GÉANT and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union. CONNECT/1015