Time to say goodbye to unlimited Internet?/Est-ce la fin de l’Internet illimité pour tous?

This past January, Deloitte once again published its annual predictions to help us understand – and plan for – upcoming changes in Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT). According to its report entitled This way to the future, “it’s the end of the line for unlimited Internet”. You would expect such news to make waves, but strangely it only got a passing mention in a few select outlets.

In Canada and elsewhere around the world “The demand for data has already seen many mobile phone networks ease away from the ‘all-you-can-eat’ world and 2012 could be the year that a similar trend occurs in fixed-line broadband”[1]. In fact, demand in Canada has been growing at 30 percent per year, forcing the three big players in this market – Bell, Telus and Rogers – to react by throttling speeds and charging extra for data access during peak hours.

There are some who question the relevance of having Optical Regional Advanced Networks (ORANs) in place exclusively for research and education (R&E) institutions when large telecommunications companies could just as easily serve that community. I would respond by pointing out that research requires sharing large quantities of data with other institutions located in Canada and abroad, while education increasingly relies on high bandwidth real-time applications such as videoconferencing.

ORANs were created to address those needs and provide a way for R&E institutions to bypass any caps or limits commercial access providers might impose on traffic, even during peak times. Three areas in particular benefit from this initiative. Firstly, R&E institutions are able to share their discoveries with each other on their own private networks. Secondly, these institutions can directly access marquee content providers such as Google and Amazon, and bypass commercial Internet providers. Thirdly, educational institutions can enjoy a minimum of interference in their communications with their student population thanks to Internet exchange points such as QIX™ Service and TORIX. As members of RISQ, educational institutions connect to ORANs for their communications. Furthermore, part of their communications with their student population automatically connects through R&E networks.

Finally, while the private sector is rapidly adopting cloud computing in order to reduce its operational costs, this shift does not alleviate the increasing strain on commercial networks – quite the opposite, in fact. Thankfully, ORAN members do not need to concern themselves with such issues, since they will enjoy direct and reliable access to cloud computing providers, just as they benefit from a similar access to content providers today.

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[1] This way to the future, Canadian TMT Predictions 2012. Deloitte

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En janvier dernier, Deloitte a publié, comme chaque année, ses prédictions pour nous permettre de suivre, ou de survivre, aux principales tendances dans le secteur des technologies, des médias et des télécommunications (TMT). Son dernier rapport, intitulé En route vers l’avenir, prédit que « C’est la fin de l’Internet illimité ». Une petite bombe qui est passée presque inaperçue chez le consommateur non averti.

Au Canada, comme ailleurs dans le monde, « L’importance de la demande de données pousse déjà de nombreux réseaux de téléphonie mobile à restreindre le volume illimité de téléchargements et une tendance similaire pourrait se manifester en 2012 pour les lignes fixes »[1]. Les principaux Telco, Bell, Telus et Rogers contrôlent le marché canadien. Constatant une hausse de la demande de 30 % par année, il leur est venu l’idée d’écraser quelques orteils et d’imposer des tickets modérateurs pour soulager la congestion des réseaux aux heures de pointe.

On nous demande souvent ce que les réseaux optiques de recherche évolués, les RORES, apportent de plus au secteur de l’éducation et de la recherche que les grands télécommunicateurs ne peuvent leur offrir. La recherche implique le partage d’immenses quantités de données entre institutions canadiennes et internationales. La formation requiert l’accès à diverses applications, dont certaines en temps réel, telle la vidéoconférence.

Pour répondre à ces besoins spécifiques, les RORES permettent à leurs membres d’échanger avec d’autres établissements de R&E, d’accéder à des fournisseurs de contenu ou de communiquer avec leurs étudiants en contournant ou en évitant l’Internet commercial. Les établissements d’enseignement et de recherche peuvent échanger entre eux en utilisant principalement les RORES. Ils ne passent pas par l’Internet commercial et ne sont limités par aucun ralentissement de trafic, même aux heures de pointe. Pour atteindre les grands fournisseurs de contenu, comme Google
ou Amazon, les établissements de R&E bénéficient d’un accès direct, contournant l’Internet commercial. Dans les échanges entre établissements d’enseignement et étudiants, il est possible, encore une fois, de limiter au minimum les intermédiaires, grâce à l’existence de points d’échangeur Internet comme le Service QIX^MC ou le TORIX. En tant que membres du RISQ, les établissements d’enseignement passent par les RORES. Une partie des échanges établissements-étudiants passent donc directement sur les réseaux privés de R&E.

En conclusion, si l’essor fulgurant des technologies de l’information pousse les entreprises et autres organisations à se tourner de plus en plus vers l’informatique en nuage pour réduire leurs coûts opérationnels, cela ne leur permettra pas d’éviter la congestion des réseaux publics. Au contraire, on verra la demande en bande passante exploser. Les membres des RORES ne feront pas face
à cette congestion, puisqu’ils bénéficieront d’un accès direct aux fournisseurs d’informatique en nuage, comme dans le cas des fournisseurs de contenu.

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[1] Deloitte. En route vers l’avenir, Prédictions TMT canadiennes 2012.

A Canadian Tech Star Shares His Thoughts

Contributor: Kathryn Anthonisen, CANARIE Inc.

This rainy February weekend, CANARIE is in Vancouver at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. This is the 178th meeting of the organization, and the first time it’s been held in Canada for the past 30 years. It is a Big Deal: more than 5,000 attendees have gathered to share knowledge and learn what’s new in science.

Among the many illustrious speakers was Mike Lazaridis, former RIM co-CEO. It’s not every day that you are privy to the thoughts of one of Canada’s premier technology leaders, so the seats at the AAAS plenary lecture by Mike Lazaridis filled up fast.

Speaking on “The Power of Ideas,” Lazaridis gave the crowd a bit of history about himself and about how big ideas that changed history often were not thought of as big at the time. Giving the audience a glimpse of his history, he shared that, not surprisingly, he loved electronics and building things as a child. In high school, he was taking both advanced science and math courses and shop class, and a particularly inspiring teacher enabled him to see the connections between them.

Challenged by this special teacher, his electronics shop class enabled him to see the concrete expression of the math and science he was learning about. Later on, when he was a student at the University of Waterloo, another great teacher offered elective evening seminars on quantum mechanics which, as Mike described it, often ended late into the evening as students engaged in rigorous and challenging discussions.

These defining experiences sharpened his curiosity and shaped his passions in ways that ultimately drove him to create Canada’s premier technology company and lead the smartphone revolution worldwide.

But another anecdote was particularly resonant for the audience. Mike described how, at the turn of the century, urban planners were focused on the key issue of the day: what to do with all the horse manure. Horses were key transportation infrastructure, and the results of their efforts posed serious health problems.

He juxtaposed this with Einstein’s work at the time, which was clearly not focused on the problem of the day (manure) but rather on the nature of space and time. His discoveries enable much of the foundations for our modern world, and the technologies we rely on, from MRIs to nuclear power.

Lazaridis’ point was that we cannot be blinded by the urgency of our current problems, but should try to foster research that may not be related to current issues but that can lead to breakthrough discoveries that will change the world in ways we cannot imagine.

His advice to the scientists assembled was to go in the direction their curiosity leads them and pursue their ideas with the utmost passion. He suggested that science is the first successful global democracy, as it is based on allegiance to reason and curiosity, and bound by a system of peer review.

Going forward, providing our children with the best education possible, and fostering the magic that happens between a student and a teacher, will build thinkers who are bold, who are determined, and who will follow their passion with courage and determination.

Inspiring words from an inspiring Canadian leader.

From the future of broadband networks to the deployment of IPv6, the 21st annual RISQ colloquium is a success!

THE FRENCH VERSION WILL FOLLOW

The 21^st annual RISQ symposium RISQ 2011: à l’écoute de vos besoins (RISQ 2011: Listening to Your Needs) kicked off on October 25^th with 164 attendees present, surpassing attendance numbers of the last three conferences. 

“The branding and theme of this year’s conference speaks volumes about the importance we place on our members,” said Michel Vanier, General Manager of RISQ.

One of RISQ’s goals has always been to maintain a tight-knit relationship with its members, which was emphasized in this year’s conference title, À l’écoute de vos besoins (Listening to Your Needs).

“This past year, we have put significant effort into this objective with the introduction of services that better address the needs and situation of RISQ members, along with direct measures which allowed our members to better use our network and manage their traffic more efficiently,” added Nancy Rancourt, director of Member Services and Operations.

Listening to Our Members

This year’s conference programming was planned around concerns members shared with RISQ throughout 2010 and 2011. Speakers delivered excellent presentations on “the future of broadband networks with the deployment of IPv6 and Web security” that were applicable to the daily lives of the participants. The results speak for themselves. Overall, 96.2% of 55 survey respondents said they were “very satisfied” with the conference and 98.1% “appreciated the quality of presentations”. Presentations from CANARIE (98% satisfaction) and RISQ (92.5%) were particularly popular, as were two workshops on the integration of IPv6 presented by Cisco (88.1%) and RISQ (87%). While these four presentations were the conference favourites, attendees were highly satisfied with the rest of the presentations as well.

What Does the Future Hold?

In the throes of developing a business plan for 2012-2015, RISQ is taking the time to consider its next steps, as evidenced by Michel Vanier’s presentation, which was peppered with open-ended questions. The multitude of opportunities and possibilities RISQ boasts in member services and network development suggests that its future is bright and that the organization is at a crossroads, not a dead end.

Technology for the Environment

At the previous colloquium, the RISQ team decided to cut down on paper as much as possible and maximize its use of available technology. This initiative had a positive impact on 94.3% of survey respondents. Apart from a few posters outside conference rooms, not a single printout was made or handed out to participants. Instead, attendees could view the entire conference schedule on their smartphones through a Quick Response (QR) code or directly from the conference website on giant computer tablets set up near the meeting rooms (imagine iPads with 32- to 40-inch screens!). To top it off, even the satisfaction survey was eco-friendly, as it was sent in an electronic format instead of on paper.

All in all, the 2011 RISQ colloquium was high-tech yet environmentally friendly!

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De l’avenir des réseaux à large bande à l’intégration d’IPv6
La 21^e édition du colloque du RISQ est un succès !

C’est devant quelque 164 participants qu’a été lancée la 21^e édition du colloque annuel du RISQ, le 25 octobre dernier, sous le thème RISQ 2011 : à l’écoute de vos besoins. Un record de participation comparativement à 2007, 2008 et 2009.

« La signature et le thème de la 21^e édition en disent long sur l’importance que nous accordons à nos membres », mentionne d’emblée Michel Vanier, directeur général du RISQ.

Depuis toujours, le RISQ met tout en œuvre pour maintenir une relation la plus étroite possible avec ses membres. L’équipe du RISQ a été à l’écoute des besoins de ses membres et le principal événement annuel en a été le reflet.  « Dans la dernière année, cet objectif a pris tout son sens avec la mise en place de services qui se rapprochent encore davantage des besoins et de la réalité des membres du RISQ, et cela, sans compter les réalisations sur le terrain qui ont permis à nos membres une utilisation plus performante du réseau et une gestion plus aisée de leur trafic », renchérit Nancy Rancourt, directrice Service aux membres et Exploitation.

À l’écoute de nos membres

Tout au long de l’année 2010-2011, les membres nous ont fait part de leurs préoccupations. Le programme 2011 a été bâti en fonction de ces préoccupations. De l’avenir des réseaux à large bande, en passant par l’intégration d’IPv6 et la sécurité Web, les conférenciers ont livré des prestations d’une grande qualité, tout en restant collés sur le quotidien des participants. Les résultats parlent d’eux-mêmes : dans l’ensemble, 96,2 % des 55 répondants au sondage nous ont indiqué être très satisfaits du déroulement général du colloque et 98,1 % d’entre eux ont apprécié la qualité des présentations. Les présentations de CANARIE
(98 %) et du RISQ (92,5 %) ont été particulièrement prisées, de même que les deux ateliers sur l’intégration d’IPv6 présentés par Cisco  (88,1 %) et le RISQ  (87 %). Bien que ces quatre présentations aient été les grandes favorites, le niveau de satisfaction à l’égard des autres présentations reste très élevé.

Que nous réserve le futur?

Michel Vanier a habillé sa présentation de signes d’interrogation; une ponctuation qui demande généralement une réponse ou qui invite à la réflexion. En pleine préparation du plan d’affaires 2012-2015, le RISQ est, en effet, en phase de réflexion. Il est sage de s’arrêter à l’occasion pour s’interroger sur l’itinéraire que nous empruntons. Le RISQ est à un carrefour, pas dans un cul-de-sac ! Une multitude d’opportunités et de possibilités s’offrent  au RISQ en matière de services aux membres et de développement du réseau. Le présent est garant du futur et le futur sera prometteur !

La technologie au service de l’environnement

Lors du dernier colloque, l’équipe du RISQ s’était mise comme défi d’éliminer le plus de « papier » possible et de maximiser l’utilisation de la technologie pour promouvoir son programme. Cette initiative a eu un impact positif auprès de 94,3 % des répondants. Outre les quelques affiches du programme disposées à l’entrée des salles de conférence, aucun document imprimé n’a été remis aux participants. Ces derniers pouvaient consulter l’ensemble du programme à partir de leur téléphone intelligent, grâce à un code QR, ou directement sur le site Internet à partir d’une tablette électronique géante qui se trouvait à proximité des salles de conférence. Imaginez votre iPhone en format 32 ou 40 pouces; c’est sur ces énormes tablettes que les participants pouvaient explorer le programme de la journée ! En ce qui a trait au sondage de satisfaction, on s’est également tournés vers la technologie en utilisant un logiciel de sondage électronique.

L’édition 2011 était technologique, mais écolo !

Centralizing Science?

Contributing author: Bill St. Arnaud

Years ago many universities had their own research telescopes and small accelerators. But as the demands, as well as the costs, of science increased, researchers quickly realized they had to consolidate their resources and build instruments that served the needs of hundreds or thousands of researchers around the globe. Virtually of all today’s big science instruments such as telescopes, particle accelerators, and synchrotrons are multi-country collaborations.

Research computing may be headed in the same direction.

The next generation of super-computers and research cloud infrastructure required for things like climate modeling, weather forecasting, or epidemiological studies, which will require massive amounts of energy to operate. The energy costs alone may compel international partnership to deploy and build such infrastructure on the same scale of global collaboration as we have seen for telescopes and particle accelerators.

Big Science facilities need to think about emissions.

More importantly with the growing threat of climate change it is critical that such facilities not be major sources of CO2 emissions in their own right. Some examples:

• The new climate modeling super computer in Exeter in the UK
• The recently constructed NCAR data center in Wyoming.

We are already seeing early signs of such research-computing collaborations. Examples:

• The investigation by CERN to relocate its data center to Nordic countries,
• The examination, by universities in the Boston area to relocate their computing facilities to a small municipal hydro-electric facility 90 miles west of Boston.

Potential cost savings

Global collaboration will also significantly save individual universities millions of dollars in electrical costs as research computing currently represents 15-30% of the electricity consumption at many universities. The energy savings alone could possibly pay for this next generation of research computing and still leave additional money to support critical research.

Obviously high speed optical networks and open lightpath exchanges will be critical to such a reality. But it is just as important that energy and environmental savings not be transferred to the higher costs in the network and so new low-carbon network architectures are needed as well.

Do you see this as the future of research computing?

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About the author

Bill St. Arnaud, formerly a Chief Research Officer at CANARIE, is a Green IT consultant who works with clients on a variety of subjects such as the next generation Internet and practical solutions to reduce GHG emissions such as free broadband and electrical highways. He currently also works as a consultant at CANARIE.

Browserless Federated SignOn Techniques Contrasted: Shibboleth/ECP and ABFAB/Moonshot

One of the key puzzle pieces for federated ID is how to deal with sign on outside the browser. When you peek behind the curtain of the web  you will see tools like SSH and SCP and jobs running on machines pushing content everywhere and people signing in to accomplish tasks ill suited for the web.  In other areas you’ll see people wanting to use their ID to sign into a cloud application on their smartphone (like mail) or a specialized application on their desktop (think Google Earth).

We want to mask some of the complexity of using a Federated ID behind the curtain as much as we can and only reveal what is REALLY needed to get the job done.  In this posting we’ll be exploring two candidate technologies to do this.

WARNING! Some technical content ahead!    Ok, this posting  may be a bit of a technical read, but I’ve tried to keep the acronyms to a minimum.  I am also assuming that you know a bit about Single Sign On techniques and have slightly more than a passing familiarity with Shibboleth and SAML.

So put on your gear for something beyond a shallow dive, but not the full deep dive it could be, I don’t think you’ll get the bends but if the comments drag us into that territory don’t blame me

The Contenders

We are going to take a look at two approaches to non web sign on; Shibboleth with the ECP (Enhanced Client or Proxy) plugin and the IETF’s ABFAB (Application Bridging for Federated Access Beyond web) that was formally known as Project Moonshot.  Both techniques have their merits and drawbacks.  I hope that  by offering this comparison I can help identify some of the things to think about and hear back from others about how on target (or not) I am with the analysis.

Non Web Federated ID Use Cases

Use cases take the shape of many things:

• IMAP mail access for your smartphone
• plain SSH/SFTP for secure shell access
• A rich or ‘fat’ client that leverages local graphic and compute capabilities.
• Insert your clever outside the browser use of id/passwords.

Use Case: Mail in the Cloud

This is/was slide 51 from the Live@edu slide deck from one of their TechNet in late 2010 (credit: Microsoft).  It illustrates the use of the Microsoft Federation Gateway communicating with Shib ECP for authentication.  The end users offers their userid scoped with their domain (e.g. joe@my-university.ca) and the ‘hint’ of the domain allows the gateway component to direct the authentication request to the appropriate ECP enabled interface.  This hint is not part of the SAML protocol at all, but a function of how the cloud service provider will route the request it receives to the right provider. The password DOES transit the cloud  so it is up to the Identity Provider to have sufficient assurance from the vendor that the right steps are taken (e.g. IMAPS, safe transit within the cloud etc).

The reply by the Shibboleth IdP via a reverse SOAP call (PAOS, yes soap written in reverse) and carries a special identifier for the Live@EDU service: PersistentID.  This value is special to the cloud mail service as it links the person to their mailbox.  My understanding from IdPs participating in this space is that the PersistentID is generated upon account creation in the institutions person registry.It is just an attribute passed over the wire instead of a dynamically computed attribute like eduPersonTargetedID. It is also BASE32 encoded which eduPersonTargetID is not.

Use Case: Federation Aware Rich Desktop Client

Screenshots of some of the OpenJump documentation that uses SAML. OpenJump deals with the discovery issue by having you as the user enter the Metadata URL into the actual application.  Good? Bad?  Well, you judge, but if you say bad, help us understand how you would do it to minimize the user managed discovery aspect? Hand waves don’t cut it, please be specific…

Key Considerations – Tipping Point Concerns

You can argue that we need to look at many facets of the conversation, but I contend that there exists tipping point ones you need to pay attention to and are the key drivers — these are ‘the who’ and ‘the what’. Once you wrestle those to the ground, the rest will follow when going through a comparison on what to use in your situation.

The Who

‘The who’ is your audience of users and the important question to ask about them is ‘How diverse a group are they?’  If you can influence/control the diversity as in keep them all originating from the same bucket, then this may work to your advantage — more on this in a moment.  If you can’t and are talking about a diverse set of users originating from many identity providers then this is important too.  In either case, there will always be an identity provider of last resort to capture the corner cases and our goal is to minimize this set as much as possible.

The What

‘The what’ is what are you trying to deliver or improve?  Are you trying to allow a smartphone or tablet access to their email or are you trying to allow SSH/SFTP access to unix boxen under your control?  Are you trying to do both?  Your endpoints you want to serve are going to influence your selection.

Comparing and Contrasting

The table below highlights some of the comparison points to be considered:

	Shibboleth+ECP	Moonshot/ABFAB
Password Treatment	Userid/Password pair seen & transits outside classic Shibboleth infrastructure boundaries	Userid/Password seen @ endpoint & transits through RADIUS infrastructure via SSL tunnel
Home Institution Discovery	Somehow preconfigured either via user or by static configuration in proxy & proxy under an infrastructure providers control	Userid contains hint to institution so it is present in credential and implicitly discoverable on usage (e.g. <id>@realm.ca)
Attribute Exchange	Exchanged via SAML2, aggregated via standard Shibboleth fashion (DB/LDAP/static values etc)	Exposed via GSS API, delivered via RADIUS pack/unpack technique, aggregated from many potential sources
‘Breadth’ of accounts	ECP configuration or end user intervention drives breadth of coverage	If RADIUS uses eduroam, entire set of  federation accounts are available
Environment Used in	Mobile devices, IMAP clients, very targeted and controlled infrastructures. Unix machines with a preconfigured Id Provider.	Unix shell environments, rich clients, anywhere that the GSS-API exists.

There are more, but to me these are the big ones.  I’m sure there are readers out there that have thoughts, so please share them and I’ll see if they fit in.

Conclusions…for now

If you were looking for me to declare one method over the other, I’m sorry to disappoint — the answer is of course it depends.  It will depend on how you respond to  ’the who’ and ‘the what’ and then feed that into the calculation of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the approach you choose.

Some of these things are going to be intangibles too, like ‘are you staffed with the right skills?’ and ‘how many calls to the helpdesk can you avoid?’.  I think anyone going through the decision process on deploying one or the other or even both needs to think about the big picture topics.

I accept that this comparison is incomplete but I believe it to be complete enough for the purpose of kick starting a dialog about it. I look forward to the comments and emails to see how well my position holds…

R&E Network Model of the Future?

Contributing author: Bill St. Arnaud

There is a growing momentum among the major Research & Education (R&E) networks around the world to move to Open Lightpath Exchanges (OLEs where, as Cees de Laat explains, hybrid networks meet to:

• exchange traffic
• facilitate international interconnections
• minimize quantity of colo, equipment and cards required
• minimize call blocking probability at optical exchange points

OLEs will fundamentally change the future of R&E networking. At the spring 2011 Internet2 meeting and in follow-up discussion at the Terena meeting, a joint statement was drafted representing the views of many of the attendees on why OLEs are so critical to the future of R&E networking and represent significant opportunity for network innovation.

OLEs Allow Choice

OLEs will allow individual institutions, even researchers to directly peer with each other with no policy constraints and eliminate or minimize the need for a traditional “network.” Point-to-point links will still be required

Virtual Infrastructure: The diagram above shows how virtual infrastructures are created. They are assembled by creating « slices » of the physical substrates, which are then aggregated into a working virtual infrastructure from which services can be delivered. The physical infrastructure consists mainly of servers, disc arrays and network elements such as switches and routers, whereas the virtual infrastructure consists of virtual machines, virtual storage, virtual routers and virtual switches. (Image courtesy: GreenStar Network)

between exchange points and these will need to be provisioned through a variety of means. But now it is the choice of those who connect to the OLE, whether it is an institution, researcher or virtual organization, to compose their own network topology.

As some of you may remember this was one of the original concepts of the CA*net 3/CA*net 4 (CANARIE) architecture and drove the design of Universal Commerce Language and Protocol (UCLP). I am pleased to see that Internet2’s Open Science, Scholarship and Services Exchange (OS3E) (http://www.internet2.edu/network/ose/) is a similar strategy in this regard.

The driver for these developments, of course, is the demand of big science. But just as importantly OLEs will enable a new wave in network innovation with such new concepts as “software defined networks,” “Just in time networking,” “network as a service,” “pay as you go networking,” etc. OLE architecture is also a fundamental underpinning for zero carbon networks like the GreenStar Network which is based on a hub (OLE) and spoke model.

Financial Challenges

No question OLEs may cause serious financial challenges for many regional networks and NRENs, as institutions and researchers need only pay for direct costs of interconnecting at an OLE as opposed to a bundled membership package.

But I still believe there will be a critical role for R&E networks of all types. In the future the major focus of their revenue I believe will not be in provisioning pipes or IP networks, but in new network services such as national 5G wireless initiatives, content peering and distribution, outsourcing campus IT and managing science DMZ, energy CO2 reduction services in relocating data centers to remote locations, supporting continent-wide or global cyber-infrastructure or e-Infrastructure.

What are the implications of the OLE concept for Canadian R&E networks?

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About the author

Bill St. Arnaud, formerly a Chief Research Officer at CANARIE, is a Green IT consultant who works with clients on a variety of subjects such as the next generation Internet and practical solutions to reduce GHG emissions such as free broadband and electrical highways. He currently also works as a consultant at CANARIE.

Disturb. Dislocate. Disorder. Disrupt?

Contributing author: Bill St. Arnaud

Some argue that the role of Research & Education (R&E) networks should only be as a low-cost Internet service provider to the R&E community.

Others counter that R&E networks should focus on providing services to support e-Science and perhaps even integrate with other e-Infrastructure providers such as High-Performance Computing (HPC) and grid.

And yet still others argue that R&E networks should work closely with industry by providing testbeds to develop and/or improve industry products and enable commercialization of university R&D.

In my opinion R&E networks can play far more important role, first in supporting e-Science, but also in helping industry and creating a knowledge society by being an innovative “disrupter.” This is where R&E networks have been hugely successful in the past:

• first in the build out of the original Internet,
• next in deployment of low-cost user-owned fibre networks,
• and more recently in areas of new architecture for low-carbon Internet networks and global authentication schemes.

These disruptive developments were first intended, in many cases, to support the needs of science, but also had a beneficial effect of creating new network business models and enabling knowledge transformation of society as a whole.

I am pleased to see that we are now on the verge of another disruptive change with respect to R&E networks.

Once again, while these network transformations are first being driven by the needs of eScience the network architectures are starting already to have a beneficial effect on broadband architectures in general. A good example, of course, is the unique facilitation role that Internet2 is playing in the rollout of national broadband through its partnership in UCAN. Other examples include the deployment of community transit exchange points by BCNET and peering points by KAREN in New Zealand.

Do you see R&E networks as disruptive technologies?

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About the author

Bill St. Arnaud, formerly a Chief Research Officer at CANARIE, is a Green IT consultant who works with clients on a variety of subjects such as the next generation Internet and practical solutions to reduce GHG emissions such as free broadband and electrical highways. He currently also works as a consultant at CANARIE.

Innovating our policies along with our practices

Richard Hawkins speaking on innovation policy at the Tech Futures Summit.

An interesting conversation was happening today at the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures Summit. Richard Hawkins, University of Calgary Professor and Canada Research Chair in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, presented on how to determine whether or not innovation policies are working.

He talked about how one of the challenges faced by government-sponsored innovation programs is to demonstrate impact from public investment, especially in the short to medium term. Unfortunately, that is not always enough time to collect conclusive data or tangible results.

According to Hawkins, the solution to this un-complementary fit is to re-calibrate performance expectations and broaden our measurements. These days, we should be looking at program impacts on multiple and different parts of the innovation system, including the social and economic sectors.

Also, developing more technology should be a means, not an end, he said. “There is no shortage of technology, but there is a shortage of innovation,” Hawkins said. Policies that focus on simply producing technology rather than deploying it are missing the point.

So, shifting our perspective from technology as the innovation to technology as the conduit (or “platform”, to give a pointed nod to CANARIE’s Network-Enabled Platforms Program as an example), we see that innovation and the resulting impacts are then driven by who uses the technology, what they use it for, and how that changes what they were doing before.

As innovation is built around change and disruption, it makes sense that our policies and policy-building approaches should evolve in response. Measuring short-term impacts will always be a challenge, but if we change what we’re looking at and where we’re looking for it, that can help uncover new measures of success.

What are your thoughts? Do current metrics accurately measure innovation impacts? If not, how should policies change? Please leave your comments below.

The RISQ is in great shape!

La version française suit – French version follows

Québec’s roads network may be giving motorists plenty of headaches, but judging by the successes of the most recent projects spearheaded by the Réseau d’informations scientifiques du Québec (RISQ), its network is as reliable and robust as ever. No doubt about it, the RISQ is in great shape!

Demands and expectations in telecommunications, a sector in the midst of sweeping changes, are increasing all the time. As is well known, in the space of a few decades, the telecom industry has seen a massive shift from analog systems to distributed digital technology.

One of the goals of the RISQ is to track, and even anticipate, when possible, the fast-paced evolution of telecommunications technologies; another is to respond to the specific needs of its members.

Three projects are deserving of particular attention as proof that the RISQ is forging ahead in these directions. Each reflects the new demands of telecommunications and new technologies, and each is a unifying project that stakeholders can rally around. One involves an institution of higher learning, and the other two are emblematic of the cultural and social vitality of Québec youth, in the performing arts and sports spheres respectively.

PoP implemented at the Cité du Savoir

 On June 11, the RISQ team proceeded to implement a point of presence (PoP) at the Cité du Savoir in Laval. With this connection, the  Université de Montréal campus set to open its doors in the fall of 2011 will be able to provide future users with access to all of the varied  content sources offered through the RISQ network. The multi-wavelength infrastructure will deliver high-level performance, enabling  Université de Montréal to operate an active backup site using four separate 10 Gbps wavelengths.

This new PoP brings significant benefits for all RISQ members. Each new PoP added actually increases the network’s robustness. This also  allows for provision of alternate access to members located off the Island of Montréal. Lastly, traffic is less dense, allowing the network to  retain its full flexibility.

CMIM 2011: RISQ lends expertise to Radio-Canada

 For this mandate, with the collaboration of Université du Québec à Montréal, the RISQ team installed equipment in the Pierre-Mercure concert hall of  Centre Pierre-Péladeau to assist Radio-Canada (the CBC’s French network) with its live Web broadcast of the Concours de musique international de  Montréal (CMIM) over the RISQ.

The interconnection made in the concert hall allowed Radio-Canada to broadcast performances by contestants in the music competition, held from May 23  to June 3, 2011, to several countries around the world, while ensuring superior stability, a high bit rate and very large upload and download capacities.  Mario Haché, Support Analyst with CBC/Radio-Canada Internet and Digital Services, said: “For this live-broadcast event, the RISQ enabled us to deliver  clear, fast and very fluid data transmissions to our Web users.”

The CMIM, which brings together the ideal conditions to ensure the highest possible level of artistry and an international reach as broad as it is  exceptional, is today considered as one of the country’s great artistic achievements.

2011 Québec Winter Games: RISQ gets into the sporting spirit

For its 46th edition, the Québec Winter Games in Valleyfield built an interactive website to ensure it could properly meet the informational needs of its various audiences. Online games and contests, webcasting—with live coverage of events provided on up to seven different channels at once—a photo gallery and an interactive zone were all accessible on the website throughout the nine days of the Games, from February 25 to March 7, 2011.

To meet the requirements of the organizers, participants and the many Web users, the RISQ installed a dedicated router with a 1 Gbps connection, ensuring maximum stability and sufficient bandwidth capacity to respond to user needs—for example, friends and relatives following the exploits of the young athletes on the site via live webcast.

This marks the second time that the RISQ has partnered with an event of this type. Up to now, the realm of sports events has been seldom served by the RISQ. Given the importance of sport for young people, the RISQ hopes to respond to needs from such clients more often in the future. In addition, this project allowed the RISQ to broaden its services a little more and, once again, to confirm the stability and reliability of its network.

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Le RISQ est en grande forme !

Au Québec, pendant que le réseau routier donne des maux de têtes aux automobilistes, le succès remporté par les derniers projets du Réseau d’informations scientifiques du Québec (RISQ) prouve que son réseau est toujours aussi fiable et robuste. Le RISQ est en grande forme !

Les exigences et les attentes en matière de télécoms, un secteur en pleine mutation, sont de plus en plus grandes. On le sait, en quelques décennies seulement, ce secteur est passé d’une technologie analogique à une technologie numérique et distribuée.

L’un des objectifs du RISQ est de suivre, et même de précéder, quand c’est possible de le faire, l’évolution rapide des technologies de télécommunications, mais également de répondre aux besoins particuliers de ses membres.

Pour poursuivre sur cette lancée, trois projets méritent une attention particulière. Ils reflètent les nouvelles exigences en matière de télécommunications et de nouvelles technologies et ont tous les trois en commun d’être des projets rassembleurs. L’un est un haut lieu du savoir, les deux autres sont des emblèmes de la vitalité culturelle et sociale de la jeunesse québécoise.

Implantation d’un PoP à la Cité du Savoir

 Le 11 juin dernier l’équipe du RISQ a procédé à la mise en place d’un point de présence à La Cité du Savoir à Laval.

Grâce à ce raccordement, le campus de l’Université de Montréal, qui ouvrira ses portes à l’automne 2011, pourra offrir à ses futurs  usagers un accès aux diverses sources de contenus offertes par le biais du réseau du RISQ. L’infrastructure multilongueur d’ondes  fournira une performance de haut niveau qui permettra à l’Université de Montréal de disposer d’un site de relève actif utilisant quatre  longueurs d’ondes à 10 Gbps.

Ce nouveau point de présence ou PoP comporte des avantages notables pour l’ensemble des membres du RISQ. Chaque point de présence  supplémentaire permet de renforcer le réseau en augmentant sa robustesse. Cela permet également d’offrir un accès alternatif aux  membres localisés à l’extérieur de l’île de Montréal. Enfin, le trafic est mieux aéré et le réseau conserve ainsi toute sa flexibilité.

CMIM 2011 : Le RISQ offre son expertise à Radio-Canada

 
 Dans le cadre de ce mandat, grâce à la collaboration de l’UQÀM, l’équipe du RISQ a installé des équipements à la salle Pierre-Mercure du  Centre Pierre-  Péladeau afin de permettre à Radio-Canada de diffuser en direct le Concours de musique international de Montréal (CMIM)  en utilisant le RISQ.

Le branchement effectué à la salle Pierre-Mercure a permis  à Radio-Canada de diffuser du 23 mai au 3 juin 2011 les prestations des  participants au  concours dans de nombreux pays du monde, tout en bénéficiant d’une grande stabilité, d’un débit élevé et d’une grande  capacité de téléchargement et de  téléversement. Selon l’analyste de soutien Internet et services numériques de la SRC, Mario Haché, «  L’événement était diffusé en direct. Le RISQ nous a  permis d’offrir à nos internautes une transmission de l’événement claire, rapide et très  fluide ». Le Concours, qui réunit les conditions idéales pour se  situer au plus haut niveau artistique et s’assurer un rayonnement aussi  vaste qu’exceptionnel est aujourd’hui considéré comme l’une des grandes  réalisations artistiques du pays.

 Jeux du Québec Hiver 2011 : le RISQ a l’esprit sportif !

La 46^e Finale des Jeux du Québec s’est dotée d’un site Internet interactif de manière à pouvoir répondre aux besoins informationnels de ses différents publics. Jeux, concours, web diffusion ─ Jusqu’à sept chaînes différentes diffusaient les Jeux en direct ─, galerie de photos, et une zone interactive étaient accessibles sur le site Internet des Jeux du Québec de Valleyfield durant les neuf jours de l’événement qui avait lieu du 25 février au 7 mars 2011.

Pour répondre aux besoins des organisateurs, des participants et des nombreux internautes, le RISQ a installé un routeur dédié avec un lien d’un Gbps pour favoriser le plus de stabilité possible et une capacité en bande passante capable de répondre aux besoins des utilisateurs, tels les parents et amis, par exemple, qui pouvaient suivre les prouesses des jeunes athlètes directement sur le site Internet par le biais de la webdiffusion.

C’est la seconde fois que le RISQ s’associe à un tel événement. Jusqu’à ce jour, ce secteur a été  peu desservi par le RISQ. En raison de l’importance que cela a pour la jeunesse, le RISQ souhaite pouvoir y répondre davantage dans le futur. Par ailleurs, ce projet a permis d’étendre encore un peu plus les services du RISQ et, encore une fois, de confirmer la stabilité et la fiabilité du réseau.

Ontario researchers monitor vineyards in real time

Imagine being a grape grower and being able to check on any one vine at any given time. Or being able to know exactly when to spray pesticides to protect the crops – or not.

University and college researchers have partnered with Ontario vineyards to supply them with real-time weather forecast information based on regional data sources. Part of this collaboration uses newly developed sensor technology that will continuously report on variables such as temperature and humidity in each participating vineyard.

Each individual vine in each vineyard has been GPS located, tagged and recorded into a database of the PrAgMatic system developed by Niagara Research at Niagara College. Large datasets collected by sensors are three-dimensionally mapped, and researchers involved in the project at other institutions are able to access the results over ORION, Ontario’s advanced research and education network. Vineyard owners are then able to access real-time, remote-sensed data that allows them to better manage and control operations, inputs and yields.

One of the goals of this project is to tell growers in real time if and when they need to spray pesticides and other agrochemicals. Research results may save growers time and money, improve the taste of Ontario wines, and improve vineyards’ impact on the environment by reducing the overall use of agrochemicals.

The recipient of this year’s ORION Discovery Award, the PrAgMatic project includes a collaboration of researchers from Niagara College, Brock University, the University of Guelph, Nova Scotia Community College, and Queen’s University, as well as partners from the Grape Growers of Ontario, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), and IBM Research.  The project has been supported by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

“Over the next few years, the ORION network will be very useful in allowing us to share these massive datasets with our expanding family of collaborators,” says Dr. Michael Duncan, Chair, Visualization Sciences at Niagara College. “The most data intensive applications will involve the sensor networks – as they kick in, the data volumes will become huge.”

The PrAgMatic data management system collects, processes and disseminates data and information to growers and researchers. The system consists of numerous ‘channels’, each representing a view into a vineyard’s data-space. Researchers involved in vineyard research are able to take their research results and encapsulate them as a channel that provides a grower with a view into their own vineyard.

“It is very Web 2.0 oriented,” says Duncan, “and very reliant on network bandwidth and latency to make the whole thing look integrated. The more robust the network, the more cohesive PrAgMatic will look – another advantage of using ORION.”