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RNP presents plans of technological innovation

Five years ago RNP started implanting a new Internet in Brazil with the "High Performance Metropolitan Networks (ReMAVs) bid ", sponsored by CNPq with the support of the Internet Steering Committee in Brazil. In 2000 RNP2, the first national high performance network in the country, was created. It is an academic network sponsored both by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education. This year, RNP invests once again in initiatives aiming at developing technologies and applications in advanced networks.

Some of these initiatives were made public in the panel "RNP2: Research and Implantation of Services and Applications in Advanced Networks," presented on May 23rd, during the 20th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Networks. Among them, there was the "Information and Communication Technology, Products and Services Applied to Advanced Networks " bid, launched by CNPq, with RNP's support, in October 2001. This call for projects aims at the formation of consortia for the development of new products and applications and the qualification of human resources. The people responsible for the eight selected consortia made a brief explanation of the proposed projects.

Another initiative worth of note refers to the working groups (WG) for technological prospecting in advanced networks. "We should have enough resources to finance four to five groups a year, coordinated by researchers from the academic community, with the participation of RNP teams," explained Nelson Simões, RNP's CEO. For 2002 working groups have been organized in the fields of service quality, voice over IP, directory service, support for collaboration via network and digital video.

Simões also presented two new projects involving the use of optical fibers. The first one proposes the creation of community networks, which can contribute to make access universal. The model predicts the union of universities, schools, hospitals and companies so as to construct and support, in the mode of a condominium, an optical fiber network for common use. The return of the investment would come in six to 12 months and the economy could get to 1000% of the costs of hiring services directly from the operators. The technology employed (Ethernet over fibers) wold permit the use of applications incompatible with common networks.

The other project is the so-called National Optical Initiative. It aims at promoting economic development through research and advances on experimental networks and their applications. The great technical motivation of this project is the possibility of eliminating the several protocols traditionally used by the telecommunications operators for the data flow in optical fibers, which make the process more expensive, and using the IP as the main transmission control protocol, permitting this physical environment to be better used for advanced applications.

These networks based on IP over fiber will allow the transference of technology to the companies. There is already a project gathering RNP, the Research Center of Telecommunications Development (CPqD), the National Laboratory of Computer Networks (LARC), Fapesp, telecommunications operators and manufacturers for the creation of an experimental network between Campinas (SP) and Petrópolis (RJ). The project, called Giga, will interconnect institutions with the aim of developing network technologies and telecommunications services suiting the new paradigm.

[RNP, 06.07.2002]