CESNET (Czech Education and Scientific NETwork) is developer and operator of national e-infrastructure for science, research, development and education in

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. The CESNET association was founded in 1996 by Czech public universities and the

Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back ...

. An important part of CESNET's activities is research of advanced network technologies and applications from hybrid networking, programmable hardware, metacomputing to middleware and video transmissions. CESNET fulfils the role of

NREN A national research and education network (NREN) is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country. It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backb ...

within the Czech Republic and represents it in international organisations such as the GÉANT Association (established through a merger between

TERENA The Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA, ) was a not-for-profit association of European national research and education networks (NRENs) incorporated in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The association was originally f ...

and

DANTE Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

), EGI and GLIF. CESNET is involved in the implementation of the European backbone network project called

GÉANT GÉANT is the pan-European data network for the research and education community. It interconnects national research and education networks (NRENs) across Europe, enabling collaboration on projects ranging from biological science, to earth obser ...

. Within the Czech Republic CESNET fulfils the role of a coordinator of large infrastructures involved in the field of information technology.

CESNET e-Infrastructure

The CESNET e-infrastructure is a complex system of interconnected tools that provides a wide range of services necessary for transmission, storage and data processing. These include, for example, performance computing clusters with programs used in many areas, a large data repository used for data storage and sharing, multimedia communication tools making cooperation between distributed teams easier, and other services. These modern IT services are used for scientific and research work, and for problem solving focusing on a wide range of disciplines which are not confined to natural sciences, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and computer science, but also include, for example, humanitarian sciences and art. The extensive e-infrastructure is composed of four basic logically coherent components: • high throughput communication infrastructure with a transfer speed of 100 Gbit/s (CESNET2), • grid infrastructure suitable for high performance computing, • data storage infrastructure, • infrastructure allowing collaboration between distributed teams and end user mobility. The CESNET e-infrastructure includes institutions such as public, state and private universities, institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, university hospitals, scientific and other libraries, technological and innovation centres and science parks, important cultural institutions and many other scientific and research institutions. The total number of individual users with access to the CESNET e-infrastructure in the Czech Republic is about 450 thousand persons. Thanks to a direct connection with

, the backbone network for science, research and education, and also thanks to a connection to research networks in other world regions provided by GÉANT (

Internet2 Internet2 is a not-for-profit United States computer networking consortium led by members from the research and education communities, industry, and government. The Internet2 consortium administrative headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Mi ...

and

ESnet The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is a high-speed computer network serving United States Department of Energy (DOE) scientists and their collaborators worldwide. It is managed by staff at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. More than ...

in the USA, AfricaConnect in Africa, TEIN in Asia and

CLARA Clara may refer to: Organizations * CLARA, Latin American academic computer network organization * Clara.Net, a European ISP * Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, a property development consortium People * Clara (given name), a feminine giv ...

in the Pacific and Latin America), the CESNET e- infrastructure even allows cooperation and operation of demanding and unique applications and

data sharing Data sharing is the practice of making data used for scholarly research available to other investigators. Many funding agencies, institutions, and publication venues have policies regarding data sharing because transparency and openness are consid ...

in the multinational and international scientific community. The CESNET e-infrastructure is included in the Czech Roadmap showing large infrastructures used for research, experimental development and innovation of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic.

History

During the 1990s, the so-called national networks for science, research and education were established in the majority of European countries, the aim of which was to serve the specific needs of scientific and academic communities. The beginning of academic networks in the Czech Republic dates back to 1991, when a mainframe computer was installed in the computing centre of the

Czech Technical University Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, cs, České vysoké učení technické v Praze, ČVUT) is one of the largest universities in the Czech Republic with 8 faculties, and is one of the oldest institutes of technology in Central Europe. It ...

, which was then connected to the EARN (European Academic Research Network) academic network. The transfer speed was 9.6 kbit/s, and it was the first opportunity to access the global network infrastructure from the country. In 1992, the transfer speed doubled and was divided into two independent channels. One channel continued to be used for the EARN network, and the other one was used for the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. The Czech Republic was officially connected to the Internet on 13 February 1992. The academic community showed a huge interest in being connected to the network. Representatives of universities and institutes of the Academy of Sciences met to discuss the technical solutions for the network that would be used to connect their institutions. The result was a project called FESNET (Federal Education and Scientific NETwork), which was supported by the Department of Education. After the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the CESNET project was modified, and the CESNET network was put into operation at the beginning of 1993. From 1992 to 1999 CESNET supported a commercial network, but this activity was sold in early 1999 and from that time CESNET was fully focused on academic networking.

Putting research results into practice

The CESNET e-infrastructure is being purposefully built according to the specific needs of the research, scientific and academic community in the Czech Republic (which differ significantly from ordinary corporate ICT support requirements). The development and gradual modernisation of the e-infrastructure is to a great extent the result of own CESNET research and development. The result of original technical solutions are several national patents, one European patent and three patents registered with the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

(USPTO). CESNET holds 18 utility models and is the author of several functional models and prototypes authorised software. CESNET, as a non-profit organisation, handled the actual transfer of research and development achievements into practice by establishing the spin-off companies INVEA-TECH a.s. and Comprimato Systems, s.r.o., and by concluding applicable licensing agreements.

References

Travel map showing large Czech infrastructures for research, experimental development and innovation of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports

Membership organisations of the GÉANT Association

Merger between Dante and Terena

GLIF member organisations

Participation of the CESNET Association in the international Elixir project

National Coordinator of IP mobility support and eduroam.org roaming

External links

Official site

Current members

Current network load

GÉANT Association webpage

Webpage of the European backbone network GÉANT
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cesnet Internet in the Czech Republic National research and education networks