Volume 1, Issue 1
June 20, 2005

The Western Hemisphere Research and Education Networks (WHREN)-Links Interconnecting Latin America (LILA) Report summarizes activities from participating networks. The WHREN-LILA Report is published under National Science Foundation (NSF) Award # 0441095 and Academic Network at São Paulo (ANSP) award Projeto Fapesp no. 04/14414-2.

• From the Desk of Julio Ibarra
• Historic Meeting Launches a New Era of International Research Collaboration in the Americas
• FIU-AMPATH Activities
• CENIC Activities
• Pacific Wave Activities
• CLARA Activities
• CUDI Activities
• ANSP Activities
• AtlanticWave Activities
• REUNA Activities
• RNP Activities

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From the Desk of Julio Ibarra

This inaugural newsletter of the WHREN-LILA project marks the beginning of a holistic vision for research and education interconnections in the Western Hemisphere. New network connections supporting the advancement of science and engineering research and education in the western hemisphere are underway. I believe that scholarship in the Americas will improve through new opportunities for collaborative teaching, technology-augmented student mobility, and an infrastructure for inquiry-based learning.

Along with CENIC, my institution, FIU, is working with peer organizations from the U.S. and Latin America that serve the science, research and education communities in the western hemisphere. FIU and CENIC, along with peer organizations the Academic Network of São Paulo (ANSP), the Cooperation of Latin American national research and education networks (CLARA), the national research and education network of Brazil (RNP) and the national research and education network of Mexico (CUDI), have formed a collaboration that will interconnect the research and education networks of the western hemisphere. In particular, our connection to the RedCLARA network already allows US researchers to reach 7 countries in Latin America an additional 11 Latin American countries by the end of 2005.

Historic Meeting Launches a New Era of International Research Collaboration in the Americas

The kickoff meeting of the project, the Western-Hemisphere Research and Education Networks – Links Interconnecting Latin America (WHREN-LILA), was held on April 30, 2005, in Veracruz, Mexico. This project is made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), award #0441095 and an award from FAPESP #2003/13708-0

Representatives of Florida International University (FIU) and CENIC, the NSF awardees, as well as representatives of Brazil (RNP), the State of Sao Paulo (ANSP), Mexico (CUDI), Argentina (RETINA) and the regional Association of Latin American Research Networks (CLARA) launched the capability for network-mediated science and engineering research and collaborations between the United States and Latin America, on a par with those with Europe and Asia. This project creates high-speed networking connections between the U.S. and Latin America.

The LILA connections along with a partnership with RedCLARA, a regional research network covering Latin America, offer researchers connectivity to a high-speed international peering network throughout the Western Hemisphere. This allows the U.S. to contribute to and leverage Western Hemisphere network initiatives in a way that has previously been impossible. This hemispheric vision creates a framework that establishes a foundation to support the needs of interregional science and education. While LILA serves to link interregional networks, specific domains that wish to provision dedicated or committed bandwidth have both the benefit of the LILA connections and the WHREN management organization.

FIU-AMPATH Activities

Florida International University is one of America's most dynamic institutions of higher learning. Since opening in 1972, FIU has achieved many milestones of excellence that have taken other universities more than a century to reach, including its classification as a Research I university. FIU has a nationally renowned faculty known for their outstanding teaching and cutting-edge research, and various students from the U.S. and over 130 foreign countries attend FIU each year. FIU operates the AMPATH International Exchange Point in Miami for peering of international R&E networks of the Americas. The AMPATH international exchange point is located at the NAP of the Americas in Miami. AMPATH is supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation.

More information about AMPATH can be found at www.ampath.fiu.edu. The university offers more than 200 Baccalaureate, Master's and Doctoral degree programs in 16 colleges and schools. For more information on Florida International University, please visit www.fiu.edu.

CENIC Activities

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California is charged with designing, provisioning, and operating robust, high-capacity, next-generation Internet communications services through a cohesive infrastructure for its associates and affiliates. CENIC represents the common interests of its associates, who are drawn from California's higher education academic and research communities, and is highly accountable to the institutions it serves to fulfill the trust that has been placed with it. CENIC also provides services to California K-12 schools and, to facilitate the education and research mission of its associates, to non-California higher education institutions and industry research organizations with which CENIC associate researchers and educators are engaged. See www.cenic.org

CUDI Activities

On April 1999, a private corporation was formed to implement and fund the University Corporation for Internet Development in Mexico (CUDI A.C.). CUDI A.C. is a not-for-profit organization, committed to the development, use, and support of advanced networks and wide-band connectivity applications for education and research. Today CUDI provides connectivity to more than 98 academic institutions and research centers. This represents approximately 66% of the students in the Mexican higher education system and 80% of research centers.

