Volume 1, Issue 3
November 30, 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.

November 2005 Issue:

• From the Desk of Julio Ibarra
• FIU-AMPATH Activities
• CENIC Activities
• Pacific Wave Activities
• AtlanticWave Activities
• RNP Activities
• REUNA Activities
• ANSP Activities

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

From the Desk of Julio Ibarra

There has been a lot of activity since our last newsletter. WHREN links were used at both the iGrid 2005 meeting in September and SC|05 in November. These venues provided a showcase for demonstrations using WHREN.

At iGrid 2005, two different demonstrations used WHREN. The bandwidth available for the demos was 622 MB/sec. The first was a demonstration and presentation on “Opening a University Fiber Highway Between Mexico and the US ”, which used the link between San Diego and Tijuana . This project is a collaboration between San Diego State University in the US and CUDI, CONACYT and CICESE in Mexico . More information on this project can be found at http://igridmx.cicese.mx/. To view performance monitoring of the demo, go to: http://www.ciara.fiu.edu/whren/network/igrid05-sdtj.htm

The second iGrid 2005 demo using WHREN involved the link to Brazil . “Global Lambdas for Physics” demonstrated the “Grid Analysis Environment” which enables physicists to do on-demand network and resource provisioning for event analysis from desktops. To view performance monitoring of the demo, go to http://www.ciara.fiu.edu/whren/network/igrid05-brazil.htm

At SC|05, three Brazilian universities participated in the bandwidth challenge, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) in São Paulo and Universidade de São Paulo (USP), using the WHREN link. The WHREN link was able to be set at 2.5 GB/sec, allowing Brazil to fully participate in the challenge. For more information on the bandwidth challenge, visit http://www-iepm.slac.stanford.edu/monitoring/bulk/sc2005/hiperf.html.

Also, since the last newsletter, RNP is now connected in São Paulo. Now, both ANSP & RNP are connected and peering with Abilene through Miami. Other good news is that the equipment that was stuck in customs in Brazil has been released. This equipment will serve as an aggregation point for ANSP, RNP and CLARA to connect to the United States.

FIU-AMPATH Activities

Nothing new to report.

CENIC Activities

Nothing new to report.

Pacific Wave Activities

Pacific Wave facilitated some of the real-time demonstrations of technology at the recent iGrid 2005 conference held at CalIT2 at the University of California at San Diego in September. iGrid 2005 is a coordinated effort to accelerate the use of existing multi-10 Gbps international and national networks, to advance scientific research, and to educate decision makers, academicians and industry researchers on the benefits of these hybrid networks.

More regarding these demonstrations can be seen on the IGRID2005 website http://www.igrid2005.org/index.html.  Projects that used Pacific Wave were:

Data Reservoir
http://www.igrid2005.org/program/applications/dataservices_datareservoir.html

International Real-time Streaming of 4K Digital Cinema
http://www.igrid2005.org/program/applications/videoservices_rtvideo.html

Global N-Way Interactive High-Definition Video Conferencing over Long-Pathway, High-Bandwidth Networks
http://www.igrid2005.org/program/applications/videoservices_nwayconf.html

20,000 Terabits Beneath the Sea: Global Access to Real-Time Deep-Sea Vent Oceanography
http://www.igrid2005.org/program/applications/sciservices_terabitssea.html

Currently, Pacific Wave is busy helping exchange participants setup their demonstrations for the Supercomputing 05 Conference in Seattle, Washington . See http://sc05.supercomputing.org/ for information about the conference.

For more information visit the newly designed Pacific Wave website at http://www.pacificwave.net/.

Atlantic Wave Activities

Nothing new to report.

RNP Activities

The Brazilian National Research and Education Network (RMP) is currently engaged in a nationwide program to upgrade the capacity of the communications networks used by the Education and Research institutions in the country. An essential component of this program is the deployment of metropolitan optical networks in the major population centers.

For more information on RNP, visit their website at http://www.rnp.br/

REUNA Activities

Positioning itself in the vanguard of third generation networks, on August 30 REUNA completed "Services and Applications Outposts on Third Generation Networks" projects. REUNA worked with the Austral University of Chile, University of the Border and University of Chile . Funding was thanks to Fondef and the support of the companies, Twin Storage Solutions and Global Crossing. The results of this project emphasize IPv6 as an important segment of the REUNA network, which allows any university to connect to the Academic Networks Outposts through Ipv6 in native form or channels.

Some of the results of the project were:

• Knowledge of the network equipment pertaining to REUNA2 and identifying the improvements necessary to support IPv6.
• Obtaining a Block /32 grant by LACNIC.
• Unfolding IPv6 in an important segment of the network and interconnection with International the Academic Networks.
• Benefit of services of tunnels IPv6 - Ipv4 with a model of management established for the universities members of the Corporation.

For more information on REUNA, visit their website at http://www.reuna.cl/

ANSP Activities

FAPESP, through its TIDIA (Information Technology in Advanced Internet Development) Program invited researchers, students and professionals of Information Technology and Communications related areas to the Second TIDIA Workshop, held at the Convention Center of Sírio Libanês Institute, November 7 through 9, 2005.

The workshop showcased lectures by renowned experts both from Brazil and abroad, as well as presentation sessions of technical works and an enterprise exposition. Groups participating in KyaTera, Electronic Learning and Virtual Incubator Projects presented their contributions to the TIDIA Program.

For more information about the event, see http://www.tidia.fapesp.br/portal-en/events

KyaTera is a project under TIDIA program. It is denominated Kya, which in Tupi-guarani (Brazilian aboriginal language) means fishing net and Tera, from Greek, which means gigantic.

Kyatera is a cooperative project consisting in an optical fiber network designed for the research and development of high speed connections, connecting research laboratories focusing on the study, development and demonstration of technology and applications on Advanced Internet. The proposal consisted on the assembly of a testbed aimed at researching into the Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) terminology, a networks transmission terminology.

The network is based upon the concept of dark fibers reaching to the laboratories, what means an optical high speed network of Statewide scale, which will determine the beginning of a new Internet era is São Paulo State. Such network will provide easy laboratory access, geographically spread, for new technology testing and Internet applications development. In some years this should evolve into a stable network connected to the World Academic Internet, with high quality service and without tangible bandwidth limitation, available for researching and teaching in the State.

For more information about the KyaTera project, visit their website at http://www.tidia.fapesp.br/portal-en/I.projetos/kyatera

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

The WHREN-LILA newsletter is intended to provide useful, up-to-date information about WHREN-LILA through short articles with web links and email addresses. Newsletters will be posted on the WHREN-LILA website (www.ciara.fiu.edu/whren). If you have colleagues who would like to subscribe to this monthly newsletter, send them to: http://www.ampath.net/mailman/listinfo/whren-today.

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