• To obtain Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) of 40 optical channels on a direct submarine cable between Europe and Brazil.
• To deploy two upgradeable 100Gbps links for:
  
  • GÉANT-RedCLARA interconnection;
  • Copernicus traffic.
• To complete RedCLARA dark fibre network and deploy a 100Gbps upgradeable network from Brazil to Colombia.

The Cloud Provisioning and Service-sharing Groupware Standards is the task of Work Package 3 (WP3) which is lead by RedCLARA.

WP3 Participants are: GÉANT, RENATA, RNP, REUNA, CEDIA, CUDI, RENATER, GRNET, CESNET, CKLN, UbuntuNet Alliance, WACREN, ASREN, TEIN*CC, NITC, NIIFI, CSIR, SURFnet.

WP3 Objectives: 

• To develop a model for inter-operation between NREN cloud application markets of participating world regions, based on cloud provisioning and taking advantage of applications developed and run by NRENs across different continents to create a model for a worldwide application market for collaboration tools and services.
• To choose or define the standards in order to make groups management systems interoperable across different federated environments, extending federations integration to facilitate authorisation, user interaction, and global group administration.
• To establish a set of standard requirements for cloud providers to increase security, quality, interoperability and privacy over shared resources and services in the NREN clouds.

Description of work:

Several NRENs in the world are working on cloud strategies that provide a secure market of services for their end users. Examples include SURFmarket, the CHAIN-REDS science gateways, and the ELCIRA project in Latin America. Most NRENs are focused on needs that commercial providers cannot fulfill, including privacy, academic specific services and direct NREN support. In this work package, the MAGIC group aims to generate a set of inter-operation agreements for a federated system of group management that will serve as a basis for collaboration application-sharing among the NRENs of the World. NRENs will have applications deployed on a continent working with the same group in other parts of the world. Applications will be group/community-aware and will be able to adapt to customers’ needs. Research and education communities will be able to schedule, authorise, share, or carry out actions for specific groups or communities, even if they are located on another continent.

In this task, the focus will be on coordinating a global set of core requirements which cloud service providers are expected to meet, covering the following fields: intellectual property rights and ownership, legal aspects, security, continuity, confidentiality, communication, billing and technical requirements. This work will enhance and facilitate integration between NRENs while maintaining a high standard of service and security.

Activities:

3.1 Agreements for a standard in federated group management (FGM Standard) and Application Programming Interfaces (API) for it.
3.2 Definition of a set of applications that will adopt the FGM Standard.
3.3 Recommendations for Service Definitions from a marketing point of view.
3.4 Pilot portals for Latin America and other regions as appropriate, incorporating the FGM Standard.
3.5 Definition of a standard for interoperability of cloud provisioning.
3.6 Pilot of Federated service provisioning between the regions in 3.4.
3.7 Deployment of a pilot Federated Cloud Service (FCS) model, for a set of NRENs in LA, Europe, Africa, etc.
3.8 Evaluation of the FCS by the user NRENs.
3.9 Refinement of the FCS using the feedback obtained from NRENs.

The second Work Package (WP2), as it name says, it is devoted to platforms for mobility, and is led by RNP.

WP2 Participants: RedCLARA, GÉANT, RENATA, REUNA, CEDIA, CUDI, RENATER, GRNET, CESNET, CKLN, UbuntuNet Alliance, WACREN, ASREN, TEIN*CC, NITC, NIIFI, CSIR, SURFnet.

Objectives:

• To promote, coordinate and support the effort to create in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia an authorisation and authentication infrastructure (AAI) for academic services and processes.
• To promote, coordinate and support the effort to create in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia an eduroam infrastructure and processes for researchers and academics.
• To create eduroam Roaming Operators in at least two countries per region.
• To create pilot identity federations in two countries in each region as a basis for further expansion through the region.
• To provide a local boot camp to develop federation and eduroam experts in at least two countries per region.
• To create virtual courses to be used by Federation and eduroam experts to provide local training in their own constituency.
• To provide technical knowledge and policy requirements to integrate new federations and European federations.
• To provide technical knowledge to create interoperability and interoperation with new federations.

Description of work

Benefiting from the Brazilian experience in the ELCIRA project, coordinating efforts to create AAI and eduroam in Latin America, RNP will coordinate WP2, aiming at the promotion and consolidation of the foundations for creating a framework for authentication and authorisation in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and for Latin America, CUDI will support RNP in the inclusion of new NREN and its members, particularly those participating in the SCALAC1 initiative.. The WP will be structured to enable other RENs to establish their own regional federation initiatives. This Work Package will also facilitate integration with the European initiatives under TERENA activities such as TF-EMC2 and REFEDS, and will make the necessary arrangements to make it possible to join the eduGAIN interfederation service.

The participation of the NRENs that will play the role of Focal Points is very important. Below is a description of members’ responsibilities in this WP:

• Project Leader (RedCLARA)
  • Select team members and, if cross-functional as the Core Team Leader, select Core Team Members;
  • Prepare project plan and obtain management approval of the project plan;
  • Assure that all team members understand their roles and accept their responsibilities;
  • Apply project resources according to the approved project plan;
  • Track and report on progress to project plan;
  • Keep all stakeholders informed of progress and issues;
  • Arbitrate and resolve conflict and interface problems within the project.
  • Manage the project Risks, controlling the source of risk and its mitigation strategy;
  • Ensure compliance with time and quality of deliverables.
• Work Package Leader (RNP)
  • Track and report on progress in accordance with the WP plan;
  • Analyse actual performance against the plan and make adjustments consistent with plan objectives;
  • Assure timely adaptive action is taken;
  • Establish and publish clear priorities among project activities;
  • Arbitrate and resolve conflict and interface problems within the WP;
  • Organise and provide in-class training to WP focal points;
  • Manage WP Risks, controlling the source of risk and its mitigation strategy;
  • Ensure compliance with time and quality of deliverables.
• Focal points (UBUNTUNET, CKLN, RENATER, ASREN, TEIN*CC and WACREN)
  • Negotiate the performance of activities with team members and their managers;
  • Arbitrate and resolve conflict and interface problems within the region;
  • Provide region online training to WP committed NREN;
  • Inform any issue that may impact in the WP or project goals.
• AAI and eduroam governance (TERENA)
  • Provide knowledge to create governance documents and processes to manage an AAI federation and eduroam.
• Committed NREN (all participating NRENs)
  • Implement AAI and eduroam in their respective countries using the knowledge of the online training;
  • Provide local online training to their customers;
  • Disseminate the AAI and eduroam for their customers;
  • Manage their federation and eduroam in the region.

Activities:

2.1 Analyse the regions that will encompass the project scope to design the best Federation architecture to be implemented per territory.
2.2 Develop and adapt training material for Identity Federation and eduroam deployment, supporting local language requirements as necessary.
2.3 Implement online training for Identity Federations and eduroam in an e-learning platform (NREN or project partner).
2.4 Identity Federation and eduroam training workshop for Regional RENs.
2.5 Develop and provide in-class training (boot camp) to establish identity management professionals in the region.
2.6 Implement the model selected in 2.1 for federation deployment.