The GN4-3 convention (Feb2019) and All Hands Symposium (Feb2020)
Crisis Management event CLAW 2019: 75 participants
During the global pandemic, GÉANT and the GN4-3 partners continue to meet the project objectives and goals in spite of inevitable cancellation of events such as TNC2020.
Security Baseline for NRENs reviewed by international R&E community
Communications channels consolidated into the new connect.geant.org website: CONNECT magazine, project and community news releases, GÉANT community blog
Nearly 1M hits on eduroam website; 1.4M+ impressions on social media
500+ news items created by GÉANT and partners on connect.geant.org; 750+ newsletter subscribers
Response to the pandemic by strengthening relationships and project/programme engagement: launched impact.geant.org/covid and connect.geant.org/covid and accelerating remote learning/online delivery
No major service degradations
Sustained close relationships with NRENs around the world, academic communities, RIs and European e-infrastructure providers to deliver a valued and coherent service offering
EOSC/EuroHPC (inc. AAI and cloud service/ procurement reqs) improved utilisation of services and new service dev.
In Period 2, GÉANT continues to provide users equal, high-performance network access to the research infrastructures and e-infrastructure resources across Europe.
• Community Programme supported knowledge sharing, support for COVID-19 environment through SIG-NOC (network operations and planning) and SIG-Marcomms (online engagement, crisis communications); 34 meetings and 2,378 attendees; new Task Forces created for eHealth and DPT.
• AzScienceNet added as GN4-3 partner; Kosovo* REN joins as an associate; onboarding programme introduced for new NREN Directors; Board Member induction programme.
• 38 infoshares supporting GA members (inc. cyber security, intercontinental connectivity, quantum).
• Coordination meetings re: EOSC and EuroHPC
• Project Management Convention held online for WPLs, TLs, and Coordinators; TNC21 delivered as fully virtual event: 1224 participants from 105 countries (almost half newcomers) virtual exhibitor at SC20 and ICRI2021.
• 29 training events with 2358 instances of attendance from 42 NRENS. Bespoke learning for the benefit of the project and wider community.
• Collaboration agreement established with PRACE, CERN openlab, and the SKA Organisation to explore multi-party HPC collaboration and its application to High Energy Physics, and Radio Astronomy applications.
• CONNECT channel development led to 76% increase in community website visitors + growing subscribers for weekly newsletter; IMPACT website w/user communities supported by GÉANT and its NREN partners; new services websites for specific audiences; and effective social media use led to increase in followers and overall levels of engagement.
• New website built for GN4-3N to showcase network + global reach; articles, interviews, and updates on build and rollout.
The GÉANT network continues to deliver excellent service and extremely high performance for all users, while implementing the largest network refresh of a generation to maintain and strengthen European and international high-speed networking
• Expanding footprint: 10,000km+ of fibre implemented.
• Enabled integrated HPC, and support for open science, reinforcing Europe as a global research hub, while exploring the potential for new network services (e.g. QKD and data plane programming).
• Substantial cost and environmental savings achieved through network design, equipment specification, and Dynamic Purchasing System.
• GÉANT Connection Service in production by Ops for Microsoft Express Routes.
• First production routers brought under automated configuration control.
• GÉANT reached 800Gbps on a single wavelength in the test lab and on the Amsterdam to Frankfurt route.
Range of user-focused connectivity, collaboration and identity services remain vitally important.
• eduroam: global Wi-Fi roaming service reached 4 billion international authentications in Period 2 across 106 territories.
• eduTEAMS: enables communities and research projects to create and manage their virtual teams; manage secure, group- and role-based access to shared resources and services using federated identities
• eduGAIN: grew to 73 federations and over 8,000 Identity and Service Providers; F-ticks and central security function development.
• eduVPN: over 100 organisations.
• InAcademia: online student validation service grew to cover Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, and Sweden.
• 19 project partners took part in the Cyber Security Month campaign; workshops organised on DDoS Mitigation, Security Operations Tools, and Crisis Communications.
• T&I Mentorship: to develop new AAI services and support talent in community.
• Network monitoring: new features added to perfSONAR; new WiFiMon service launched.
• New router platforms: Strong interest in the new RARE open source router platform, combining FreeRtr and P4/DPDK, with R&E organisations around the world connecting to the associated GÉANT P4
• New IaaS Framework: contract awards in 40 countries providing 474 framework contracts. Collaborating with EUNIS to increase cloud uptake across Europe.
