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							Report from Breakout Group F
            by Karel Vietsch




       Wednesday, 24 May 2006




         The EARNEST Foresight Study
                2006 - 2007
                         Question 1
How will (National) Research and
 Education Networks distinguish
 themselves (in the next 5-10 years)
 from commercial providers?
  – Historically, NRENs have been providing connectivity
    with a capacity / quality that commercial providers could
    not offer. That is no longer sufficient (justification).
  – For example, “new” user groups (schools, libraries,
    healthcare, government institutions, etc.). Which should
    be served by NRENs and which should be served by
    commercial providers?
  – How far “up the service / application stack” should
    NRENs go? (Should they even make “content” part of
    their business?)
                    The EARNEST Foresight Study
                           2006 - 2007
                          Answers 1
• What is currently the added value of NRENs?
   – Some DE universities have decided not to connect to
     NREN
   – Advanced technology <=> marketplace technology
   – Innovation, “testbed of new services”
   – Special services for schools e.g. content filtering
   – High-availability guarantees
   – Small institutions <=> large institutions
• Yes, NRENs should go up the application stack
• E.g. extremely large data storage, extremely fast search
  engine
• NRENs should go far up the stack, also to content




                     The EARNEST Foresight Study
                            2006 - 2007
                     Question 2
The essence of the Norwegian GigaCampus
  project is that the national network
  (services) and the local network (services)
  are no longer seen as separate
  responsibilities but as a joint responsibility
  of the NREN and the local network people.
  They then work together closely in many
  areas. Is this an example that should be
  followed (perhaps in slightly different
  forms) in all European countries?
                The EARNEST Foresight Study
                       2006 - 2007
                  Answers 2
• Very positive of Norwegian set-up
• Does not scale to large countries
  (DE, UK)
• Universities are each other’s
  competitors, no collaboration to be
  expected on business as usual
• But do Norwegian collaboration on
  per project bases (examples: rollout
  wireless, rollout VoIP)
             The EARNEST Foresight Study
                    2006 - 2007
                   Question 3
If GÉANT2 and all NRENs would all use
  the same platform (e.g. “let’s all buy
  Alcatel”) things would be simpler
  than in the current situation with
  different platforms. Can research
  networks as launching customers of
  new technologies and products exert
  enough market pressure on vendors
  to enforce global standardisation?
              The EARNEST Foresight Study
                     2006 - 2007
                   Answers 3
• Interoperability in optical networking
  is a real problem
• Yes, NRENs can have an influence;
  interoperability is a plus for vendors
• NRENs need to develop common
  requirements
• Idea: interoperability test lab
• Common initiative of NRENs needed
              The EARNEST Foresight Study
                     2006 - 2007
                  Question 4
Research networks give a lot of
 attention to “high-end” users (Grid
 applications and others). Do they
 give enough attention to
 “middleclass” and “low-end” users,
 making them aware of the
 technologies and services that they
 could use? Is there “latent usage”?

             The EARNEST Foresight Study
                    2006 - 2007
                    Answers 4
• NRENs are demand-driven
• They don’t go out to evangelise, push new
  technologies/services
• Probably they should pay more attention
  to middle- and low-end users, but they
  don’t have the time / resources
• Campus can be intermediary in
  communication between NREN and end-
  users

               The EARNEST Foresight Study
                      2006 - 2007