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SCION’S IMPACT ON THE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH SECTOR

The SCION Education, Research and Academic Network (SCIERA) provides universities and research institutes access to the global SCION network, enabling them to participate in cutting-edge research on path-aware networking and multi-path communication. This case study explores the implementation, challenges, and successes of SCIERA, highlighting its impact on the academic and research communities.

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SCIERA @ A GLANCE

SCION adopters: Research and education networks, universities, research institutes

Project start: Spring 2018

Go-live: Summer 2022   

Geography: Global 

Joiners: 1M hosts

SCION providers: GÉANT, KREONET, Internet2, NRENs, and more.

Certificate provider: OVGU Magdeburg / GÉANT

For more info abut SCIERA go here

BACKGROUND

The SCION architecture is designed to provide high levels of security, stability, and efficiency. By leveraging these advantages, SCIERA seeks to offer native SCION connectivity to 1 million hosts, facilitating innovative research and application development. The network is supported by software packages and setup instructions provided to participating institutions.

The primary objectives of SCIERA are:

  • To connect universities and research institutes with SCION technology.
  • To enable participation in research on path-aware networking and multi-path communication.
  • To provide native SCION connectivity to 1 million hosts.
  • To encourage the development of SCION-enabled applications.

Challenges for research institutions

  • Global collaboration requires quality connectivity across many institutions. In addition, several disciplines produce high amounts of data that need to be transferred quickly and reliably (e.g. high performance computing, AI research, physics, etc.) 
  • Data can be sensitive (e.g. medical, military research)
  • New research possibilities in a globally deployed path-aware network as SCION

SCION-BASED SCIERA: DEPLOYMENT STATUS

SCIERA is being deployed across five continents: Europe, Asia, North America, South America, and Africa. Key deployments include:

  • GÉANT: The pan-European research and education network with SCION points of presence in Frankfurt, Paris, and Geneva. GÉANT members can connect to these points via Layer 2 links.
  • KREONET: The Korean research network run by KISTI, featuring six locations globally connected through NetherLight, SingAREN, and Internet2.
  • BRIDGES: A National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project facilitating SCION connections via Internet2 in Washington and New York City.
  • SWITCH: The Swiss National Research Network, which offers SCION natively to its customers, including universities and research institutions in Switzerland.

SCIERA provides institutions with the necessary software packages and setup instructions to enable native SCION applications. A key solution, the SCION IP Gateway, allows even legacy IP applications to benefit from SCION’s properties. This gateway converts standard IP traffic into SCION traffic, enabling secure communication with data centers without requiring special software or knowledge of SCION.

Goals of SCIERA

  • Enable reliable telemedicine (as what was explored with Nanoflex robotics) 
  • High-speed multi-path bulk data transfers (as enabled by Hercules and LightningFilter)
  • Protection and secure access to data cloud services for educational networks
  • Enabling research and development leveraging path-aware networking and multi-path communication

Benefits of SCIERA

Data security

SCION effectively mitigates the risks of data manipulation and theft, which are typically executed through route hijacking and route leaks. With SCION’s robust architecture, hackers can no longer access sensitive education and research data, ensuring its protection.

Data compliance

When conducting national research, the threat of espionage is a significant concern. SCION addresses this by enabling geofencing, ensuring that your data remains within the geographic jurisdiction you specify, enhancing compliance with local data regulations. 

Network reliability

High data volumes often lead to link congestion, network outages, or vulnerabilities to Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks. SCION mitigates these issues with its multi-path routing and resilient design, ensuring continuous and reliable network performance even under adverse conditions.

A LOOK AT SCIERA TODAY

SCIERA has established significant deployments in Europe, Asia, and North America, with ongoing interest from R&D institutions globally. This expanding network provides a robust platform for collaborative research and innovation.

  • Enabling 250’000 hosts native access to SCION today 
  • Spanning across more than 18 institutions
  • Participating institutions include GÉANT, KREONET, BRIDGES as well as NRENs, universities, and research institutes, a.o. from Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, Greece, Estonia, South Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, United States, Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana. 
  • Offering security, reliability, and high performance to research and education networks

SCIERA continues to strive towards its goal of 1 million connected hosts. Future efforts will focus on:

  • Expanding the network to additional institutions and regions.
  • Encouraging the development and adoption of more SCION-enabled applications.
  • Enhancing the user experience through streamlined setup processes and comprehensive support.

CONCLUSION

SCIERA represents a significant advancement in academic networking, offering secure, efficient, and innovative connectivity solutions. 

By connecting universities and research institutes globally, the network facilitates groundbreaking research and application development. The ongoing expansion and ambitious goals of SCIERA promise to drive further innovation in the academic and research communities.

For more information about SCIERA and how to join: https://sciera.readthedocs.io/en/latest/join.html