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CUDI Update: Carlos Casasús

Carlos Casasús, Director of the Corporación Universitaria para el Desarollo de Internet (CUDI) in Mexico, gave attendees an excellent status report on CUDI, taking care to state that Mexico's position was almost such that they needed to create a digital divide in order to ensure that some of the population could be on the correct side of it. However, recent activities, including government action, gave him great reason for optimism. Mexico's 2012 National Digital Agenda -- called a "major milestone" by Casasús -- explicitly guarantees connectivity for higher education centers, specifying that connectivity to the national Mexican research and education network (CUDI) should be provided to all universities and research centers with bandwidth that is proportional to enrollment and research, using existing public and private infrastructure.

Four large projects currently comprise Mexico's R&E broadband activity:

• The National Network for Broadband Advancement RedNIBA (Red Nacional de Impulso a la Banda Ancha)
• The University Connection Fund (Fondo de Conectividad Universitaria)
• The creation of 40 urban networks
• The creation of a Mexican Internet Exchange Point (IXP.mx)

Since 207, CUDI and the Ministry of Communications and Transport have been working together on RedNIBA to advance broadband connectivity throughout Mexico. This network uses the optical fiber overlaid on the existing electricity grid, and capacity is provided via a government-funded contract between the Ministry and the Electricity Commission. RedNIBA currently has 40 POPs throughout Mexico (see Fig. 1) and includes 10G connectivity on the "triangle" of Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, and north to Juarez by which it obtains connectivity to the Internet2 via the University of Texas at El Paso, and CENIC's CalREN. June 2012 saw an agreement between CUDI and the Ministry that allows CUDI to use RedNIBA without cost.

Figure 1: Mexico's RedNIBA

However, access to the RedNIBA POPs has been problematic for some institutions for security-related reasons. To ameliorate this, CUDI is creating secondary POPs using radio towers in university campuses, connected to RedNIBA via optical fiber, using funds provided in 2012. This project involves the construction of 270 km of urban fiber in 39 cities.

In parallel with this project, there is also the construction of 40 urban networks that will be used to connect 1,100 campuses in Mexico to RedNIBA. Entities that will benefit include federal and state universities and other higher education institutions including junior colleges, research centers, health centers, and the National Council for the Arts and Culture (CONACULTA), as well as government and transportation entities. A dramatic use of network and increase in network traffic is anticipated.

Finally, CUDI is a leading partner in the creation of a newly launched initiative to create the first Mexican Internet Exchange Point (IXP). Other partners include Kio Networks, RedIT, Megacable, Nextel, Transtelco, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), and the Ministry of Communications and Transport.

Casasús also specified that the new CUDI network will permit much richer applications for members, including federated identity, and e-science infrastructure including grid computing and data repositories, a national videoconferencing network, cloud services, and rich content distribution -- all of which will boost international scientific collaboration, particularly in those disciplines in which Mexican researchers currently play a vital role, such as oceanography, seismography, and astronomy.

BCNET and CANARIE Updates: Mike Hrybyk

Mike Hrybyk of the Canadian network BCNET then provided an overview of that network and CANARIE that included current concerns for both, each network and the value it adds for their communities, and current issues. Hrybyk pointed out that BCNET has undergone a large shift in its conception of itself, going so far as to remove the word "network" from its mission statement and instead conceptualizing itself as "shared IT services for higher education." Its funding it dominated by fees paid by members, although it also receives funding from the provincial government in British Columbia and CAMARIE as well as fees for other services such as revenue from exchange points. BCNET's 10G fiber network spans over 2,000 km throughout British Columbia and is owned, managed, and operated by the BCNET member consortium.

An overview of Canada's continent-spanning CANARIE network then followed. CANARIE has 19,000 km of fiber throughout Canada, with 100G capability, and connects a million Canadians at 1,100 institutions throughout the country. This very thorough penetration is furthered by CANARIE's work with provincial networks like BCNET to ensure that all Canadian universities are connected, as well as research hospitals and health networks, Networks of Centres of Excellence, major science facilities like TRIUMF, NEPTUNE, SNOLAB, thousands of high schools, and what are in Canada known as CEGEPs or general and vocational colleges (see Fig 2).

Figure 2: CANARIE, together with provincial and territorial networks

Hrybyk then used research traffic graphs to illustrate the challenge facing many research networks around the world: projections of growth promise to outstrip CANARIE's current capacity. Research traffic growth, Hrybyk stated, increased by 284% from 2007 to 2010, and is forecasted to continue to increase by 50% per year.

About CENIC and How to Change Your Subscription:

California's education and research communities leverage their networking resources under CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, in order to obtain cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking to support their missions and answer the needs of their faculty, staff, and students. CENIC designs, implements, and operates CalREN, the California Research and Education Network, a high-bandwidth, high-capacity Internet network specially designed to meet the unique requirements of these communities, and to which the vast majority of the state's K-20 educational institutions are connected. In order to facilitate collaboration in education and research, CENIC also provides connectivity to non-California institutions and industry research organizations with which CENIC's Associate researchers and educators are engaged.

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