[Whren-today] September 2009 WHREN-LILA Newsletter

Sat Sep 12 00:11:31 EDT 2009

Volume 5, Issue 4
September 11, 2009

The Western Hemisphere Research and Education Networks (WHREN)-Links
Interconnecting Latin America (LILA) Report summarizes activities from
participating networks. The WHREN-LILA Report is published under
National Science Foundation (NSF) Award # 0441095 and Academic Network
at São Paulo (ANSP) award Projeto Fapesp no. 04/14414-2.

September 2009 Issue:
1. WHREN-LILA Activities
2. FIU-CIARA Activities
3. CENIC Activities
4. Pacific Wave Activities
5. CUDI Activities
6. CLARA Activities
7. REUNA Activities
8. RNP Activities

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

1. WHREN-LILA Activities
WHREN-LILA network engineers upgraded the LILA East circuit to 10Gbps
from 2.5Gbps.  The upgrade was an outstanding effort between WHREN
project partners ANSP, RNP, CLARA and AMPATH, along with two
telecommunications providers, one equipment manufacturer, and three
collocation facilities.  Many thanks to everyone involved in this
effort.  In particular, a special recognition to Ernesto Rubi at AMPATH
and Jorge Marcos at ANSP for their work on this epic upgrade.  The
timing of the upgrade was fortuitous, in that the new circuit was used
to stream in real-time to the CalIT2 Auditorium in Atkinson Hall at UC
San Diego, and to Keio University's Design Media lab in Yokohama, Japan,
a Brazilian movie that was making its debut in Sao Paulo.  The format of
the video stream was in 4K uncompressed HD, which utilized approximately
1.5Gbps of bandwidth for each stream.  

The complete press release of the event can be found at
http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=1579

For more information about WHREN-LILA, visit http://whren-lila.net

2. FIU-CIARA Activities
Heidi Alvarez of CIARA was invited to spend two days visiting with
faculty and staff at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), on both
the St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses to discuss the advantages of
having a high performance network connection for research and education.
 Alvarez presented to both faculty and technology staff on Internet2,
National LambdaRail, redCLARA, ANSP, RNP, and other U.S. national and
international R&E network infrastructures and applications.  The
sessions proved to be very informative about the expectations and needs
of UVI faculty and staff with regard to high performance networking. 
Together we identified three application areas that we hope to see UVI
develop over the next twelve months to highlight the benefits of
significantly increased bandwidth to U.S. and global research and
education facilities.

These are:
1. Improved quality and increased use of video conferencing (Many
opportunities both w/in the UVI campuses, the Caribbean, the continental
U.S., and internationally)
2. Support for faculty to use the network for large date transfers with
their remote collaborators. 
3. Development of capabilities to access and control remote
instrumentation. 

There are a number of other areas where the advanced network can be of
significant use, but those may take longer to develop.  I think that the
VI-EPSCoR (http://epscor.uvi.edu/)  offers a rich environment to develop
collaborative research, education and outreach benefits and I look
forward to seeing how the team proceeds. 

On a related note, the Caribbean Special Interest Group (SIG) Meeting,
chaired by Heidi, is going to be held on Monday October 5, 2009 between
11:30 - 12:30 p.m. in conjunction with the Emerging Research and
Education Network SIG day of activities at the Internet2 Members
Meeting.   She encourages you to seize this opportunity to share your
activities over the last six months.  Please let her know if you will
attend in person or via video conferencing** and if you would like to
make a presentation on network developments and / or education or
research projects.  

The full I2 Members Meeting will take place between October 5 - 8, 2009
at the Hyatt Regency San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. Please visit
<http://internet2.edu/international/resources/events/2009/2009FMMintlevents.html>
for the meeting agenda. Please mark your calendars. The theme for this
meeting is “Collaborations and Resource Sharing in Research and
Education." You are sure to find useful insights, strategies, hopes, and
plans for meeting these challenges as your colleagues share their ideas
and experiences -- both formally via the program, and informally in the
chance conversations that make these meetings so valuable.

Emerging Research and Education Network SIG day of activities:
8:00am South Asia Regional Interest Group (30)
9:00am Middle East Regional Interest Group (35)
10:30-11:30am Africa (30)
11:30am-12:30pm Caribbean Regional Interest Group (35)
1:00-2:00pm Pacific Islands BoF (20)
2:30-4:00pm Emerging NREN SIG meeting (60)
4:15-6:00pm ITF Roundtable (60)

For more information about FIU-CIARA, please visit http://ciara.fiu.edu/

3. CENIC Activities
As mentioned in the June 2 issue of CENIC Today, preparations are still
going strong for the next group of circuit upgrades for California’s
K-12 and Community College Systems. 

The Layer 1 Router Refresh of the HPR tier of the CalREN network is also
continuing, with new equipment being installed and the migration of
Associate network traffic slated to begin soon. 
CENIC would also like to welcome the Carnegie Mellon University’s
Silicon Valley campus, located at the NASA Ames Research Center. The
connection to the CalREN-HPR network tier has been completed, and final
preparations are underway for the campus to begin using it. 

For more information about CENIC, visit http://www.cenic.org

4. Pacific Wave Activities
Canada's CANARIE network upgraded their Pacific Wave port in Seattle to
10 gigabit.  The Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN) brought
up a Pacific Wave gigabit port in Los Angeles, California in addition to
their existing gigabit port in Seattle, Washington.

Japan's WIDE and Korea’s KISTI/KORENet configured a VLAN over Seattle
Pacific Wave to set up a path for high-definition viewing and other
activities surrounding the total solar eclipse that took place on July
22, 2009.

Jacqueline Brown attended the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN)
meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia July 20-23, 2009 where she served as
Program Committee Chair. Also, at the APAN 28 meeting, John Silvester
gave a brief presentation on Pacific Wave plans in regard to the
NSF/IRNC solicitation in the backbone committee meeting and participated
in a panel discussion on the promotion of US-Australasia
cyber-infrastructure based interactions.

For more information about Pacific Wave, please visit
http://pacificwave.net 

5. CUDI Activities
The CUDI Virtual Days presented on July 23 included participation of
Miguel José Hernández y López, MTI Security Consultant, to present
the topic, "Cyber-Crime." The government of Tamaulipas Lic Rickard
Alexandro Gonzalez, Department of the Unified Services Directorate of
Infrastructure and Communications, spoke on Security in Information
Technology. 

For those interested in the issue of certification, topics relevant to
the CCNA certification: "Basic Concepts of Wireless LANs and Packet
Tracer" Activity Wizard" were also presented.
To see the full schedule and presentations, please go to
http://www.cudi.edu.mx/boletin/2009/07_boletin_julio_01.html  

CUDI would like to extend to all stakeholders a cordial invitation to
participate in the Fall 2009 reunion of the University Corporation for
Development of the Internet, AC (CUDI), which will take place on October
23 and 22 in the town of Ixtapan de la Sal, Edo. of Mexico. The host of
the event is the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico. 

As in past years, the format of this meeting will address the
authorities of the member institutions of CIDU, with the aim of
informing them first hand how the CUDI network is impacting teaching and
research. 
You can consult the preliminary program at: 
http://www.cudi.edu.mx/boletin/2009/Programa_Otono_2009.pdf

For more information about CUDI, visit: http://www.cudi.edu.mx/ 

6. CLARA Activities
The E-CienciAL Project "Encouraging Advanced Networking Use in Latin
America for Science, Technology and Innovation Development", financed by
the Organization of American States (OAS), through the Special
Multilateral CIDI Fund (FEMCIDI) and executed by CLARA, has been
extended for two more years, until 2010.

"The utilization and a better use of the telecommunications
infrastructure developed by CLARA is allowing the region’s scientific
community to join the e-Science stream, increasing the use and the
potential of the advanced networking, making possible the articulation
and dialogue between researchers", signals the project coordinator, Ana
Cecilia Osorio. 

