Core Facts
Students, researchers and academics in the Republic of Moldova will be better able to collaborate with their peers in other countries and participate in international research projects following an increase in connectivity between the Moldovan research and education (R&E) network in Moldova and the pan-European backbone network, GÉANT.
A 100 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) network link was installed between Chisinau, Moldova, and Bucharest in Romania as a 100% upgrade to a previous link. This boost in connectivity was achieved by the EU-funded Eastern Partnership Connect (EaPConnect) project and partners including the national R&E networks of Moldova and Romania – RENAM and RoEduNet, plus commercial partners Felix Telecom and Ciena.
The new network link completes the EaPConnect project goal of improving connectivity between all six Eastern Partnership countries and the rest of the GÉANT community.
The new Moldova link went live towards the end of February 2018, providing around 50 Moldovan R&E institutes, libraries and universities with improved network connectivity, access to online resources, and opportunities for international collaboration. A new cross-border optical connection provides two 10 Gbps channels – one for direct access to the GÉANT point of presence in Bucharest and the second for peering with RoEduNet, which increased connectivity between the Moldovan and Romanian R&E communities.
The EaPConnect project – led by the GÉANT organisation – is integrating the Eastern Partnership national networks with the GÉANT network in order to decrease the ‘digital divide’ between countries and facilitate the participation of local scientists, students and academics in global R&E collaborations. The other Eastern Partnership countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine – have all received project-funded connectivity links and/ or upgrades since EaPConnect began in July 2015.
Cooperation between the GÉANT community, including the national research and education networks RENAM and RoEduNet, and commercial partners was vital to the successful deployment of this new network link. Testing was completed on 26 February 2018.
Quotes
“We are delighted that researchers and students in the Republic of Moldova will have greater bandwidth to support their work and international cooperation in research and education. This enhanced connectivity will promote collaboration between research institutions in Moldova and international partners in various areas: the development of a regional distributed system for medical image data collection and processing for research purposes; AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) program data exchange; nuclear physics experiments data processing for ATLAS, CMS (CERN), JINR (Dubna, Russia), DESY (Hamburg, Germany); support of data collection and exchange in digital holographic microscopy; and joint computational experiments for crystals structural study and modelling. The improvement in the connection capacity is also important for international cooperation in education and will support access to international educational content for students.” Peter Bogatencov, Vice-Director Executive, RENAM
“GÉANT is pleased to help strengthen the bonds between Eastern Partnership countries, Europe and the rest of the world. We hope that this increased connectivity will support the growth of skills, contacts and knowledge in Moldova and across the region, and that this will contribute to the growth of international collaboration in research and education.” Erik Huizer, CEO GÉANT
“CIENA is proud to help the R&E community extend their network coverage and bring high bandwidth connectivity to Romania and Moldova.” Jean-David Fabre, CIENA, Head of Research & Education market – EMEA