Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BELLA-S1 (BELLA-S1 Building Europe Link with Latin America)
Berichtszeitraum: 2018-05-01 bis 2021-12-31
The BELLA (Building Europe Link with Latin America) programme provides for the long-term interconnectivity needs of the European and Latin American research and education communities by delivering long-term, very high capacity on a short route, bringing cost benefits and stimulating diversity over the transatlantic segment (BELLA-S). The BELLA-S1 project is part of the BELLA Programme.
The BELLA-S aim is met by securing guaranteed long-term spectrum on a direct submarine cable between Latin America and Europe and implementing sufficient capacity to provide for the immediate capacity requirements of the research and education communities in the two regions. This solution reduces latency, and enhances data security by routing traffic directly between the two regions, and avoiding third-party countries.
User groups that will benefit from BELLA connectivity include European researchers needing to data collected by astronomy infrastructures in Chile, and researchers in Latin America who collaborate with the LHC. Earth observation researchers also benefit through the delivery of Copernicus data across BELLA.
The objectives of BELLA are:
- To procure and sign a contract for a long-term Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) for 40%-50% of the spectrum of one fibre pair on a submarine cable directly linking Europe and South America for use by the research and education communities and not-for-profit organisations of both continents.
- To deploy a minimum of one 100Gbps channel between GÉANT and RedCLARA to serve the research and education communities of both continents, and additional links as may be determined by the Steering Committee of the BELLA Consortium, which has been established to oversee the progress of BELLA activities.
- To carry out dissemination activities to raise awareness among the research and education networking communities of Europe and Latin America and promote usage of the new infrastructure.
The BELLA-S aim is met by securing guaranteed long-term spectrum on a direct submarine cable between Latin America and Europe and implementing sufficient capacity to provide for the immediate capacity requirements of the research and education communities in the two regions. This solution reduces latency, and enhances data security by routing traffic directly between the two regions, and avoiding third-party countries.
User groups that will benefit from BELLA connectivity include European researchers needing to data collected by astronomy infrastructures in Chile, and researchers in Latin America who collaborate with the LHC. Earth observation researchers also benefit through the delivery of Copernicus data across BELLA.
The objectives of BELLA are:
- To procure and sign a contract for a long-term Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) for 40%-50% of the spectrum of one fibre pair on a submarine cable directly linking Europe and South America for use by the research and education communities and not-for-profit organisations of both continents.
- To deploy a minimum of one 100Gbps channel between GÉANT and RedCLARA to serve the research and education communities of both continents, and additional links as may be determined by the Steering Committee of the BELLA Consortium, which has been established to oversee the progress of BELLA activities.
- To carry out dissemination activities to raise awareness among the research and education networking communities of Europe and Latin America and promote usage of the new infrastructure.
The BELLA-S procurement was launched on 10 June 2016 and concluded in April 2018. Contract signature was achieved on 2 August 2018 with Contract in Force following on 31 December 2018. Manufacture and construction of the EllaLink submarine cable system began in January 2019 following the achievement of Contract in Force.
Until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, EllaLink remained on track to delivery BELLA connectivity by the end of 2020. However, the impact of the pandemic (e.g. temporary factory closures) led to delays of approximately six months. The EllaLink cable system was Ready for Service in the summer of 2021.
On 8 July 2021 EllaLink notified BELLA that BELLA-S connectivity was ready for User Acceptance Testing and BELLA confirmed acceptance on 23 July 2021. Production traffic between GÉANT and RedCLARA started transiting BELLA infrastructure in early August 2021
Back-up arrangements established to carry BELLA traffic in the event of an outage of the EllaLink submarine cable system. One path, now implemented, is routed via the United States. A second back-up arrangement that will route traffic from Brazil to Europe via the West Coast of Africa is expected to be online in 2022.
Communications and dissemination activities have centred around the BELLA website (www.bella-programme.eu) and Twitter accounts (@BELLA_Programme). Three case studies demonstrating the benefits of BELLA connectivity have been produced. Equally BELLA has been presented at numerous events throughout the project, including GÉANT’s and RedCLARA’s annual conferences, TNC and TICAL.
The EllaLink cable system was inaugurated at the “Leading the Digital Decade” event organised by the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, in a dedicated session in Sines, Portugal with speeches from Portugal’s Minister of Economy and Digital Transition, Brazil’s Minister for Science Technology and Innovation, the EllaLink CEO and the Nokia President and CEO. BELLA representatives attended the event in person and online. Digital communications materials were produced for the event including messaging to address different audiences.
BELLA connectivity was launched at TICAL2021, RedCLARA’s flagship annual conference. Contributions in the inauguration were made by the Director of the Directorate of Digital Excellence and Scientific Infrastructure of DG CONNECT of the European Commission, the Brazilian Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations, and the Executive Director of RedCLARA.
Until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, EllaLink remained on track to delivery BELLA connectivity by the end of 2020. However, the impact of the pandemic (e.g. temporary factory closures) led to delays of approximately six months. The EllaLink cable system was Ready for Service in the summer of 2021.
On 8 July 2021 EllaLink notified BELLA that BELLA-S connectivity was ready for User Acceptance Testing and BELLA confirmed acceptance on 23 July 2021. Production traffic between GÉANT and RedCLARA started transiting BELLA infrastructure in early August 2021
Back-up arrangements established to carry BELLA traffic in the event of an outage of the EllaLink submarine cable system. One path, now implemented, is routed via the United States. A second back-up arrangement that will route traffic from Brazil to Europe via the West Coast of Africa is expected to be online in 2022.