According to Osorio, in the next two years of the e-CienciAL project,
the work that has defined products with objectives focused on
researchers' interconnection in the region will continue.

The first of them is the setup of the Strategic Agenda for e-Science,
which guides and coordinates the different countries' efforts on
science, technology, and innovation and has the goal of increasing the
number of National Research and Education Networks (NREN) that will
include such tools in their work plans. 

The second product is about increasing the number of research groups on
science and technology through the NRENs. On this stage, the objective
is to increase the number of work groups and their participants. Also,
the creation of specific websites for each group will be encouraged.

The increase of the scientific community skills to identify, formulate
and execute competitive projects through Advanced Academic Networks
represents the third product, where a training plan for researchers that
expects to reach 30 percent of approval will be executed. It is expected
that they, according to what the project coordinator explains, will
complete a competitive level project, capable of applying to regional
and international funding.

Read the full article in the June DeCLARA bulletin:
http://www.redclara.net/doc/DeCLARA/DeCLARA_en_19.pdf

For more information about CLARA, please visit http://redclara.net

7. REUNA Activities
REUNA would like to announce that the Fondef competition has opened for
submissions. Contributing to scientific development and technological
innovation of the regions is the objective of the competition for
Research and Development of the  Fomento al Desarrollo Scientific and
Technological (Fondef), developed in conjunction between the Comisión
Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, CONICYT , and the
Regional Government of Maule, Araucanía, Los Lagos and Metropolitana. 

This competition seeks increase the quantity and quality of research and
development, oriented to innovation in the productive sectors of
priority areas established by each region, increasing the link between
the research institutions with the companies and other regional entities
to develop the technological solutions demand as well as establishing
networks with other countries.

The submissions, which take place online, will be open until the 28th of
September 2009 and winners will be chosen for the following regions: 

Región del Maule: with projects in orchards, viticulture, livestock,
forestry and industry of the wood. 
Región de La Araucanía: with projects in the food industry, orchards,
tourism and special interests. 
Región de Los Lagos: the sector of fisheries and aquaculture oriented
to the Hydrobiology
Región Metropolitana: with projects focused in the mining field.

Read full article at: http://tinyurl.com/fondef 

For more information about REUNA, please visit: http://www.reuna.cl/

8. RNP Activities
Beginning July 28 was the 10th Sao Paulo International Festival of
Electronic Language (FILE). The FILE is the largest event of art and
technology in Latin America. The RNP participated through a technical
cooperation with Cinema 4K, which makes the first transmission of super
high definition images in between hemispheres. 

FILE will be launched also in the Brazilian Forum of Digital Culture,
part of the scope of the pilot project Ministry of Culture / RNP, in a
meeting the Minister Juca Ferreira, the MinC and the Secretary General,
Alfredo Manevy along with bloggers. Moreover, the deputy director of the
Advanced Internet RNP, Lara Machado, will make a presentation on the
organization within the FILE Symposium. 

The FILE gathered over 300 artists from around 30 nationalities, with
works in several areas of digital culture: interactive art, games,
performances, sound art, virtual reality, theoretical discussions and
digital cinema. The festival continues until August 31, in the Cultural
Center Fiesp - Ruth Cardoso - Avenida Paulista, 1313, São Paulo. 

The complete program and visitation schedules can be found in
www.file.org.br. 

Read full article at: http://www.rnp.br/noticias/2009/not-092807.html

For more information about RNP, visit: http://www.rnp.br 

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

The WHREN-LILA newsletter is intended to provide useful, up-to-date
information about WHREN-LILA through short articles with web links and
email addresses. Newsletters will be posted on the WHREN-LILA website
(www.whren-lila.net). If you have colleagues who would like to subscribe
to this monthly newsletter, send them to:
http://www.ampath.net/mailman/listinfo/whren-today.

If you would like to be removed from the WHREN-LILA newsletter mailing
list, you may unsubscribe at:
 http://www.ampath.net/mailman/listinfo/whren-today.