SERENATE

SERENATE is the name of a series of strategic studies into the future of research and education networking in Europe, addressing the local (campus networks), national (national research & education networks), European and intercontinental levels. The SERENATE studies bring together the research and education networks of Europe, national governments and funding bodies, the European Commission, traditional and "alternative" network operators, equipment manufacturers and, last but not least, the scientific and education community as the users of networks and services. The current situation is that national research and education networks and the wider research networking community in Europe are at the forefront of global technological developments. At the European level, the GEANT interconnect network was a major step forward, introducing 10 Gb/s in the core of the network and offering a wide coverage of 2.5 Gb/s capacity. It is quite likely that GEANT will deploy some links with speeds at or above 100 Gb/s during its lifetime, and even more ambitious longer-term numerical targets might now be appropriate. A similar fast development is to be expected at the national and local levels of research networking. SERENATE will investigate the strategic aspects of the development of such "superfast" networks, looking into the technical, organisational and financial aspects, the market conditions and the regulatory environment. As a result, by the end of the project, the relevant policy makers, funders and managers of research networks in Europe will have at their disposal a set of recommendations and background material that will enable them to set their policies for the further development of European research networking. SERENATE is broken down into 14 interlinked work items, each looking into certain strategic aspects that are of crucial importance for the development of European research networks.