National Research and Education Network (NRENs)

1. Enhancing South Asia R&E Connectivity -----------Challenges, Opportunities, Drivers & Lessons______ George McLaughlin, APAN Vice-Chair, APAN Backbone Committee ChairCoordinator, TEIN2 Applications and Collaboration Frameworkgeorge@mclaughlin.net ______ Videoconference with Internet2 through theGlobal Development Learning Network (GDLN) in association with the World Bank 26 May 2007

2. National Research and Education Network (NRENs) • The NRENs of North America, Europe, North Asia and Australia have been key players in: • the development of the Internet within their countries/regions, including technology transfer to industry and enhancing societal benefit • the exploitation of advanced communications services that allow: • researchers to collaborate and to share data virtually • educators to share knowledge and students to discover and learn remotely • fuelling the information economy in their countries • helping build a global infrastructure with the potential to transform business, society and its institutions, and personal lives – like the industrial revolutions of the past South Asia Workshop May 2007

3. Expanding the Global REN footprint • Over recent years a number of successful initiatives have led to new NRENs, Regional RENs and global initiatives in previously less well served areas These include (not an exclusive list): • The Global Development Learning Network (World Bank) - http://www.gdln.org • The School of the Internet (Wide Project) http://www.soi.wide.ad.jp • The Virtual Silk Road (Central Asia and the Caucuses - NATO) - http://www.nato.int/science/virtual_silk/ • The University of the South Pacific (JICA, AUSAid) • ALICE/CLARA (South America – EC) • EDUMedConnect (North Africa, Middle East – EC) • TEIN2 (South East Asia – EC) South Asia Workshop May 2007

4. The (current) Global Result • The resulting global environment is characterized by: • collaborative innovation and access to information on an unprecedented scale • the application of advanced services, tools and processes to aid the design and management of highly complex systems, • much more user-friendly applications using highly visual, interactive interfaces. • the improvement and saving of lives through the deployment of telemedicine, natural hazard warning, environmental monitoring, climate forecasting and the “mining”, analysis, visualisation and interpretation of massive amounts of data collected from space, the earth and the oceans South Asia Workshop May 2007

5. Courtesy of APAN-JP

6. Regions still not well served • Sub-Saharan Africa • Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean islands (with the exception of those that are landing sites for sub-ocean cable systems) • Central Asia • South Asia South Asia Workshop May 2007

7. The Challenges – “Money is the answer, what was the question?” • Vested interest of incumbent Telcos/ISPs (potential loss of revenue) • Lack of competition (high cost) • Lack of or unaffordable terrestrial/sub-ocean infrastructure • Lack of or unaffordable in-country infrastructure • Lack of government support; inadequate (too much/too little) regulation • No cohesive user base or mechanisms to support their formation • Establishing a long-term sustainable model (avoid on-going dependency) • Mismatch between funding agencies (eg where funding comes from Aid and Development agency, and from Research or Science and Technology agency – different outcomes sought • Time zone differences for international real-time collaboration • Alignment of needs and opportunities will vary by country South Asia Workshop May 2007

8. The Opportunities • Research, Science and Technology • Researchers able to participate in global collaborative teams • Resources/knowledge available to the global research community • Societal benefit • Improving lives as a result of implementing advanced communications that support the well-being of the population • Catalysing and stimulating the information economy • Providing services to transform business, society, and personal lives. • Implementing collaborative innovation and access to information • Acting as incubator for technology transfer to industry and commerce • Time zone advantage for collaboration WITHIN a region South Asia Workshop May 2007

9. The Drivers • For developing countries, or regions involving developing countries, a significant driver is the societal benefit that good networking can provide • Improvement to peoples lives is a key element for support from Aid/Development agencies • Where this can be combined with a research agenda eg earthquake modeling/prediction, or climate change research, or remote immersive diagnostic systems for patient assessment, or bioinformatics research to improve response and mitigation of emerging infections – a compelling case may result • The most useful drivers depend on the needs of the country concerned and the ability to support the initiatives South Asia Workshop May 2007

10. Lessons from TEIN2 and other regional initiatives The transfer of the Cassini-Huygens eVLBI data from AU telescopes to JIVE (NL) involved 9 organisations & 3 continents • Applications and Collaboration Framework • Telemedicine as an exemplar • Collaboration environments • Develop portfolio ofapplications & collaborations • Sustainability South Asia Workshop May 2007

