GN4-1 SA1

SA1 will implement the network services developed within GN4-1 on the GÉANT network for use by NRENs and their end users. 5/SA1 will implement products and services on the production GÉANT network in accordance with the Product Management Lifecycle process. New services will only be put into production once the acceptance criteria have been successfully met for the gate between development and production.

5/SA1 will work in conjunction with 10/SA6 to ensure services moved into production from development can be effectively implemented and operated.

The objectives of 5/SA1 are:

• (FPA Action A4, D2, F2 and F3) To continue to provide high-performance and cost-effective, advanced production GÉANT network-centric services to the NRENs in order to facilitate the provision by the GÉANT consortium of similarly high-quality, end-to-end services to the GÉANT user community.
• To continually optimise the network, ensuring capacity for the provision and delivery of services is available and cost effective.
• To effectively evolve, plan, build and enable the effective operation by 10/SA6 of the GÉANT network and supported network services.
• To extend infrastructure and service availability to those parts of the GÉANT service area less- well served today (continuing to close the digital divide in Europe).
• To ensure the network and infrastructure elements procured are compliant with EU and/or local procurement regulations.
• To reduce infrastructure duplication between NRENs and the GÉANT backbone through infrastructure sharing.
• To implement new services and enhancements to existing services into production, according to requirements from the product management team and other service development activities.
• (Action A1, A6, D2 and D5) To continually develop and enhance the GÉANT network, associated infrastructure and OSS.
• To drive the continued development of the optical platform and IP/MPLS platform.
• To provide and continually develop the systems and tools, and associated infrastructure that support the planning, performance management and reporting of the network and supported network services.
• To establish a network technology and operational capability for the purposes of verification testing of new technologies and operational arrangements away from the production network. This will be known as the GÉANT network and operational verification capability (GNOVC).
• To provide requirements into other service activities for the development, enhancement and improvement of networking tools and services.
• (Action A2, A5, F2, F3 and F4) To support R&E networking and the networking requirements of NRENs and European R&E networking users globally.
• To support the networking requirements of the other activities within the project and those that require GÉANT network services outside the project.
• To support, where possible, subject to suitable cost-recovery actions, the networking requirements of other activities outside of GN4-1 – e.g. those funded by the EC’s Future Internet programme.
• To support international connectivity requirements of NRENs and R&E partners and users.
• To leverage the tools, processes and skills designed and developed to support the services in the backbone by offering them to the NRENs and the GÉANT community.
• To provide leadership in using and operating network resources and leading-edge technology for deployment at large computing and storage facilities.
• To collaborate with NRENs, interested vendors and sophisticated users to gain and provide in-depth technical knowledge for the setup of end-to-end systems for large data flows. This will include establishing relationships with vendors of 100G NICs and users.

EC Deliverables