C.Graf
DANTE
23 February 1999
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TF-TANT: Call for participation
Introducing TF-TANT
The Quantum project follows on from the successful TEN-34 project. Between
February 1997 and December 1998, TEN-34 provided the European academic and
research community with a stable IP based pan-European network service. The
main objective of the Quantum project is the continuation of this stable IP
network service but at access capacities up to 155 Mbps. In parallel with
the IP service, the continuation service known as TEN-155, provides a
managed bandwidth service to the participating national research networks
and other specific groups of users.
More and more co-operative development activities in Europe are based on
the use of multi-media services, which are only effective if they can rely
on high Quality of Service levels which cannot be provided on a loaded 'best
efforts' IP network. Protocol enhancements such as RSVP and IPv6, as well as
the Quality of Service management inherent in the ATM technology are
addressing these issues. It is apparent that for multi-media services to
develop on a pan-European scale a new approach to Quality of Service is
required.
The Quantum Test Programme (QTP) has the objective of testing and
validating new technologies, products and services with a view to
introducing them into the operational TEN-155 service at some future
date. TF-TANT is a joint DANTE/TERENA task force to carry out the
experiments of the Quantum Test Programme. For many of these
experiments, it makes use of the facilities offered by the TEN-155 Managed
Bandwidth Service (MBS). Experimentation under the label of QTP is
co-ordinated by DANTE as part of the Quantum project which includes the
TEN-155 network. The Quantum Project is co-funded under a joint initiative
by DG XIII (Telematics for Applications, Esprit and ACTS) of the European
Commission.
The Task Force shall primarily be composed of representatives of
National Research Networks, but participation shall be open to any
individual or representative of an organisation which can offer appropriate
expertise, manpower, equipment or services. The group's web page at
http://www.dante.net/tf-tant is a collection of all relevant documents.
The lifetime of TF-TANT will match the 3 years life time of Quantum. Most
experiments specified so far, however, should be carried out during 1999.
The list of experiments will evolve during the lifetime of TF-TANT and the
web page will be kept up to date.
Vendor Integration
The main work carried out so far was the identification and specification
of the experiments we want to carry out in TF-TANT. Our web pages give an
overview of the results of that phase.
Our networking infrastructure, the Managed Bandwidth Service of Quantum, will
soon be available to TF-TANT, and the group will then be ready to start the
experimentation phase.
It was decided at the last TF-TANT meeting, that all prospective suppliers
of services and equipment should get the opportunity to present their
contributions to the proposed set of experiments. Several kinds of
co-operation are possible:
- Loan and donor-ship of equipment.
- Access to expertise.
- Co-operation between similarly scoped project groups.
All interested parties, who can contribute to the group either as service
provider or equipment supplier are welcomed to present their products and
services at our next TF-TANT meeting in Athens on March 29 and 30. Dependent
on the number of participants, time slots of approximately 30 mins to 1 hour
will be available to each presenter.
It is a major concern that real discussion takes place at this meeting. We
therefore want to keep the number of participants reasonably low. The
organisations taking part in this vendor programme are kindly requested not
to send more than one, maybe two, representatives to this meeting.
Benefits
The benefits for the participants are many-fold. The most important points
include:
- TF-TANT enjoys good visibility within and outside the academic community,
known as trend setters for new networking technologies.
- All results will be published in publicly available deliverables to the
European Commission.
- All National Research Networks (NRN) in Europe are interconnected with
TEN-155 and most take part in TF-TANT. With a share of TEN-155 being devoted
to TF-TANT testing, a truly multinational multi-vendor testbed is available
with highly skilled and experienced participants from the NRNs.
Rules
- The participants of the NRNs taking part in TF-TANT are usually highly
experienced networking experts. We expect the same from the presenters
and the presentations to be on a high technical level.
- Awareness that the work is on pre-competitive topics. Pure marketing
or sales presentations will not be appreciated.
- A short overview of present and planned activities in the fields relevant
to TF-TANT.
- An indication of which experiments are relevant to your line of business.
- Most proposed experiments rely on equipment being made available to
participants. Please outline your propositions regarding donor-ship, loan
of equipment and access to expertise.
- Stick to your time slot and account for some discussion to take place
within your time slot.
- Please get in touch with the corresponding experiment leaders as listed
on the TF-TANT web page to clarify beforehand any unresolved issues in
the experiment descriptions.
If you would like to participate at the next TF-TANT meeting and give a
presentation about your proposed co-operation plans, please let us know
and send your expressions of interest to
nep@dante.org.uk as soon as possible, but before 12/03/1999.
References