Volume 5, Issue 4
September 11, 2009

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.

September 2009 Issue:

• WHREN-LILA Activities
• FIU-CIARA Activities
• CENIC Activities
• Pacific Wave Activities
• CUDI Activities
• CLARA Activities
• REUNA Activities
• RNP Activities

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

WHREN-LILA Activities

WHREN-LILA network engineers upgraded the LILA East circuit to 10Gbps from 2.5Gbps. The upgrade was an outstanding effort between WHREN project partners ANSP, RNP, CLARA and AMPATH, along with two telecommunications providers, one equipment manufacturer, and three collocation facilities. Many thanks to everyone involved in this effort. In particular, a special recognition to Ernesto Rubi at AMPATH and Jorge Marcos at ANSP for their work on this epic upgrade. The timing of the upgrade was fortuitous, in that the new circuit was used to stream in real-time to the CalIT2 Auditorium in Atkinson Hall at UC San Diego, and to Keio University 's Design Media lab in Yokohama , Japan , a Brazilian movie that was making its debut in Sao Paulo . The format of the video stream was in 4K uncompressed HD, which utilized approximately 1.5Gbps of bandwidth for each stream.

The complete press release of the event can be found at http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=1579

For more information about WHREN-LILA, visit http://www.ciara.fiu.edu/whren

FIU-CIARA Activities

Heidi Alvarez of CIARA was invited to spend two days visiting with faculty and staff at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), on both the St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses to discuss the advantages of having a high performance network connection for research and education. Alvarez presented to both faculty and technology staff on Internet2, National LambdaRail, redCLARA, ANSP, RNP, and other U.S. national and international R&E network infrastructures and applications. The sessions proved to be very informative about the expectations and needs of UVI faculty and staff with regard to high performance networking. Together we identified three application areas that we hope to see UVI develop over the next twelve months to highlight the benefits of significantly increased bandwidth to U.S. and global research and education facilities. These are:

1. 1. Improved quality and increased use of video conferencing (Many opportunities both w/in the UVI campuses, the Caribbean , the continental U.S. , and internationally)
2. 2. Support for faculty to use the network for large date transfers with their remote collaborators.
3. 3. Development of capabilities to access and control remote instrumentation.

There are a number of other areas where the advanced network can be of significant use, but those may take longer to develop. I think that the VI-EPSCoR http://epscor.uvi.edu/ offers a rich environment to develop collaborative research, education and outreach benefits and I look forward to seeing how the team proceeds.

On a related note, the Caribbean Special Interest Group (SIG) Meeting, chaired by Heidi, is going to be held on Monday October 5, 2009 between 11:30 - 12:30 p.m. in conjunction with the Emerging Research and Education Network SIG day of activities at the Internet2 Members Meeting. She encourages you to seize this opportunity to share your activities over the last six months. Please let her know if you will attend in person or via video conferencing** and if you would like to make a presentation on network developments and / or education or research projects.

The full I2 Members Meeting will take place between October 5 - 8, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency San Antonio, San Antonio , TX . Please visit http://internet2.edu/international/resources/events/2009/2009FMMintlevents.html for the meeting agenda. Please mark your calendars. The theme for this meeting is “Collaborations and Resource Sharing in Research and Education." You are sure to find useful insights, strategies, hopes, and plans for meeting these challenges as your colleagues share their ideas and experiences -- both formally via the program, and informally in the chance conversations that make these meetings so valuable.

Emerging Research and Education Network SIG day of activities:

8:00am South Asia Regional Interest Group (30)
9:00am Middle East Regional Interest Group (35)
10:30-11:30am Africa (30)
11:30am-12:30pm Caribbean Regional Interest Group (35)
1:00-2:00pm Pacific Islands BoF (20)
2:30-4:00pm Emerging NREN SIG meeting (60)
4:15-6:00pm ITF Roundtable (60)

Video conference is available! Please confirm if you plan to attend in person or video conference. **September 11th is the last day to declare your intention to use video.

We look forward to seeing you in San Antonio !

For more information on FIU-CIARA, visit their website at http://ciara.fiu.edu/

CENIC Activities

As mentioned in the June 2 issue of CENIC Today, preparations are still going strong for the next group of circuit upgrades for California ’s K-12 and Community College Systems.

The Layer 1 Router Refresh of the HPR tier of the CalREN network is also continuing, with new equipment being installed and the migration of Associate network traffic slated to begin soon.

CENIC would also like to welcome the Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus, located at the NASA Ames Research Center . The connection to the CalREN-HPR network tier has been completed, and final preparations are underway for the campus to begin using it.

For more information about CENIC, visit http://www.cenic.org

Pacific Wave Activities

Canada’s CANARIE network upgraded their Pacific Wave port in Seattle to 10 gigabit.  The Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN) brought up a Pacific Wave gigabit port in Los Angeles , California  in addition to their existing gigabit port in Seattle , Washington .

Japan ’s WIDE and Korea ’s KISTI/KORENet configured a VLAN over Seattle Pacific Wave to set up a path for high-definition viewing and other activities surrounding the total solar eclipse that took place on July 22, 2009 .

Jacqueline Brown attended the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) meeting in  Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia July 20-23, 2009  where she served as Program Committee Chair. Also, at the APAN 28 meeting, John Silvester gave a brief presentation on Pacific Wave plans in regard to the NSF/IRNC solicitation in the backbone committee meeting and participated in a panel discussion on the promotion of US-Australasia cyber-infrastructure based interactions.

