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Calls & Context
SERENATE
Study into European Research and Education Networking As Targeted by eEurope
Abstract
The SERENATE studies have the broad aim of providing inputs to the European Commission on initiatives that could help to keep the evolution of the European research networking at the forefront of the worldwide development, and enhance the competitiveness of the European Research Area. SERENATE specifically aims to develop cost-estimates for the networking scenarios outlined in the eEurope Action Plan. The European Council, Parliament and Commission have announced plans to bring European research networking to speeds of 100 Gbps and beyond. The SERENATE project contributes to achieving these policy goals by investigating the strategic aspects of the development of such "superfast" networks, looking into the technical, organisational and financial aspects, the market conditions and the regulatory environment.
Objectives
The SERENATE project aims to contribute to EU policies, community social objectives and economic development by providing policy inputs on initiatives that could help to keep the evolution of the European research networking at the forefront of worldwide development, and enhance the competitiveness of the European Research Area.
The objective of the project is to provide important inputs to the development of policies by the European Commission, but also to national governments and funding bodies, the management of universities, and the national research and education networks. One particular objective is to develop cost-estimates for the networking scenarios outlined in the eEurope Action Plan.
By the end of the SERENATE project, the project will have produced 15 reports that will provide important inputs to the policy making of the European Commission, national governments and funding bodies, management of research and education institutions, and research and education networking organisations. Each of these reports will address certain strategic aspects that are of crucial importance for the development of European Research Networking at 100 Gbps and beyond.
The current situation is that national research and education networks and the wider European research networking community are at the forefront of technological developments. While much of the history of European research networking over the past two decades was characterised by the need to keep up with developments in North America, currently Europe has a leading position in many aspects of networking. In the past three years, Europe has taken up the challenge of Gigabit networking. Gigabit networks are being implemented by a number of national research and education networking organisations, and in other countries plans for such networks are being developed. At the European level, the GÉANT interconnect network has been a significant step forward, introducing 10 Gbps in the core of the network and offering a wide coverage of 2.5 Gbps capacity. It is quite likely that GÉANT will deploy some links with speeds at or above 100 Gbps during its lifetime, and even more ambitious longer-term numerical targets might now be appropriate. A similar fast development is to be expected at the national and local levels of research networking.
The SERENATE project contributes to achieving these networking goals by investigating the strategic aspects of the development of such "superfast" networks, looking into the technical, organisational and financial aspects, the market conditions and the regulatory environment. As a result, by the end of the project, the relevant policy makers, funders and managers of Research Networking in Europe will have at their disposal a set of recommendations and background material that will enable them to set their policies for the further development of European research
Technical Approach
The SERENATE work is broken down into 14 interlinked work items, each looking into certain strategic aspects that are of crucial importance for the development of European Research Networking to 100 Gbps and beyond. Each work item will lead to a public report:
- Initial workshop, to survey the problem area and receive inputs from stakeholders.
- Review of the status - current or planned for the near future - of the transport infrastructure available for European research networking.
- Study into the development of the national and pan-European regulatory situation, especially in relation to alternative models of acquisition.
- Workshop on operators' views on infrastructure status and likely evolution.
- Study of the telecoms market development and price dynamics and forecast for the evolution in the 2002-2007 time frame of the transport infrastructure.
- Case studies on experiments with "alternative" models of infrastructures and workshop on relevant models for national research and education networks.
- Scenarios for European network infrastructure, including cost evolution.
- Study into the availability and characteristics of equipment for next-generation networks.
- Investigation of user needs in the European research community, and priorities.
- Scenarios for timing and costing of European networking infrastructure at international, national and local level.
- Case studies into the extension of Research Networking into education and other user communities.
- Report identifying issues related to the geographic coverage of European research and education networking.
- Final workshop to present findings and conclusions and to receive comments.
- Summary report on the SERENATE studies.
- Project name:
- SERENATE
- Contract no:
- IST-2001-34925
- Project type:
- Accompanying Measure
- Start date:
- 01/05/2002
- Duration:
- 17 months
- Total budget:
- €1,058,568
- Funding from the EC:
- €959,890
- Total effort in person-months:
- 61
- Website:
- http://www.serenate.org/
- Contact person:
- Dr. Karel Vietsch
- email: vietsch@terena.nl
- tel: +31 20 5304488
- fax: +31 20 5304499
- Project participants:
- Academia Europaea - UK
- CTI DK
- DANTE - UK
- ESF - FR
- TERENA - NL
- Keywords:
- Research Networking
- Strategy
- Collaboration with other EC funded projects:
- CÆSAR
- COMREN
- EUMEDCONNECT
- GN1