ORIENT: Connecting Academic Networks in China and Europe
ORIENT is a collaborative ICT project to connect the research and education networks of China and Europe. Jointly funded from China and Europe, the project has procured and currently operates a high capacity data-communication link between the pan-European GÉANT2 backbone network and Chinese research and education networks. The project started officially on 1 March 2006.
Context
As research co-operation becomes increasingly global, it is vital that international network connectivity is provided to support collaboration between researchers in different world regions. This is especially true for joint Sino-European initiatives. China is the world’s most populous nation and has recently experienced rapid growth, both economically and in the research and education sector. The ORIENT partners are aware of research projects in the fields of Radio Astronomy, Meteorology, Sustainable Development, Cosmic Ray Observation, High Energy Physics and Grid Computing –all with requirements for a high-capacity link between the research networks of China and Europe.
ORIENT has true Sino-European support, both financially and in terms of project participation. The project is a partnership between six European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), the Chinese academic network, CERNET and DANTE, the operator of GÉANT2. CERNET will contribute 50% of the cost of the link; the remainder of funding is met by the European NRENs (25%) and the European Commission (25%).
Achievements
ORIENT, coordinated by DANTE in Europe and CERNET in China, operates alongside the complementary TEIN2 initiative, which provides an Asia-Pacific regional network which also links to Europe. The significant synergies between ORIENT and TEIN2 have been exploited, maximising the value-for-money achieved by the projects and bringing bandwidth and reliability benefits to the users of both infrastructures.
The ORIENT project, working with TEIN2 has successfully procured a 2.5Gbps link on the shortest-possible trans-Siberian route. In fact, ORIENT is the single largest circuit using this important east-west communications route. After a period of testing and optimisation, the circuit was brought into full production service in January 2007. Since then, ORIENT monitoring shows significant and increasing levels of data traffic –a positive sign that the circuit is being adopted by the research and education community. The ORIENT partners are continuing to work to facilitate the use of the link by appropriate projects and look forward to more user success stories over the project lifecycle.
The Role of DANTE
DANTE, the co-ordinating partner, will be responsible for overall management of the project and for the procurement activity. It will also take the lead role in activities relating to dissemination and user support. CERNET will jointly take responsibility for implementation and operation of the circuit. All partners in the project contribute to engineering work and to the provision of user support to their network customers. They also carry out dissemination activities within their own regions of network coverage, for example, through NREN conferences, by presenting at international events, and through joint distribution of dissemination materials.
