GÉANT2 “Follows the User” to TNC 2006

More than 500 delegates “Followed the user” to Catania, Sicily, to attend the 2006 TERENA Networking Conference between 15 -18 May. Hosted by the Italian NREN, Consortium GARR, the conference explored the theme of how to tackle the shift from technology push to customer pull. It also looked at how to improve the user experience by developing seamless end-to-end network services and by supporting demanding applications. The event offered a great opportunity to explore what has been learned, where challenges remain and where exciting opportunities exist in the quest to ‘follow the user'.

EC Project Officer Bernhard Fabianek takes pride of GÉANT2 (photo courtesy of Martin Bech) GÉANT2 was well represented at the conference, with eleven presentations given throughout the week. As with last year’s TNC, the GÉANT2 papers were integrated into the main conference programme, rather than separated into a single GÉANT2 workshop. Demonstrating their relevance to current networking “hot topics”, the GÉANT2 papers covered areas such as Network Management, Monitoring and Measurement, Roaming and User Support. Providing an overview of achievements and plans in the pipeline, presenters covered all areas of the project, with speakers from RedIRIS, CESNET, GRNet, ARNES, RESTENA and the Telematica Instituut (NL) joining staff from DANTE to present papers authored by NRENs from across Europe.

Delegates heard an interesting account from DANTE’s Operations Manager Marian Garcia about the challenges involved in rolling out a hybrid IP/switched research network deploying dark fibre on an international scale. In keeping with this year’s theme to “Follow the User”, five of the GÉANT2 presentations detailed the work of the Roaming and Authorisation joint research activity. DANTE’s David West gave a paper titled ‘Research Networking beyond Europe - a tool for world development' which focused on the global reach of GÉANT2 and its interconnections to regional research networks such as RedCLARA, EUMEDCONNECT and TEIN2.

All the GÉANT2 presentations given at the conference are available to download from the links below. In addition, two full papers have been selected for publication in the official conference proceedings:

• “Experiences in building a pan-European network over dark fibre: GÉANT2”, Marian Garcia, DANTE.
• “A Study On Network Performance Metrics and their Composition”, Andreas Hanemann (DFN/LRZ), Athanassios Liakopoulos (GRnet), Maurizio Molina (DANTE), Martin Swany (University of Delaware)

GÉANT2 also exhibited at the event, with a stand split into three areas, which allowed visitors to get answers to three broad questions:

• What is GÉANT2?
• What is it used for?
• What is its global reach?

The stand attracted a great crowd with visitors from the European Commission, NREN staff, suppliers, and current and prospective users. The stand acted as an international meeting point for delegates from all over the world, with visitors from Iceland, for example, mingling with their Latin American counterparts from the ALICE project. Visitors were able to collect brand new literature on GÉANT2 and updated topology posters, all of which are available to view via the links alongside. DANTE’s staff were on-hand to answer questions on GÉANT2, its research and its innovative service portfolio. The stand featured a demonstration about network monitoring tools to illustrate seamless access to multi-domain data. You can learn more here.

Advanced screening of the soon-to-be-released GÉANT2 DVD was also available at the stand. DANTE would like to thank everyone who helped out on the GÉANT2 stand to make the exhibition such a success.

GÉANT2-related posters also featured in the conference poster exhibition. These highlighted the project’s research activities and profiled two network users –BioCASE and e-VLBI. A joint GÉANT2-EGEE poster was also displayed, which looked at “Bandwidth Allocation and Reservation”. Kostas Kavoussanakis from EGEE and DANTE’s Anand Patil were present to field questions.

To learn more about TNC 2006 read the official press release

Held at the unique ‘Le Ciminiere’ – a fascinating example of industrial architecture renovated from an ancient sulphur refinery, it made for an atmospheric and exciting conference venue. To view photos of the event visit the TNC 2006 Photo Gallery here

Delegates have already concluded that the event was not only an excellent week for learning but also a lot of fun, with much sun, great food and great company. Next year, the TNC road show rolls on to Lyngby, near Copenhagen, Denmark.  Click here to find out more about TNC2007!

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