For more information, see the Pacific Wave website at www.pacificwave.net

CUDI Activities

The CUDI Virtual Days presented on July 23 included participation of Miguel José Hernández y López, MTI Security Consultant, to present the topic, "Cyber-Crime." The government of Tamaulipas Lic Rickard Alexandro Gonzalez, Department of the Unified Services Directorate of Infrastructure and Communications, spoke on Security in Information Technology.

For those interested in the issue of certification, topics relevant to the CCNA certification: "Basic Concepts of Wireless LANs and Packet Tracer" Activity Wizard" were also presented.

To see the full schedule and presentations, please go to http://www.cudi.edu.mx/boletin/2009/07_boletin_julio_01.html

CUDI would like to extend to all stakeholders a cordial invitation to participate in the Fall 2009 reunion of the University Corporation for Development of the Internet, AC (CUDI), which will take place on October 23 and 22 in the town of Ixtapan de la Sal, Edo. of Mexico . The host of the event is the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico .

As in past years, the format of this meeting will address the authorities of the member institutions of CIDU, with the aim of informing them first hand how the CUDI network is impacting teaching and research.

You can consult the preliminary program at:
http://www.cudi.edu.mx/boletin/2009/Programa_Otono_2009.pdf

For more information about the meeting, and other CUDI activities, visit http://www.cudi.edu.mx/

CLARA Activities

T he E-CienciAL Project “Encouraging Advanced Networking Use in Latin America for Science, Technology and Innovation Development”, financed by the Organization of American States (OAS), through the Special Multilateral CIDI Fund (FEMCIDI) and executed by CLARA, has been extended for two more years, until 2010.

“The utilization and a better use of the telecommunications infrastructure developed by CLARA is allowing the region’s scientific community to join the e-Science stream, increasing the use and the potential of the advanced networking, making possible the articulation and dialogue between researchers”, signals the project coordinator, Ana Cecilia Osorio.

According to Osorio, in the next two years of the e-CienciAL project, the work that has defined products with objectives focused on researchers’ interconnection in the region will continue.

The first of them is the setup of the Strategic Agenda for e-Science, which guides and coordinates the different countries’ efforts on science, technology, and innovation and has the goal of increasing the number of National Research and Education Networks (NREN) that will include such tools in their work plans.

The second product is about increasing the number of research groups on science and technology through the NRENs. On this stage, the objective is to increase the number of work groups and their participants. Also, the creation of specific websites for each group will be encouraged.

The increase of the scientific community skills to identify, formulate and execute competitive projects through Advanced Academic Networks represents the third product, where a training plan for researchers that expects to reach 30 percent of approval will be executed. It is expected that they, according to what the project coordinator explains, will complete a competitive level project, capable of applying to regional and international funding.

Read the full article in the June DeCLARA bulletin: http://www.redclara.net/doc/DeCLARA/DeCLARA_en_19.pdf

For more information about CLARA, visit http://www.redclara.net

REUNA Activities

REUNA would like to announce that the Fondef competition has opened for submissions. Contributing to scientific development and technological innovation of the regions is the objective of the competition for Research and Development of the Fomento al Desarrollo Scientific and Technological (Fondef), developed in conjunction between the Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, CONICYT , and the Regional Government of Maule, Araucanía, Los Lagos and Metropolitana.

This competition seeks increase the quantity and quality of research and development, oriented to innovation in the productive sectors of priority areas established by each region, increasing the link between the research institutions with the companies and other regional entities to develop the technological solutions demand as well as establishing networks with other countries.

The submissions, which take place online, will be open until the 28 th of September 2009 and winners will be chosen for the following regions:

Región del Maule: with projects in orchards, viticulture, livestock, forestry and industry of the wood.

Región de La Araucanía: with projects in the food industry, orchards, tourism and special interests.

Región de Los Lagos : the sector of fisheries and aquaculture oriented to the Hydrobiology

Región Metropolitana: with projects focused in the mining field.

Read full article at: http://tinyurl.com/fondef

For more information about REUNA, please visit: http://www.reuna.cl/

RNP Activities

Beginning July 28 was the 10 th Sao Paulo International Festival of Electronic Language (FILE). The FILE is the largest event of art and technology in Latin America . The RNP participated through a technical cooperation with Cinema 4K, which makes the first transmission of super high definition images in between hemispheres.

FILE will be launched also in the Brazilian Forum of Digital Culture, part of the scope of the pilot project Ministry of Culture / RNP, in a meeting the Minister Juca Ferreira, the MinC and the Secretary General, Alfredo Manevy along with bloggers. Moreover, the deputy director of the Advanced Internet RNP, Lara Machado, will make a presentation on the organization within the FILE Symposium.

The FILE gathered over 300 artists from around 30 nationalities, with works in several areas of digital culture: interactive art, games, performances, sound art, virtual reality, theoretical discussions and digital cinema. The festival continues until August 31, in the Cultural Center Fiesp - Ruth Cardoso - Avenida Paulista, 1313, São Paulo . The complete program and visitation schedules can be found in www.file.org.br.

Read full article at: http://www.rnp.br/noticias/2009/not-092807.html

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

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.

If you would like to be removed from the WHREN Monthly Report mail list, you may unsubscribe at: http://www.ampath.net/mailman/listinfo/whren-today.