The European Research and Education Networks - Adoption, Usage, and Global Impact of Broadband Technologies - page 144

Grid computing has been defined as a sys-
tem that coordinates distributed resources using
standard, open, general-purpose protocols and
interfaces with the aim of delivering non-trivial
qualities of service (Foster and Kesselman, 2004).
The nature of resources being shared in the grid
environment not only includes file exchange
but rather direct access to computers, software,
data, and other resources, e.g., sensor networks
and scientific instruments (Foster et al., 2001).
e-Infrastructure enable such sharing of distributed
resources. The term encompasses communication
networks that bind these dispersed computing
resources and thereby facilitate e-Research. These
networks also provide high speed Internet access
to Universities and educational institutes all over
the world. In European context, these networks are
collectively referred to as the European Research
and Education Networks, or EREN for short.
The EREN presently comprises of 36 regional
National Research and Education Networks
(NRENs) that are interconnected through the
high-bandwidth pan-European GÉANT (GÉANT,
2009a) network. The NRENs are usually funded
through national initiatives. GÉANT, on the other
hand, is funded not only by the NRENs but also
by the European Commission through the GÉANT
& e-Infrastructure Unit. For example, the third
generation GÉANT project - GÉANT3 (launched
in December 2009 and funded till 2013) - has
been awarded funding of €93 million from the
European Commission under the EU's 7th Frame-
work Programme, and a matching amount from
Europe's NRENs (GÉANT Press Release, 2009).
The ERENs collectively provide the network-
ing backbone that enable e-Research in Europe.
There are presently over 40 European e-Infra-
structure and e-Science projects that utilise the
ERENs. These projects range from those focussing
on computing (supercomputing, grid computing,
desktop computing), networking, data reposito-
ries, scientific experimentation to projects that
are involved in creating global virtual research
communities, formulating e-Infrastructure poli-

cies and promoting standards. Although the focus
of this topic chapter is on e-Science projects that
are supported by ERENs, it is important to note
that the same networks are also used for providing
high speed Internet connectivity to further and
higher education institutes in Europe.
The focus of this topic is on broadband.
There have been several studies on the adoption,
diffusion and usage of broadband with regard
to household consumers and in the context of
several countries (Choudrie & Dwivedi, 2004;
2005; 2006abc; 2007; Dwivedi & Irani, 2009;
Dwivedi & Lal, 2007; Dwivedi & Weerakkody,
2007; Dwivedi & Williams, 2008; Dwivedi et al.,
2006abc; 2007ab;2008ab; 2009; Irani et al., 2009;
Khoumbati et al., 2007). In this chapter we focus on
yet another consumer of this technology, namely,
further and higher education institutes and research
centres in Europe. These institutions are usually
connected to ERENs which enable them to provide
high-speed broadband access to the employees,
students, etc. affiliated to such organisations. The
objective of this topic chapter is to provide the
reader with an understanding of the organisation
of the ERENs and to highlight the importance
of these networks with regard to the European
e-Science and e-Infrastructure projects that are
being funded by the European Commission. The
Commission's GÉANT & e-Infrastructure Unit
plays a vital role in this.
The rest of the chapter is organised as follows.
An overview of the pan-European GÉANT net-
work is presented in section 2. This is followed by
Section 3 that deals with the European NRENs.
Section 4 describes six current EU funded e-
Science and e-Infrastructure projects that utilises
the networking services provided by GÉANT and
the NRENs. Section 5 is the concluding chapter of
this topic chapter and highlights the importance
of the ERENs in ensuring Europe's leadership in
e-Science.