RNP - Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa

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PlanetLab. A virtual laboratory for networking research.

Planet Lab at RNP

Planet Lab is a virtual laboratory for experimenting with new technologies and network protocols. It was inaugurated in 2002, having Intel, HP and Google as partners, and today it has over 500 knots hosted in 275 addresses, permitting the development of network projects that could hardly be carried out in ordinary institutions. Thus, it constitutes a great vehicle of application distribution and allows organizations to get in touch with the environment of other centers and research studies all over the world.

The National Education and Research Network (Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa - RNP) became a partner of this project in 2004, with the implantation of three knots in the points of presence (PoPs) of Ipê network in Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and Rio Grande do Sul. The six pieces of equipment installed in the PoPs (two for each one) were donated by Intel.

RNP has a set of slices in Planet Lab, to be distributed among its users. From a slice, it is possible to have access to all the knots that make up Planet Lab’s network.

Each slice lasts two months, but this period can be renewed. In the slices, each user puts his application and assembles his own network, connecting to other knots spread all over the world. The institutions using the Brazilian academic network can have access to this environment through RNP, by submitting a project proposal.

Since resources are limited, the requests will be evaluated by the National Laboratory of Computer Networks (Larc). Once the project is approved, a slice will be generated to host it. As many accounts as necessary can be created in the same slice so that other participants can also work in this environment.