The Works of DANTE - Issue 5

International Co-operation strengthens global research

 With much of today’s collaborative research taking place on a global stage, international co-operation is integral to the success of that research. Recognising the importance of the "global dimension", regular meetings are held between GÉANT2, Internet2 and ESnet (US), and CANARIE (Canada), to foster closer working relationships. The most recent meeting was held in Ireland on 18-19th January 2006. Topics on the agenda included transatlantic connectivity, performance monitoring and network security.

 Configuration plans were outlined for the interconnection of GÉANT2, Abilene and ESnet in Washington, DC. The meeting also looked at collaboration on the development of hybrid network services and the interconnection of testbed and production capabilities. DANTE‘s Anand Patil outlined the potential use of GÉANT2’s AMPS service within the ESnet and Internet2 environments. Internet2’s Eric Boyd and ESnet’s Joe Metzger gave an update on the perfSONAR joint activity and highlighted the creation of user cook books, and the organisation of performance workshops. Plans for a joint network security exercise were also discussed as a potential area for future collaboration.

 Another topic on the agenda involved the management of end-to-end (e2e) services across multiple domains. All parties intend to co-operate in this area to ensure that e2e connections are managed in a way that optimises fault identification (based on advanced network monitoring using perfSONAR infrastructure), and to ensure effective communication between all parties.

To achieve maximum efficiency in global networking, continued collaboration on the development of new technologies, and cooperation on deployment of networking services, is essential. The next international collaboration meeting will take place in July in North America.