More information on CUDI can be found at www.cudi.edu.mx

ANSP Activities

ANSP unites São Paulo's University networks with Scientific and Technological Research Centers in São Paulo, and is managed by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). The ANSP Network is another example of international collaboration and exploration. Through its connection to AMPATH, all of the institutions connected to ANSP will be involved in research with US universities and research centers, offering significant contributions and the potential to develop new applications and services. This connectivity with AMPATH and ANSP will allow researchers to enhance the quality of current data, inevitably increasing the quality of new scientific developments, www.ansp.br.

AtlanticWave Activities

AtlanticWave is an international distributed exchange and peering service along the Atlantic rim of North and South America. It will facilitate open exchange and peering services for the national and international networks that interconnect at international exchange points MANLAN in NYC, MAX in Washington DC, AMPATH in Miami, and ANSP (the Academic Network of Sao Paulo) and RedCLARA (Cooperação Latino-Americana de Redes Avançadas – Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks) in Sao Paulo.

The current A-Wave partnership consists of SURA, the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation (IEEAF), MANLAN, Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), Southern Crossroads (SoX)/Southern Light Rail (SLR), Florida Light Rail (FLR), AMPATH, the Academic Network of Sao Paulo (ANSP), and CLARA. The planned points of interconnection for the AtlanticWave are NYC/MANLAN, DC/MAX, SoX, AMPATH and ANSP/Sao Paulo, creating an open distributed exchange spanning the Atlantic Rim from NYC to Sao Paulo.

Pacific Wave Activities

During April, Pacific Wave brought up the 10 gigabit connection to APAN/TRANSPAC in Los Angeles. We also completed the testing period for the NII/SuperSinet gigabit connections in Los Angeles.

Ultralight's connection to Pacific Wave via Caltech's High Energy Physics group was moved from a CENIC port to its own 10 gigabit port. Now participants can directly peer with them.

The Pacific Wave engineering group constructed a new 1500 MTU VLAN for those participants who are not quite ready to move to the 9000 MTU jumbo frame VLAN in use by the majority of participants.

Visit the Pacific Wave website at http://www.pacificwave.net/.

REUNA Activities

REUNA, Red Universitaria Nacional (National University Network - Chile), is a non-profit private corporation made up of 14 Chilean universities, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT). REUNA is a university collaboration initiative that counts on the technological infrastructure of advanced academic networks dedicated to research and development in Chile.

REUNA was born in 1992, with the creation of the first university network connected to Internet, and in 1998, it was empowered by the launch of REUNA2, the first high speed network in Latin America. In the year 2000, REUNA integrated the Advanced Education Networks by means of its connection to Internet2. Since 2004 REUNA has been connected to the RedClara Backbone.

REUNA provides its community with Information and Communications Technologies services. It is supported by a work team which is highly qualified and committed. REUNA promotes the interuniversity work through the use of its infrastructure of advanced research and education network, connecting its member institutions with its international pairs, in order to increase the quality of their supply and take advantage, in a collaborative way, of the opportunities that the internationalization gives.

For more information on REUNA, please visit www.reuna.cl

RNP Activities

The National Education and Research Network (Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa – RNP) is the Brazilian advanced network for collaboration and communication in the fields of education and research. Besides connecting all federal institutions of higher education and research, as well as a large number of other public and private institutions, this network provides facilities for the experimental development of new applications and network services for the benefit of its users. More than 300 institutions are accessible, making it the largest research and education network in Latin America.

Federal government support for RNP is currently provided by the Inter-ministerial Program of the Ministries of Education and of Science and Technology, through a long-term management contract signed between the RNP Association and the Ministry of Science and Technology. The RNP Association, a non-profit civil institution, was created in 1999 as a successor to the national networking project originally set up in 1989 by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Further information may be obtained at www.rnp.br.

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