11. Good Networks aren’t enough – “necessary but not sufficient” • Well supported networks withoutcompelling applications that provide new/enhanced opportunities for research, education and societal benefit are of doubtful value • Need an enthusiasticuser base andchampionsthat have the tools and capabilities to exploit the opportunities presented • Need a framework that ensures that applications benefit researchers, educators and society in a powerful, reliable and easy-to-use way • The underlying complexities of the routing/switching infrastructure and collaboration tools should be transparent to the end users • Developed “An Applications/Collaboration Framework to Exploit TEIN2” – G McLaughlin and D West South Asia Workshop May 2007

12. The technical elements to be addressed • Network reach, reliability, low latency • Routing/switching stability and predictability, resilience • End-to-end performance across NRENS, campuses and end-user equipment • Good cooperation between Network Operation Centres • Good cooperation with regional and global exchange points • Consistent support for collaboration tools • All of the above should be transparent to the end user • Good communication between all parties to help in the understanding of what we’re trying to achieve South Asia Workshop May 2007

13. The “people” elements to be addressed • Identifying enthusiastic “champions” within the research disciplines who have the vision to see what can be done with the infrastructure • Encouraging productive engagement between network engineers, researchers/users, performance and audio visual experts • Understanding of “Human Factors”. If the “new way” of doing things isn’t intuitive to practitioners, they will be less likely to adopt. • Making researchers aware of the possibilities and opportunities • Develop strong relationships with user communities South Asia Workshop May 2007

14. The power of telemedicine as an exemplar • Lends itself well to exploitation of networks and technology • eg Keyhole surgery involves a DV camera as part of the procedure – transmitting the DV signal across networks allowing remote observation & questions provides a disruptive change to telesurgery training/mentoring • Same applies to remote diagnostic immersive environments for patient consultation and assessment; nurse/medical training, case discussions, etc • Access to specialists, and delivery of complex procedures over vast distances • The collaboration tools can be redeployed for tele-immersive collaboration in other disciplines South Asia Workshop May 2007

15. Telemedicine APAN Manila, January 2007 During the APAN meeting in Manila, January 2007, demo’d live telemedicine (including live surgery) between all TEIN2 partners plus India and the US. Involved 12 countries and ~100 people • Beneficiary partners • Indonesia • Malaysia • Philippines • Thailand • Vietnam • China • Non-beneficiary partners • Korea • Singapore • Japan • Australia • Others • India • US South Asia Workshop May 2007

16. Other collaborative applications • Natural Disaster warning systems – including typhoon tracking, flood, tsunami and earthquake warning, • Link with Grid initiatives computing and data repository sharing • Emerging infections (bird flu, SARS) • Bio-informatics, Agro-informatics, Astronomy, eVLBI • E-learning • Asian Digital Heritage Exchange forum (ADHX) Currently preparing a portfolio of applications & collaborations using TEIN2 to illustrate the wisdom of the investment in this network South Asia Workshop May 2007

17. Sustainability • What happens after the initial investment? • “TEIN3 Funding and Sustainability” - D Davies, K Konishi, G McLaughlin & D West • Lessons Learned (examples only): • Misalignment between decision makers and those impacted • Policy decision and management best undertaken centrally • Needs a small core of staff dedicated to the initiative so that executive functions are managed in a focussed way and not derailed by priorities of the partner organisations • A cost sharing model has proved useful to 'bind' partners together • Paper also covers finance, working capital, procurement, technical planning, operations, future development, publicity and future support South Asia Workshop May 2007

18. Benefits • Prior to TEIN2, connections between TEIN2 countries went via the US or Japan. Now it is direct with massively reduced delay (critical for real-time interaction) and avoids needless crossing of the Pacific twice • Singapore to Malaysia was round trip time was 210ms, now 9ms;Perth to Singapore was 250ms, now 60ms • “This year will mark the first time intra-Asian bandwidth usage has significantly outpaced trans-Pacific. “ Telegeography, 21 July 2006 • New NRENS established in record times (Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia) with impressive rollouts and enthusiastic adoption • A whole range of new collaborations is emerging South Asia Workshop May 2007

19. In conclusion • NRENs have been the catalysts for the development of the information economy (a major factor in economic growth); catalysing massive societal benefit; stimulating services to transform business, society, and personal lives; and generating disruptive change in the way collaborative research is undertaken • Wise investments in new networks in less well served parts of the world are starting to show similar benefits • The more difficult areas still need to be addressed, but though the challenges may be greater, the opportunities and benefits are likely to be more profound • We thank the various funding agencies for their commitments so far and would welcome the opportunity to work with them to achieve more significant outcomes for our colleagues in South Asia and elsewhere South Asia Workshop May 2007