ACADEMIA

The CESNET association has established new international optical network connections between collaborating institutions in the Czech Republic, U.S.A. and Taiwan that are already being used for scientific applications, videoconferencing and grid computing. The connections are a collaboration of the CzechLight project and Masaryk University Brno in the Czech Republic; the international Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF); NetherLight in the Netherlands; StarLight, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and Louisiana State University (LSU) in the U.S.; and the Academia Sinica Grid Computing Centre (ASGC) in Taiwan. CzechLight's 10 gigabit per second (Gbps) optical network connection to NetherLight and many other GLIF connections (called wavelengths or lambdas) is used either as a full 10 Gbps trunk or shared by several experiments with 1 Gbps granularity using the time division multiplexing (TDM) method. A 1 Gbps connection to Fermilab was established in June 2005 and first used for particle physics applications. In September the line was used for high-speed multi-point HDTV demonstrations during the iGrid2005 conference in San Diego, California, followed in October by a HDTV videoconference with Dr. John Marburger, Science Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush. The videoconference connected participants at LSU and Masaryk University Brno (see its Web site). In November the line was used for demonstrations at the Supercomputing 2005 conference in Seattle, and most recently it was devoted to data processing for the DZero particle physics experiment at Fermilab, connecting the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR) and Fermilab. A connection between the Institute of Physics ASCR in Prague and the ASGC in Taipei, Taiwan was established in August and now supports data transfers between the two grid centers for data processing for the ATLAS particle physics experiment at CERN, Switzerland. The GLIF and CzechLight optical network project serves as a worldwide facility that enables, develops and tests new scientific applications in advance of the deployment of standard European and intercontinental high speed lambda services for scientific applications. The project also enables testing of new networking principles and supports worldwide network research. The CESNET association, Czech Republic, was founded by universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is currently financed primarily by its members and the Research and Development Council. The association operates and develops CESNET2, the national gigabit optical network intended for research and education, and participates in the research and development of information and communication technologies. Thanks to its research activities and achieved results, the CESNET association represents the Czech Republic in the European GN2 project, as well as in other international projects. Among other countries, the association currently cooperates with Canada, the Netherlands, and the USA on the construction of GLIF (Global Lambda Integrated Facility), a global lambda network whose Czech section is called CzechLight. The U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), U.S.A. advances the understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and energy by providing leadership and resources for qualified researchers to conduct basic research at the frontiers of high energy physics and related disciplines. Fermilab is operated by Universities Research Association, Inc., a consortium of 90 research universities, for the United States Department of Energy's Office of Science. The DZero experiment is a collaboration of about 650 scientists from over 80 institutions in the U.S. and 19 foreign countries. For a list of collaborating institutions, please visit the DZero Web site at its Web site. Academia Sinica Grid Computing Centre, Taiwan (ASGC). ASGC is one of the major high-performance computing and communication centres in Taiwan, which provides Grid-based infrastructure, services, and e-Science application development for Academia Sinica and its collaborating institutes. The center is acting as a WLCG Tier-1 Centre, mainly for ATLAS and CMS experiments. ASGC is currently also actively involved in the coordination of the Asia Pacific Federation in EGEE. Masaryk University Brno in the Czech Republic is the second largest public university, with 9 Faculties. Its Institute of Computer Science (ICS) and Faculty of Informatics (FI) are leading Czech computer science institutions, with research activities from quantum computing, theoretical computer science, through databases and information systems, natural language processing to high performance networks, Grids and their applications. Both ICS and FI have strong international links and participate in joint research projects in all the mentioned research areas. Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic is the largest Czech physical institution oriented predominantly on basic research in particle physics, condensed matter physics, solid state physics, laser plasma physics, optics and their applications. The institute hosts also the Regional computing centre for particle physics that serves as a grid centre for the experiments ATLAS, ALICE and DZero.