Nordunet and Canarie partnership establishes new trans-atlantic polar network connections

NORDUnet, a joint collaboration by the five Nordic National Research and Education Networks, CANARIE, Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network and the NSF GLORIAD Project, are pleased to announce their new strategic partnership in the IceLink Project.

IceLink will establish a high-capacity circuit in the northern polar regions through Iceland and Greenland, linking the US, Canada, and the five Nordic countries. IceLink will provide researchers with efficient data transfer capacity on one of the most advanced networks in the world and give Iceland a long-awaited high capacity network connection. It also paves the way for additional connectivity to Greenland and The Farao Island with a capacity that, until now, was uncommon to this region

IceLink will connect the CANARIE Network to Europe through a new submarine cable traversing Greenland with a strategic connection point in Reykjavik, Iceland. The new capacity will provide CANARIE with a much-needed redundant path to Europe through a northern connection. Prior to IceLink, CANARIE’s only link to Europe was via a connection originating in New York.

CANARIE’s contribution to IceLink is a dedicated lightpath from its equipment at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland to New York. The IceLink project is funded largely by NORDUnet with significant support from CANARIE and the NSF GLORIAD project.

“CANARIE has always wanted a direct link to Europe and IceLink will provide us with a high-capacity, undersea international connection that, for the first time, will land on Canadian soil,” said CANARIE Chief Technology Officer, Éric Bernier.

IceLink’s connection in Reykjavik, Iceland allows NORDUnet-connected scientists to take advantage of the green, geo-thermal energy available there.

“The IceLink connection is a shining example of what can be achieved when international partners join forces to bridge a connectivity gap in until now difficult to reach polar regions linking global connectivity into the extensive network reach of the Nordic Research and educational networks,” said Rene Buch, CEO of NORDUnet.

CANARIE Inc. is Canada's Advanced Research and Innovation Network. Established in 1993, CANARIE manages an ultra high-speed network, hundreds of times faster than the internet, which facilitates leading-edge research and big science across Canada and around the world. More than 39,000 researchers at nearly 200 Canadian universities and colleges use the CANARIE Network, as well as researchers at institutes, hospitals, and government laboratories throughout the country. The CANARIE Network enables researchers to share and analyze massive amounts of data, which can lead to ground-breaking scientific discoveries. CANARIE’s network, programs, and strategic partnerships with 12 regional networks in Canada, and 100 international networks in more than 80 countries, stimulate research that delivers economic, social, and cultural benefits to Canadians. CANARIE is a non-profit corporation supported by membership fees, with major funding of its programs and activities provided by the Government of Canada.

NSF GLORIAD advanced science internet network was launched in January 2004 by the U.S., China and Russia, expanded in 2005 – to Korea, Canada and the Netherlands – and in 2006 to the five Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The network promotes new opportunities for collaboration and cooperation among scientists, educators and students. GLORIAD is constructed from a fiber-optic ring of light encircling the northern hemisphere —connecting universities and national laboratories with individual network circuits providing up to 10 Gbps. The network topology expanded in 2006 to provide several ring redundancies; it now represents a true “ring of rings” around the earth – providing richer bandwidth and redundant network paths for improved reliability.

NORDUnet is a joint collaboration by the five Nordic National Research and Education Networks in Denmark (Forskningsnettet), Iceland (RHnet), Norway (UNINETT), Sweden (SUNET) and Finland (Funet). It operates a world-class Nordic and international network and e-infrastructure service for the Nordic research and educational community. The five NRENs develop and operate the national research network infrastructures, linking together more than 400 Nordic educational and research institutions with more than 1.200.000 users. NORDUnet and the Nordic NRENS continuously work to develop and offer a range of services that comprise a high capacity e-infrastructure including GRID, Network Operations Center (NOC) and Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI).

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