[Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital
Agenda, recently received the GEANT Expert group report with its views
on the future of the pan-European research and education networking.
This is an excellent report and I concur with most of its
recommendations, particularly that R&E networks should be engines of
innovation. R&E networks whose only goal is to provide low cost
network and Internet services and who look and act no differently then
hierarchical, monopoly telcos are ultimately doomed in my opinion.
Someday, when governments break up the existing telecom oligopolies, the
cost of telecom circuits will drop dramatically and R&E networks
will be unable to compete. We are already seeing this phenomena on some
competitive cross sections in Europe where optical lighpaths from the
commercial sector are considerably cheaper than similar links offered by
R&E networks.
R&E networks have had their greatest
success and biggest impact when, in addition to delivering services to
the R&E community they also engage in disruptive innovation. The
deployment of the Internet itself is probably the quintessential
example. But the invention of the web, customer owned fiber, IP over
optical, Eduroam, etc are other examples of technologies that have
emanated from R&E networks and have gone onto transform society and
create entire new business eco-systems. Open lightpath exchanges,
federated optical networks, enterprise based integrated WiFi broadband
wireless networks, brokered commercial cloud services, user controlled
or software defined networks, federated identity, collaboration tools,
leveraging build out of community based broadband networks (Gig.u) ,
green IT, etc are other ongoing examples of how R&E networks can
continue to engage in disruptive innovation. Eventually these
technologies will also transform society and create new business
opportunities.
The only exception I would make to this otherwise
excellent report is engagement with industry. While I fully applaud and
commend engagement with industry, as for example, brokering commercial
cloud services, the exception I make is engagement with monopoly
telecoms. Unfortunately most politicians and bureaucrats associate
telecoms as part and parcel of the ICT industry. What distinguishes
telecom from the rest of the ICT sector is they make most of their money
from monopoly rent extraction rather than innovation. In many cases the
innovation undertaken by R&E networks is a threat to their
livelihood. So extreme caution is warranted when R&E networks are
asked to engage with their local monopoly telco/cableco/cellco. Some
excerpts from the report—BSA]
Knowledge without Borders
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e-infrastructure/docs/geg-report.pdf
A
platform for innovation: A much stronger orientation towards innovation
is required, building on the networks’ unique, but underutilized,
position within the European innovation ecosystem. Innovation here means
not just (or even primarily) technological innovation but also in the
use of technology and in the provision of services. NRENs should become
living labs, providing live testbeds for future technologies and
connecting researchers and others to the market. No commercial provider
has this capability and it is a further demonstration of GÉANT’s
European scale.
Organize for innovation. To realise this goal,
innovation has to be made a central focus of networking activities, and
supported/reinforced through appropriate structures and funding. Greater
inclusiveness and transparency must be introduced, opening these
activities up to industry, academia and user communities.
The
nature of the scientific process is changing fundamentally, with
research becoming more interdisciplinary and data driven. Big Science
projects, which were once confined to a few communities such as
high-energy physics, are now found in virtually every scientific
discipline, including social sciences. Such projects routinely present
the most challenging requirements for the research networks. Scientists
rely increasingly on trustworthy networks to navigate the complex web of
people, data and resources.
Provide a research partner and lead
customer for the European ICT industry. NRENs should play a key role in
mediating between the higher education sector and its suppliers in the
provision of commercial networking services, including cloud services.
Increasing
competition for international connectivity: The fact that many of the
NRENs’ international links are provided outside of the GÉANT/GN3
framework makes for a very dynamic situation. High-end user communities
exploit this dynamism to create their own global networks (e.g. for the
data produced by the LHC accelerator at CERN). Effectively, there is no
monopoly for international connectivity, nor should there be.
We
envisage moving towards a richer mesh of networks based on ubiquitous
virtualized resources. These mobile multi-cloud environments, where
there is storage on every device, are much closer
to the
multi-domain nature of academic networking. Academic data centres will
consolidate and reliance on global data centres will increase. New
virtualized software-based approaches are arriving on the scene and more
will come before 2020.
Allow for flexibility in architectural
choices and operational modes, recognising the increasing diversity of
solutions available. Networking technology continues to evolve rapidly;
witness for instance
the emergence of hybrid networking
architectures, light path connectivity and Open Exchanges. Even if no
major breakthroughs would occur in a 2020 timeframe, current
technologies will continue to push the boundaries in terms of
performance. Smart resource sharing, virtualization, ubiquity, mobility,
security will all be in demand by the networks’ disparate users. From
an architectural point of view, there are several ways in which the
networks might be configured; indeed, a key characteristic is the
increasing diversity of solutions available. The Future Internet is
expected to be a complex federated architecture, providing multiple
services tailored to co-existing, yet securely independent user
communities. GÉANT has to grow as a European commons in an inherently
multi-domain, open environment. The guiding principles should be
(1) what works best for users and meets their requirements, (2) what
contributes to the European communications commons, and (3) what gives
Europe the best position in global research and education networking.
——
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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