Communications and dissemination activities have centred around the BELLA website (www.bella-programme.eu) and Twitter accounts (@BELLA_Programme). Three case studies demonstrating the benefits of BELLA connectivity have been produced. Equally BELLA has been presented at numerous events throughout the project, including GÉANT’s and RedCLARA’s annual conferences, TNC and TICAL.
The EllaLink cable system was inaugurated at the “Leading the Digital Decade” event organised by the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, in a dedicated session in Sines, Portugal with speeches from Portugal’s Minister of Economy and Digital Transition, Brazil’s Minister for Science Technology and Innovation, the EllaLink CEO and the Nokia President and CEO. BELLA representatives attended the event in person and online. Digital communications materials were produced for the event including messaging to address different audiences.
BELLA connectivity was launched at TICAL2021, RedCLARA’s flagship annual conference. Contributions in the inauguration were made by the Director of the Directorate of Digital Excellence and Scientific Infrastructure of DG CONNECT of the European Commission, the Brazilian Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations, and the Executive Director of RedCLARA.
The principle impact of BELLA-S for research and education collaboration between Europe and Latin America is the ability to meet long-term transatlantic connectivity needs for European and Latin American research and education collaboration:
- Capacity needs are met and exceeded, with scalable upgrade paths with known pricing principles, leading to long-term cost efficiencies.
- A significant reduction in latency between the two regions, leading to improved support for collaborations where low latency is of prime importance (e.g. metrology, earth sciences, medicine and the arts).
- Improved protection and privacy of traffic: BELLA traffic is routed directly between the two regions, without being directed via third countries or regions; where traffic is specifically sensitive, dedicated channels can be used to increase security of traffic.
- Copernicus is made available locally in Latin America in near real time by the transfer of Copernicus data to mirror sites in Latin America via BELLA.
Other wider impacts include the following:
EllaLink is a new submarine cable system between Europe and Brazil, and thereby improves internet access in general for Brazil and the wider South America society. In addition, with landings in Madeira and Cabo Verde, it also increases internet access in those locations. As an anchor tenant of the EllaLink cable system, BELLA is a key enabler of EllaLink.
In addition to the confirmed deployments, possible branch extensions of the EllaLink system include the Canary Islands in Spain, Mauritania, Morocco, French Guiana and, within Brazil, Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo, which would bring improved digital access benefits to those locations.
BELLA has brought together funding from multiple sources to successfully achieve a goal common to multiple parties. BELLA has therefore served as a proof of concept that such programmes are achievable and provides best practices for similar activities in the future, such as the EC’s plans for
Global Gateways.
GÉANT, RedCLARA and RNP have collaborated with R&E networking partners in North America and Africa to secure a back-up connectivity arrangement that is beneficial for all participating R&E networking partners, and the research and education communities of four continents.
This arrangement follows similar arrangements in the North Atlantic and between Asia-Pacific and Europe.
BELLA therefore not only provides for Europe-Latin America R&E connectivity but also contributes to the strengthening of the wider global R&E networking ecosystem, in a mesh that ensures greater availability of R&E capacity for when inevitable network outages occur.
In June 2020 EllaLink announced that a facility would be deployed on a dedicated fibre of the branch of the EllaLink cable system to Madeira specifically for scientific use. This provides potential for developing a testbed to support wider technologies to collect earth observation data from the seabed, in addition to Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS).
- Capacity needs are met and exceeded, with scalable upgrade paths with known pricing principles, leading to long-term cost efficiencies.
- A significant reduction in latency between the two regions, leading to improved support for collaborations where low latency is of prime importance (e.g. metrology, earth sciences, medicine and the arts).
- Improved protection and privacy of traffic: BELLA traffic is routed directly between the two regions, without being directed via third countries or regions; where traffic is specifically sensitive, dedicated channels can be used to increase security of traffic.
- Copernicus is made available locally in Latin America in near real time by the transfer of Copernicus data to mirror sites in Latin America via BELLA.
Other wider impacts include the following:
EllaLink is a new submarine cable system between Europe and Brazil, and thereby improves internet access in general for Brazil and the wider South America society. In addition, with landings in Madeira and Cabo Verde, it also increases internet access in those locations. As an anchor tenant of the EllaLink cable system, BELLA is a key enabler of EllaLink.
In addition to the confirmed deployments, possible branch extensions of the EllaLink system include the Canary Islands in Spain, Mauritania, Morocco, French Guiana and, within Brazil, Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo, which would bring improved digital access benefits to those locations.
BELLA has brought together funding from multiple sources to successfully achieve a goal common to multiple parties. BELLA has therefore served as a proof of concept that such programmes are achievable and provides best practices for similar activities in the future, such as the EC’s plans for
Global Gateways.
GÉANT, RedCLARA and RNP have collaborated with R&E networking partners in North America and Africa to secure a back-up connectivity arrangement that is beneficial for all participating R&E networking partners, and the research and education communities of four continents.
This arrangement follows similar arrangements in the North Atlantic and between Asia-Pacific and Europe.
BELLA therefore not only provides for Europe-Latin America R&E connectivity but also contributes to the strengthening of the wider global R&E networking ecosystem, in a mesh that ensures greater availability of R&E capacity for when inevitable network outages occur.
In June 2020 EllaLink announced that a facility would be deployed on a dedicated fibre of the branch of the EllaLink cable system to Madeira specifically for scientific use. This provides potential for developing a testbed to support wider technologies to collect earth observation data from the seabed, in addition to Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS).