Background to TEIN2
TEIN2 has built on the success of research networking initiatives in Europe, Asia and other world regions, and the lessons learned from these initiatives.
The efficiencies of acting at a regional level have been well established by the success of other regional research networking projects, such as GÉANT2 and its predecessors, and the ALICE, EUMEDCONNECT and SEEREN projects. Connecting the Asian partners to GÉANT2 at the regional level offers major economies of scale in provisioning the connectivity needed. Furthermore, it significantly reduces the management overhead required compared to multiple individual connections between individual Asian partners and Europe.
TEIN2 also follows on from the achievements of current networking initiatives in the region. Demand for more advanced network connectivity was clearly established by the high use of the original Trans-Eurasia Information Network link between Korea and France (known as TEIN1), which was upgraded to 34Mbps and then to 155 Mbps to meet demand.
Other initiatives which are helping to provide intra-Asian connectivity are the Asian Internet Interconnection Initiatives Project (AI3) and the Asia Pacific Information Infrastructure (APII), while TransPac provides connectivity between Asia and North America.
A number of the Asian NRENs are also developing closer collaboration and interconnections under the umbrella of the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN). Established in June 1997, APAN aims to provide an advanced networking environment for the research and education community in the Asia-Pacific region, and to promote global collaboration.
TEIN2 has built on and complements these and other existing initiatives, to ensure that best value is obtained from the funding available. The project combines the expertise and experience of its European and Asian partners in building and managing state-of-the-art research networks. As well as connecting research communities in Asia to their counterparts in Europe, the project can bring the experience of its partners to bear in encouraging growth in national research networking in the developing countries participating in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) initiative.
