Periodic Reporting for period 3 - GN4-3 (Horizon 2020: H2020-SGA-INFRA-GEANT-2018 (Topic [a] Research and Education Networking))
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-09-01 bis 2022-12-31
GÉANT will maintain the operational excellence of the established GÉANT services, while still achieving economies on the costs of the backbone network. The reliable, secure and state-of-the-art, high-speed network services offered to researchers and other network users across Europe will remain exceptional. Massive data transfer capacities required by extreme-scale instruments (LHC, SKA), and by the penetration of big data in many areas of science, will be prototyped with due consideration to the specific security and deployment challenges. Exascale computing will be installed in some countries and accessed from most. User requirements for very high network speeds with the guarantee of no packet loss are even more important.
GN4-3’s developments are guided by the vision of a future where a set of coherent and integrated European e-infrastructure services will offer convenient, seamless access for the end users through a common e-infra service catalogue, which will facilitate service adoption.
Trust and identity is key to the security, privacy and trust of the end users of e-infrastructure services. Federated access and national identity federations have enabled NRENs to explore new models for service delivery. Services are operated and developed in accordance with user requirements as they adapt to the increasingly integrated e-infrastructure environment necessary for supporting the European research community.
GN4-3’s developments are guided by the vision of a future where a set of coherent and integrated European e-infrastructure services will offer convenient, seamless access for the end users through a common e-infra service catalogue, which will facilitate service adoption.
Trust and identity is key to the security, privacy and trust of the end users of e-infrastructure services. Federated access and national identity federations have enabled NRENs to explore new models for service delivery. Services are operated and developed in accordance with user requirements as they adapt to the increasingly integrated e-infrastructure environment necessary for supporting the European research community.
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.
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.
Services enhanced with new releases, features:.
v17.4 release update implementation on Juniper MX platform
Data Centre Interconnects deployed on dark fibre routes for cost effective IP trunk capacity upgrades
New releases of perfSONAR and NMaaS software
New SPA platform features for GCS service
NeMo (DDoS Detection, Analysis and Mitigation software) Docker install guide
API between Firewall on Demand and the NeMo software defined
Incubator model (WP5/6) investigated potential new services, platforms and applications
Community tagging
Discovery pilot
Shibboleth OIDC Extension
Distributed vetting for 2FA
RARE routing platform
P4 lab
OTFN time and frequency applications
v17.4 release update implementation on Juniper MX platform
Data Centre Interconnects deployed on dark fibre routes for cost effective IP trunk capacity upgrades
New releases of perfSONAR and NMaaS software
New SPA platform features for GCS service
NeMo (DDoS Detection, Analysis and Mitigation software) Docker install guide
API between Firewall on Demand and the NeMo software defined
Incubator model (WP5/6) investigated potential new services, platforms and applications
Community tagging
Discovery pilot
Shibboleth OIDC Extension
Distributed vetting for 2FA
RARE routing platform
P4 lab
OTFN time and frequency applications