e-Infrastructures and the Mediterranean
This event is intended to progress collaboration between countries of the Mediterranean region and European Union (EU) in the field of e-infrastructures and networking for research and education.
What are e-infrastructures?
Why e-infrastructures are important
e-Infrastructures for research in the Mediterranean:
EUMEDCONNECT2; EUMEDGRID
What are e-infrastructures?
e-Infrastructure is a term that is mainly used in the research and development context. It designates the new generation of integrated ICT-based infrastructure.
e-Infrastructures exploit several separate components and layers, such as networks, supercomputers and other computing resources, storage, remote resources and instrumentation i.e sensors. Such elements are seamlessly inter-connected and can be accessed by users all around the world, regardless of their geographical location.
e-Infrastructures are widely considered a key enabler for scientific and social development; their widespread use is rapidly changing the landscape of science and represents an effective answer to problems such as the digital divide and brain drain.
The networking infrastructure delivers the physical connections for the e-infrastructure. It is the basic layer supporting communication and collaboration among researchers all across Europe and neighbouring countries, as well as specific uses and applications.
In the domain of research and education, networking infrastructures are primarily deployed and managed by the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of different countries, and are interconnected with international backbones such as the GÉANT pan-European network and the EUMEDCONNECT2 network, which is dedicated to the Mediterranean region.
Of the technologies available over the networking infrastructure one of the most promising is Grid technology. Grids are a set of services that allow geographically dispersed users to share computer power, data storage capacity and remote instrumentation. In the future, the global network of computers will become a resource that anyone may access on demand: users will exploit the power of an enormous supercomputer simply by connecting from their PC.
A number of scientific applications that demand high levels of computing power and data processing are already exploiting grid technology, which enables different computing centres, wherever located, to collaborate on the same computation as though all their CPUs were in the same room.
e-Infrastructures are widely considered a key enabler for scientific and social development. However their availability, quality and accessibility may vary depending on several factors, such as the national and regional telecom infrastructures and their openness to research institutions, telecommunications markets, and regulations at national and international level.
Further information on the Development Support activity of GÉANT.
Why e-infrastructures are important
The use of e-infrastructures is rapidly changing the landscape of science. Remote access to computing services, instrumentation and resources in general, creates new opportunities for researchers to bring existing applications to higher levels of usability and performance. Additionally, it enables researchers to deploy new strategies in approaching scientific problems with simulation tools and intensive applications.
Another benefit of e-infrastrucures is that they stimulate the creation of new scientific communities; uniting researchers who are working on similar challenges and are willing to share resources and reach new levels of collaboration. Researchers can gain access to scientific data and unique instruments located in top level laboratories around the world without the need to travel.
Research and Education Networks and Grids contribute to the development of technologies by providing state of the art performance and services to the on-campus providers of telecommunications and hardware.
The rapid development of e-infrastructures will be accompanied by the appearance of new and pervasive services in other fields such as business, banking and government. However, across different countries there is still unevenness in availability, quality and accessibility of services, with gaps existing even within countries.
In order to ensure equal opportunities for researchers, narrowing the gap is of the utmost importance. Several initiatives in the European Union and neighbouring countries aim at this objective, as the Development Support activity of the GÉANT project.
It is intended to present a picture of the status and perspectives of research infrastructures in the Mediterranean region, enlightening the relationship between e-infrastructures and major stakeholders in the ICT environment, and to bring together providers, users and managers to discuss strategies for the future.
e-Infrastructures for research in the Mediterranean
EUMEDCONNECT2
EUMEDCONNECT was deployed in 2004 as the first regional IP-based network dedicated for use by the research and education community of the Mediterranean region funded by the European Commission through its EUMEDIS programme and by participating Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs).
It connects the national research and education networks (NRENs) of Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey at speeds of up to 622Mbps and is linked to the pan-European GÉANT network. More than 400 scientific and academic institutions are able to collaborate across the network.
The network provides dedicated high-bandwidth, low latency connections for transferring large amounts of data between collaborating partners, but equally can be used to provide fast access to conventional Web-based resources from all over the Mediterranean and beyond.
The EC's EUMEDIS funding for EUMEDCONNECT continued up to the end of 2007. Since then the network has been maintained by the MPCs while further European funding has been assembled for a successor programme, EUMEDCONNECT2. This is now starting up with a re-tendered network to be launched in November at the second EU-MED e-infrastructures event in Amman.
The pioneering success of EUMEDCONNECT spawned similar regional networking initiatives in Latin America (ALICE) and Asia Pacific (TEIN2).
Further information : www.eumedconnect2.net
EUMEDGRID
EUMEDGRID is a pilot Grid infrastructure devoted to e-science. It was first deployed in the framework of an EC-funded project with the same name, which finished at the end of February 2008.
At the end of the EUMEDGRID project, the pilot Grid infrastructure included 25 sites distributed across 13 countries, with all relevant Grid services up and running. Despite the current lack of dedicated funding, this infrastructure is currently being maintained on a best-effort basis by the project consortium, who plan further activities in the field. Thanks to this informal agreement and to the support provided on the pilot infrastructure, several regional applications are able to continue their work.
Further information about the project's work, achievements and further initiatives can be found on www.eumedgrid.eu
EU-MED Event Hosts
The third EU-MED Event will be hosted by three sponsoring projects that foster the creation of e-infrastructures in the Mediterranean region: EUMEDCONNECT2, EUMEDGRID-Support and the Development Support activity of GÉANT, both co-funded by the European Commission. Active support was also provided by the Italian research and education network Consortium GARR, and the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association, TERENA.
Please check this site for updates.