Funet to be upgraded to 2.5 gigabit capacityHelsinki 10 Oct 2000 The Finnish centre for high performance computing and networking CSC will speed up the Finnish University and Research Network Funet to 2.5 Gbps per second. The update is scheduled for completion at the beginning of 2001 and it will make Funet one of the world's most powerful data network providers for the field of research and academic education. Other academic networks with the same operational speed include Abilene of the American Internet2 and the Dutch Surfnet.
The aim of the new network is to create an infrastructure for new academic
services such as the virtual university, distance education, and video
conferences. The new network will also facilitate mobile and broadband
networks supporting education and research. As an example, the transfer
rate of 2.5 Gbps enables a book of over 100,000 pages to be transmitted in
just one second.
The reliable operation of the Funet network will become even more
important over the next few years as the academic community transfers more
and more new applications and communication over the Internet. "This is why the new data network is imperative", says Markus Sadeniemi, Technology Director at CSC.
Over the past few years the amount of data communication transferred
through Funet has increased by about 150 percent per year. The extensive
growth in traffic is due to the fact that the research community and
students have become increasingly active network users and to Funet's
proactive implementation of new network services and technologies.
In addition to the data communication network to be renewed, CSC provides
its client organisations with basic data communication services, including
information security and 24-hour daily maintenance. The Funet network
enables researchers and students access also to other academic networks,
such as Internet2. Furthermore, Funet's new network interfaces are
physically located in university facilities. This helps to enlarge the
role of universities in the development of data communication
infrastructure.
The agreement between CSC and Sonera is an extension of their long-term
collaboration in building state-of-the-art networks, network management,
and development co-operation. The same technology is applied both in the
Funet network and in Sonera's new generation client networks. Sonera's
network application is the first broadband WDM client network with
countrywide coverage and access capacity of tens of gigabits.
Approaching the WorldWide Grid
Led by the Ministry of Education, Finland is one of the leading European
countries implementing the eEurope 2002 Action Plan of the European
Commission. The target of the plan is to increase the capacity of research
networks in Member States to 2.5 gigabits by the end of 2001. The
high-speed networks are able to offer brand new types of opportunities for
European research and education collaboration. The aim of the eEurope 2002
programme is to support the development of the WWG (WorldWide Grid). In the
GRID initiatives, powerful supercomputers can be linked to perform
demanding scientific computations using high-speed networking. As an
example, this would enable Cern, the European Laboratory of Particle
Physics, to make computer runs with national supercomputers in different
countries.
CSC - Scientific Computing Ltd owned by the Ministry of Education maintains
the Funet network of universities and research institutions as well as
Finland's most powerful computing environment. Funet communication links
provide research workers with access to CSC's supercomputers and Finland's
widest selection of scientific software and databases.
Ad Emmen |
 |