Global e-Infrastructures of Ipv6 Experimental laboratories

The global network of experimental IPv6 laboratories is set to be extended thanks to a coordinated effort involving Cisco, European Commission and NATO projects and University College London (UCL). The network, which currently includes Europe, Latin America and Africa, will be extended to include the Caucasus, Central Asia and India. UCL will use this e-Infrastructure to train the staff of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in the use of Internet Protocol (IPv6), including remote coordination using global-scale ‘voice over IP’ systems. Participating NRENs and their associated scientific communities will thus be better able to engage in consolidated networking and partnership building.

Federated training laboratories
A number of projects are working together to make this e-Infrastructure a reality: partners of the ECfunded 6DEPLOY project offer training to organisations in Europe and developing countries, and support real IPv6 deployments. 6DEPLOY’s global workshop activity has worked with major Regional Internet Registries (AfriNIC and LACNIC) to develop a substantial laboratory infrastructure, as well as training and e-learning materials aimed at training engineers and network administrators, and transferring knowledge and best practice to other trainers. Cisco is the exclusive equipment donor for these activities. Existing IPv6 training laboratories in Paris, Sofia and Mauritius can be accessed remotely to perform hands-on exercises on routing and configuration. RENATER in France coordinate these 6DEPLOY laboratories; UCL coordinate the voice and video collaboration (to ease communication, and as an important application of IPv6 in its own right).

Collaborating along the Virtual Silk Highway
The Virtual Silk Highway project, funded by the NATO Science for Peace Programme, has built a substantial network infrastructure and sustainable National Research and Education Network organisations in three Southern Caucasus and six Central Asian countries, including Afghanistan. As a result, the communication requirements of the regional
research communities has grown multi-fold, to the point where transition is now taking place from satellite-based to fibre-based network infrastructure (through the NATO-funded Silk project, the EC-funded BSI project in the Caucasus, and the EC-funded CAREN project in Central Asia (www.silkproject.org, www.blacksea-net.eu, caren.dante.net).

From Bangalore to Bishkek
Cisco is currently installing new laboratories in Bangalore, Tbilisi and Bishkek. Laboratories are also planned for Turkey, Kenya and beyond. These new laboratories will be equipped with advanced Unified Communications components (IPv6 phones, Call Managers and Conference Servers) to allow interaction between trainers and remote site administrators, and for future course and skills development. Many other projects are involved in this venture. UCL is working to unite a wealth of human, knowledge and infrastructure resources from a wider
spectrum of EC projects, including 6CHOICE and GLOBAL. We expect these efforts to have the following
benefits, both for developing regions and for Europe:
• Host organisations will manage the e-Infrastructure (IPv6 laboratories) locally and will benefit from knowledge transfer on network and compute resource management, as well as increased links with European libraries, network
providers and suppliers of network equipment. Hosts can also develop new services and deploy state-of-the-art technologies such as virtualisation and networked embedded systems.
• Hosts will maximise use of their National Research and Educational Networks by enabling remote access and availability.
• Regional research communities will grow closer to their European counterparts, facilitating joint research on core scientific areas such as seismic research, water conservation and energy generation.
• These interactions will ignite further development of national e-Infrastructures and align common social and infrastructure development interests (such as the use of future internet protocols and advanced network services).
• Scientific and cultural gaps between geographically isolated communities will be bridged.
• Europe will expand its research context and broaden the focus of its research framework.
• Human resources and knowledge will feed back into EC regions.
• Economic stability will be strengthened in participating regions.
More information is available from {socrates,kirstein}@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Cloud computing: an e-Infrastructure