European Research Networking moving to a Next Phase
by Karel Vietsch
These are exciting times for research
networking in Europe and world-wide. Several years ago many predicted that
general commercial service providers would get into the business of providing
researchers with advanced networking facilities; dedicated research networks
were expected to disappear. This has not happened. To the contrary, there
is a growing recognition of the fundamental differences between the general-purpose
Commodity Internet on the one hand, and the High-Performance Internet that
satisfies the needs of researchers on the other.
In the United States, the Internet 2 and Next-Generation Internet initiatives
address the need for a High-Performance Internet. This will lead to a subsequent
phase in the historic development of research networking. Europe must enter
this next phase by setting up a European counterpart to the American initiatives.
Concrete plans for the implementation of such a European initiative still
have to be developed. But the current proposals for the European Union's
Fifth Framework Programme have raised hopes that adequate funding will
become available, both at the European and national levels. It is a major
political breakthrough that in these proposals the support of the research
infrastructure, and in particular an advanced networking infrastructure,
is recognised as a responsibility of the European Union, and thereby as
a responsibility of national governments. Over the past year and together
with other players, TERENA, the European association of research networks,
has contributed to the development of the policies and plans for this part
of the Fifth Framework Programme. For the next years TERENA expects to
be making a substantial contribution to the development and co-ordination
of the implementation plans and their execution.
Requirements
Since the mid 1990's companies and individuals have been gaining access
to the Internet in large numbers. Commercial companies have entered the
market to provide connectivity and information services to these new users.
To a large extent these access and information services are based on technologies
and methodologies that were developed in the research networking environment
during the past ten years. At the same time this important development
does little to fulfil the present needs of network users in research establishments
and universities. The services they need and which require high-bandwidth
network access are not provided by Internet Service Providers, Public Network
Operators or other companies. Research networks dedicated organisations
which since the mid 1980's have been established in all countries in Europe
remain indispensable to provide to the research community the more
advanced services that it needs. For the research community networking
is by no means a commodity yet.
This explains why the policies adopted in the United States a few years
ago to transfer the provision of research networking services to the commercial
sector have not been successful. As a consequence the need arose for the
Internet 2 initiative, which is supported both by universities and research
institutes in the United States and by the federal government, and which
aims to set up once again a dedicated network infrastructure for the research
community. This brings not only a change in organisation and funding but
also the introduction of new high-capacity connections, new networking
technologies and new services (eg real-time interactive multimedia services).
For Europe to continue to play its role in world-wide scientific collaboration
and competition it is essential that a similar infrastructure is designed,
organised, funded and implemented. This can only be done if action is taken
at two levels. On the one hand the research networking organisations in
Europe have to work together to develop technical and organisational plans
for the deployment and management of the new infrastructure and services.
TERENA, the association formed by these networks to represent their interests,
and DANTE Ltd., the company set up as their operational arm to organise
and manage pan-European networking services, are their instruments to organise
this collaboration. On the other hand it is the responsibility of national
governments and their agencies and of the European Union to ensure that
adequate funds for the implementation of these plans will become available.
Short-term problems
The research networking organisations in Europe are plagued by many
severe short-term problems. In many parts of Central and Eastern Europe
the limitations of the underlying telecommunications infrastructure continue
to pose restrictions on the development of research networking. At the
same time those networking organisations which are ready to introduce more
advanced and high-capacity services find themselves limited by financial
constraints. The prices that telecommunications operators charge for international
high-speed connections are extremely high, not related to real costs and
to a large extent beyond the financial means of the research community.
Faced with these severe current problems it has been difficult for the
research network operators to plan ahead for the implementation of the
next-generation network technology and services, especially while it was
uncertain whether the substantial financial resources required for such
plans would become available.
Therefore over the past twelve months efforts have concentrated on securing
future funding. The fact that the plans for the European Union's Fifth
Framework Programme were scheduled to be finalised in this same period
helped to focus attention. Good collaboration developed between the European
Commission staff, representatives of national governments (who are active
both in committees within the context of the European Union and in the
wider European Networking Policy Group (ENPG) which was established by
the Research Ministers of a number of EU and non-EU countries), representatives
of the research community in Europe (including ERCIM) and the European
research networking organisations (both individually and through TERENA
and DANTE). The exchange of thoughts between all these people contributed
much to the official Proposal on the Fifth Framework Programme which was
published by the European Commission in April 1997 and the subsequent discussion
papers published by the Commission services. The final decisions on the
Framework Programme may not be taken by the European Parliament and the
Research Council before the end of this year, but the prospects for a substantial
European action to match the initiatives in North-America look good.
This means that drafting the implementation plans can start now. Although
also in this phase much support will be needed from the network users community
and from the funders, clearly the lead should now be taken by the operational
organisations in the field: the national research networks, TERENA and
DANTE. During the past months a consensus has grown between the funders
and the operators as to the organisational framework for these plans: the
action will have a long-term planning horizon and will be based on 4-year
plans (to be updated annually) which will provide the basis for the funding
decisions. With the current spirit and will for co-operation between all
parties concerned, European research networking may be entering the road
to a prosperous future.
Please contact:
Karel Vietsch - TERENA
Tel: +31 20 6391131
E-mail: vietsch@terena.nl
