The Israel InterUniversity Computation Center (IUCC), implements, operates and maintains the

national research and education network 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 ...

(NREN) of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. IUCC (Hebrew: מחב”א, MACHBA), was established in 1984 by Israel’s research universities and supported by the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education. It operates as a non-profit organization. Through its centers and divisions, IUCC delivers communication and network infrastructure services, digital information services, and learning technologies, as well as operating and handling all inter-university joint procurement and the legal aspects of operating Israel’s National Research and Education Network (

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 ...

). IUCC promotes cooperation in these areas among member institutions, and between research institutes and organizations.

Network

History

IUCC's telecommunications infrastructure was created in 1984 with a pre-Internet 9.6 kbit/s international line to the European EARN network. In 1990, the first international Internet line from Israel to the USA began operating, at a rate of 64 kbit/s. For a period of three years (1994-1996), IUCC operated a central node for

Internet access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...

for high-tech companies in Israel, as well as for various telecommunications providers (prior to the establishment of the Israeli Internet Society's central peering node known as the IIX). In 1997, the responsibility for commercial domestic internet traffic routing via the Israeli Internet eXchange (IIX) was transferred to the

Israel Internet Association Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL; he, איגוד האינטרנט הישראלי, links=no) is a non-profit organization and .il country code top-level domains (ccTLD) registry managed by seven volunteer board members. It was the second organi ...

(ISOC-IL), and in 1999 IUCC was connected to the

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 ...

network in the USA and to the European research network

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 ...

Network

The Israeli university telecommunications infrastructure is based on a dual-star, eight-node network known as the ILAN-2 network. Interconnecting the network's two central

points of presence A point of presence (PoP) is an artificial demarcation point or network interface point between communicating entities. A common example is an ISP point of presence, the local access point that allows users to connect to the Internet with their ...

(POPs), one located at Tel Aviv University and the other at a neutral colocation site called Med-1, is a

dark fiber A dark fibre or unlit fibre is an unused optical fibre, available for use in fibre-optic communication. Dark fibre may be leased from a network service provider. Dark fibre originally referred to the potential network capacity of telecommunic ...

link operating at 20 Gbit/s. Each of the eight Israeli universities in the consortium connects to both POPS via a primary 10-20Gbit/s and a 2Gbit/s backup link. These links are provided by Cellcom (primary) and HOT (failover). Automatic failover of these links is handled by the

Open Shortest Path First Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a routing protocol for Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It uses a link state routing (LSR) algorithm and falls into the group of interior gateway protocols (IGPs), operating within a single autonomous sys ...

routing protocol. The IUCC network is connected abroad via two 30Gbit/s links, one which runs from the Med-1 site in

Petach Tikva Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Jews of the Old Yishuv, and became a permanent set ...

and terminates in Frankfurt, Germany and the other from Tel Aviv University to London, UK. These links connect IUCC to the GÉANT network in Europe and through it also to the American research network - Internet2 and the wider internet. Additionally, the IUCC connects to the Israeli domestic internet using a

10 Gigabit Ethernet 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE, 10GbE, or 10 GigE) is a group of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. It was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard. Unlike previous Eth ...

link to the IIX, as well as maintaining smaller dedicated links to about a dozen selected educational and research institutions in the country.

Collaboration

IUCC collaborates with a number of organisations, both nationally and internationally:
PRACE

GEANT

External links

IUCC website IUCC NOC websiteMEITAL-IUCEL Inter-University Center for E-Learning
{{Authority control Internet in Israel National research and education networks