ERCIM will be Alpha Test User of Managed Bandwidth Services in
TEN-155
by Siegfried Dickhoven
DANTE (Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe Limited),
the international network service provider for the European research
networks has accepted ERCIM as alpha test user of managed bandwidth
services in its new TEN-155 backbone. So far, five ERCIM members
(CLRC-RAL, CNR-CNUCE, CWI, GMD and INRIA) are already planning
to cooperate in this joint project, other members might follow.
During Dante’s Quantum project (October 1998 - December 1999)
ERCIM-Labs and their research partners will get direct access
to Dante’s
TEN-155 Network for experiments and testing of managed bandwith
services. This ERCIM project will be coordinated by the networking
Directors of the participating ERCIM labs and administrated by
ERCIM. The participation in the experimentation is open to partners
from outside ERCIM, depending on their networking capabilities.
The Service to be provided by ERCIM includes:
- participation in the detailed specification of the Managed Bandwidth
Service
- participation in the testing of the Managed Bandwidth Service
as the alpha user and then subsequently
- production of a report detailing the testing conducted in the
alpha test, the results of the testing and making recommendations
based on the early experience
- active participation in the Group Network Managers’ meetings,
providing input to the continued development and deployment of
the service
- sharing experiences with other users and potential users of the
service, and encouraging take-up of the service
- participating in publicity events
- towards the end of the project, conducting a survey of the users
of the Managed Bandwidth Service regarding their satisfaction
with the service, and their requirements with respect to future
developments
- conducting a formal evaluation of the service after 15 months
of the project based on ERCIM’s own observations of the network
service and those obtained via the survey of the users of the
Managed Bandwidth Service
- collaboration with DANTE in the production of User Evaluation
of TEN-155 Network, incorporating the survey results and the input
of the National Research Networks.
Following persons so far have been nominated for the coordination
in the ERCIM labs:
- Chris Cooper, Advanced Communications Unit, CLRC-RAL
- Siegfried Dickhoven, Director networking, GMD
- Frank Kuiper, Director IT department, CWI
- Guy Sergeant, IT-coordinator, INRIA
- Marco Sommani, IT coordinator, CNR-IAT.
Each participating partner has to solve the problem of national
access to TEN-155. DFN (Deutsches Forschungsnetz) in Germany has
agreed to provide Permanent Virtual Channels to DANTE’s access
point in Frankfurt/Main. The situation in France, Italy, the Netherlands
and UK is under investigation.
As a first step, research projects with user potential for managed
bandwidth services will be identified among the initiatives with
more than one ERCIM lab involved.
ERCIM and the project coordinators strongly encourage the research
teams of its members to participate in this experimentations.
Interested teams should contact Marie-Christine Imbert (marie-christine.imbert@inria.fr). GMD provides a mail-group for information exchange with the
address alphaten155@gmd.de. Please contact Siegfried Dickhoven or Paul Mies of GMD (dickhoven@gmd.de or mies@gmd.de) for access.
Please contact:
Marie-Christine Imbert - INRIA
Tel: +33 1 3963 5201
E-mail: marie-christine.imbert@inria.fr
Christopher Cooper - CLRC
Tel: +44 1235 446211
E-mail: c.s.cooper@rl.ac.uk
Siegfried Dickhoven - GMD
Tel: +49 2241 14 2021
E-mail: dickhoven@gmd.de
Frank Kuiper - CWI
Tel: +31 20 5924121
E-mail: frank.kuiper@cwi.nl
Guy Sergeant - INRIA
Tel: +33 92 38 7888
E-mail: guy.sergeant@inria.fr
Marco Sommani - CNR-IAT
Tel: +39 050 593313
E-mail: Marco.Sommani@iat.cnr.it
