Consortium GARR and the European National Research and Education Networks Optical Infrastructure Developments

Abstract

GARR is engineering its next generation of the Italian Research and Education Network (GARR-X), which will exploit a countrywide optical infrastructure based on DWDM equipment and advanced multi-domain services. The trend is common in all National Research and Education Networks [1] in Europe and worldwide. NRENs are relying more and more on direct use of optical equipment to fulfill the researchers' requirements. These hybrid networks are built to provide services on a multi-domain environment both at the circuit and at the IP layer for researchers in, for example, radio astronomy (eVLBI [2]), GRID computing (EGEE [3], LHC [4]), high-performance computing (DEISA [5]). This article outlines the status and issues of ongoing research activities in GARR [6] and NRENs to provide, manage, and evolve dedicated optical-based networks for providing multi-domain end-to-end services. The research is performed mainly in the framework of the European Commission co-funded project GÉANT2 [7].