Europe–China network to transform collaboration

A new high-speed electronic network is set to transform collaboration between 45 million researchers and students in Europe and China when it goes live later this year.

Co-funded by the European Union, China and European National Research and Education Networks, the €4.15 million ORIENT (Oriental Research Infrastructure to European NeTworks) project should benefit all Sino-European research, including radio astronomy, sustainable development, meteorology, and grid computing, ORIENT is supported by the EU’s 6th Research Framework Programme.

ORIENT will connect Europe’s GÉANT2, the international research and education network, and the Chinese research networks CERNET and CSTNET on an overland route via Siberia. Scheduled to go live later in 2006 it will link over 200 Chinese universities and research institutions, at speeds of up to 2.5 Gbps. It will be coordinated by the research networking organisation DANTE in Europe and the CERNET network in China.

ORIENT currently has funding for three years, with 50 per cent coming from CERNET (from the Chinese Ministries of Education, and Science and Technology respectively), 25 per cent from the European Commission and the final 25 per cent contributed by Europe’s National Research and Education Networks.

A number of Sino-European research projects have already been established to use the ORIENT connection. For example, EUChinaGrid will extend the European grid infrastructure for e-Science to China, supporting the international extension of the European Research Area, while the EXPReS radio-astronomy project will see European radio telescopes connected to partners in China.

ORIENT will provide a complementary service to TEIN2, the Asia-Pacific research network which went live in December 2005. TEIN2 links ten countries, including China, at speeds of up to 622 Mbps. Each network will benefit from the connectivity provided by the other, increasing capacity and providing backup links in the event of failure.