[Here is a great blog on a topic dear to my heart that I have been
blogging about for some time. National R&E networks I believe can
play an important role through disruptive innovation in a number of ways:
(a) addressing the larger broadband environment of usage based billing and other Internet traffic management practices
(b) enabling community broadband networks through deployment of transit exchanges, peering and other services
(c) developing new enterprise centric wireless mobile business models through integrated Wifi and LTE
(d) reducing or eliminating the carbon footprint of computing and networking through use of green clouds and networks
(e) developing collaborative tools and platforms
(f) etc
--Thanks to Jon Hunt for this pointer]
A wider role for National Research and Education Networks (NRENs)?: A new working … http://bit.ly/uhWAdw
A
new working group paper on broadband and science from the ITU/UNESCO
Broadband Commission for Digital Development sets out the importance of
national research and education networks (NRENs), in the wider context
of broadband’s role in supporting science and education communities.
Recommendations specific to NRENs include:
•
Research and Education Networks (RENs), the bodies set up in most
countries – including developing countries – to manage and maintain
e-Infrastructures, should be given high political visibility towards
governments, regulators and academia given their role in the
transformation of developing economies into knowledge societies.
•
National authorities and the relevant international organizations should
promote affordable and fair access to broadband e-infrastructures via
the establishment and consolidation of national, regional and global
RENs, fostering cooperative environments that bridge the Digital Divide
(non-connected countries and regions) and the Geographical Divide
(disadvantaged non-central areas).
• RENs should spearhead technological and service innovation in partnership with industry.
•
Broadband e-Infrastructures should be leveraged for public service,
fostering the engagement of RENs in other public sectors such as
e-Health, e-Government, e-Learning, e-Innovation and “e-Capacity
Building”.
The report positions NRENs as having a much broader focus
than their traditional role of supporting the higher education and
research community. In the UK, this is borne out in the way the JANET
network has extended its reach significantly in recent years, through,
for example, the provision services to schools via local authorities and
regional broadband consortia, as well as engagement with the Cabinet
Office Public Services Network (PSN) programme. See thispresentation
from a recent JANET Strategic Briefing Day for more on this.
Examples
from the USA also exemplify this transition. The United States Unified
Community Anchor Network (USUCAN) project aims to “provide community
anchor institutions including public safety organizations, public
libraries, K-12 schools, community colleges, research parks, and health
care organizations with advanced broadband capabilities and services.”
The initiative utilises the capabilities and reach of the Internet2
national research and education network:
“The U.S. UCAN project was
established under the auspices of a federal stimulus grant to Internet2
from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
(NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). Using this
stimulus funding, Internet2 is acquiring more than 10,000 miles of
fibre optic cable and will build a new nationwide network infrastructure
with an unprecedented 8.8 Terabits of capacity using emerging 100
Gigabit per second technology. This new infrastructure will serve as the
underlying infrastructure for U.S. UCAN to offer its services to
community anchor institutions nationwide. The new network which will be
built through strong public-private partnerships, intends to
complement and link together new regional community anchor networks
created through BTOP funding as well as Internet2’s existing regional
network members and network connectors. The goal is to provide the high
performance national networking capable of fully supporting all
200,000 community anchor institutions across the U.S. – three times as
many institutions as the Internet2 Network serves today.”
An ambition
very much in keeping with the recommendations set out in the Broadband
Commission’s working paper, extending the reach and benefits of an
existing NREN to a much wider community. Another US project of note is
theGig.U initiative, which comprises “a broad-based group of over 30
leading research universities from across the United States…Gig.U
seeks to accelerate the deployment of ultra high-speed networks to
leading U.S. universities and their surrounding communities.” The
project issued a request for information (RFI) in September 2011 which
set out four goals as the first step towards Gig.U delivering its
mission:
• Promote the deployment of next generation networks across member communities to stimulate economic development;
•
Identify creative approaches to design, operate and finance
self-sustaining next generation networks for member communities while
evaluating the trade-offs between these different approaches;
• Gain
an understanding of how differences between member communities influence
the level of private sector interest in working with any individual
community; and
• Consider ways in which multiple Project communities
can work together beyond the RFI process to improve the private sector
business case for next generation networks.
Again, lots in common
with the Broadband Commission’s recommendations in the above. An FAQ
response sets out how the project relates to existing US research and
education networks:
“The Project is focused on providing broader
community connectivity to the member universities and communities. The
existing R&E networks provide significant institutional connectivity
to all of the member universities. This effort will neither duplicate
nor compete with those networks. Rather, the Project will work with the
R&E community and others with network facilities in the university
communities, to develop new approaches to extending and upgrading
existing network assets with a focus on higher speed retail offerings to
places on campus that are not served by the existing R&E networks
and to the areas surrounding the campuses. This will enable those who
work with ultra-high speed networks on campus to be able to continue
their work while home and create laboratories of greater connectivity
throughout the university and surrounding community.”
A slightly
different kind of cross-fertilisation than that being undertaken by
USUCAN perhaps, but very interesting nevertheless.
Of related
interest are gigabit projects like Gig.U participant Case Western
Reserve University’s Case Connection Zoneinitiative, Chattanooga’s
city-wide municipally-owned fiber-to-the-premises network delivering
1Gbps services as well as Google’s fibre initiative in Kansas City (some
interesting ideas already here), all of which are test-beds and
trail-blazers for exploring the capabilities and possibilities of high
bandwidth services. More on these in my next post.
——
Green
Internet Consultant. Practical solutions to reducing GHG emissions such
as free broadband and electric highways.
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/
email: Bill.St.Arnaud@gmail.com
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