Framing a Case for NRENs in the Longest Last Mile

By Elizabeth Leake, STEM-Trek

February 27, 2019

Michael Foley delivered the opening keynote at the recent South African Centre for High Performance Computing National Conference. As the lead Distance Learning Specialist at the World Bank in the United States (US) from 1997 until 2015, Foley’s work focused on all aspects of the development of the Global Development Learning Network. Now that he’s retired, he has more time to pursue his passion for photography but remains engaged with National Research and Education Network (NREN) advocacy on behalf of underserved regions.

Photo used with the permission of the photographer, Michael Foley.

“Once I saw a number of transatlantic cables begin to connect the US and Europe, I began to focus on the status of network development in Africa,” he said, realizing that anyone who wasn’t connected would be left behind in the digital age. He also recognized the need to help local advocates establish a case for NREN development to government leaders, donors and other stakeholders. In 2016, Foley published a report titled, “The Role and Status of NRENs in Africa.” The two-part report is available online.

“In many regions, an NREN could be perceived as a threat to local Internet Service Providers (ISPs),” he said. It’s important to frame a unique case for laypeople, administrators, legislators and donors in terms that each group will understand. “Don’t ask if it is sustainable; instead, ask how we can make it sustainable,” said Foley, who suggested that a public investment can support the development of NRENs as well as future accountability. Establishing an NREN requires a government commitment. In many cases, there is either too much or too little regulation. “NRENs must be perceived as being for the public good and university readiness,” he added.

“When building a case for an NREN, headway can be made by dispelling long-standing myths about science,” he said. “Many continue to think that scientists work alone in a lab; they envision a male scientist who is disconnected from the world, but these clichés simply aren’t accurate,” he said. Science is becoming increasingly collaborative and reliant upon diverse, interdisciplinary teams who use advanced instrumentation and share huge amounts of data across fast networks. He noted that research with the record number of authors—more than 5,000—concerns the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN) and the discovery of the Higgs boson particle. The Higgs boson gives other particles their mass, and without mass, there would be no matter. This discovery helped us better understand the forces that shape the Universe and would not have been possible if contributing scientists from dozens of countries lacked access to fast networks that connect them to the LHC at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

Much more than bandwidth; NRENs add value above what ISPs can provide

Unlike an ISP, the NREN pipe isn’t shared with commercial stakeholders. NRENs’ value added is their ability to offer vast service and resource portfolios developed by global research communities, for example: authentication (security); grid-enabled middleware; email services; digital libraries; content mirroring; cloud resources; access to federated and inter-federated compute resources; performance monitoring; point-to-point Internet protocol circuits for special applications; bandwidth-on-demand; dedicated point-to-point Internet Protocol (IP) circuits for special applications; and educational resources for human capacity development. “NRENs end digital exclusion and academic isolation by providing access to digital libraries, journals, databases and instrumentation that few of end-points could afford on their own,” said Foley.

Foley cited the “Seven Levels of NREN Development; Capability Maturity Model,” by Duncan Greaves (South Africa/TENET).

He suggests that NREN stakeholders can collaborate with commercial providers to incorporate commodity services. Since the future is mobile, together they can think of new ways to leverage mobile interfaces; this is especially true in countries where a large percentage of the population engaged with the Internet for the first time via mobile devices. Since many in these regions are also “unbanked” and lack the financial clout necessary to secure a monthly mobile contract, a SIM culture ensues where people access telecommunications and Internet services via prepaid SIM from a single ISP.

The price of fiber is high in many regions and continues to be a financial stumbling block. The World Bank supported NREN development in Somalia via the AfricaConnect2 program and the next-generation project, AfricaConnect3 (2018-2020), was just announced. This program has allocated 37.5 million euros to improve connectivity among African nations and European collaborators. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) supported the NEAAR Project, based at Indiana University, which will improve the pipeline between Europe and Africa via GÉANT. As for capacity-building, he credits the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) at the University of Oregon-US. With 25-years of experience in network skills development, NSRC has vastly improved the global network workforce pipeline. NSRC can also help universities upgrade switches and routers. “An NREN is only as good as its last mile,” said Foley.

Gray areas have not begun to develop an NREN.

He closed with acknowledgement that NRENs won’t do all of the work, and that human and analog factors must be addressed with an equal amount of vigor. Higher education institutions can help by encouraging the technical literacy of staff and employing champions of innovation who understand the importance of a well-connected university. “Invest in capacity-building to become more competitive and create ways to expand the use of dark fiber where there is local expertise,” he added.

The CHPC19 National Conference will be held December 1-5, 2019; the venue will be announced soon. Watch the STEM-Trek and CHPC sites for more information.

About the Author

HPCwire Contributing Editor Elizabeth Leake is a consultant, correspondent and advocate who serves the global high performance computing (HPC) and data science industries. In 2012, she founded STEM-Trek, a global, grassroots nonprofit organization that supports workforce development opportunities for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) scholars from underserved regions and underrepresented groups.

As a program director, Leake has mentored hundreds of early-career professionals who are breaking cultural barriers in an effort to accelerate scientific and engineering discoveries. Her multinational programs have specific themes that resonate with global stakeholders, such as food security data science, blockchain for social good, cybersecurity/risk mitigation, and more. As a conference blogger and communicator, her work drew recognition when STEM-Trek received the 2016 and 2017 HPCwire Editors’ Choice Awards for Workforce Diversity Leadership.

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion XL — were added to the benchmark suite as MLPerf continues Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing power it brings to artificial intelligence.  Nvidia's DGX Read more…

Call for Participation in Workshop on Potential NSF CISE Quantum Initiative

March 26, 2024

Editor’s Note: Next month there will be a workshop to discuss what a quantum initiative led by NSF’s Computer, Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate could entail. The details are posted below in a Ca Read more…

Waseda U. Researchers Reports New Quantum Algorithm for Speeding Optimization

March 25, 2024

Optimization problems cover a wide range of applications and are often cited as good candidates for quantum computing. However, the execution time for constrained combinatorial optimization applications on quantum device Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at the network layer threatens to make bigger and brawnier pro Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HBM3E memory as well as the the ability to train 1 trillion pa Read more…

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing po Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HB Read more…

Nvidia Looks to Accelerate GenAI Adoption with NIM

March 19, 2024

Today at the GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia launched a new offering aimed at helping customers quickly deploy their generative AI applications in a secure, s Read more…

The Generative AI Future Is Now, Nvidia’s Huang Says

March 19, 2024

We are in the early days of a transformative shift in how business gets done thanks to the advent of generative AI, according to Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, codenamed Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

Intel Won’t Have a Xeon Max Chip with New Emerald Rapids CPU

December 14, 2023

As expected, Intel officially announced its 5th generation Xeon server chips codenamed Emerald Rapids at an event in New York City, where the focus was really o Read more…

IBM Quantum Summit: Two New QPUs, Upgraded Qiskit, 10-year Roadmap and More

December 4, 2023

IBM kicks off its annual Quantum Summit today and will announce a broad range of advances including its much-anticipated 1121-qubit Condor QPU, a smaller 133-qu Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire