skip to main content


Title: AARCLight – New opportunities for South Atlantic R&E Network collaboration between Africa, Brazil, and the U.S.
Higher education and research science is being conducted in an era of information abundance. Sharing educational resources (e.g. Libraries, Curriculums, Online courses) and science resources, such as data commons, instrumentation, technology, and best practices, across national borders, can promote expanded global education goals and scientific inquiry and has the potential to advance discovery. Providing robust diverse Research and Education Networks (RENs) linking the U.S., Brazil (S. America) and African researcher and education communities is an increasingly strategic priority. Africa has developed research and education communities with unique biological, environmental, geological, anthropological, and cultural resources. Research challenges in atmospheric and geosciences, materials sciences, tropical diseases, biology, astronomy, and other disciplines will benefit by enhancing the technological and social connections between the research and education communities of these three continents via an S. Atlantic route to complement the existing North Atlantic routes via Europe. This paper will discuss the availability of new submarine cable spectrum for RENs via SACS between Luanda, Angola and Fortaleza, Brazil and the Monet cable between Fortaleza and Florida in the U.S. for use by research and education communities. This new infrastructure creates an unprecedented opportunity for the stakeholders to coordinate planning efforts to strategically make use of the offered spectrum towards serving the broadest communities of interest in research and education. The new links will be a foundational layer for the employment of R&E networks outfitted with leading-edge technologies (e.g. Science DMZ, SDN, SDX, cybersecurity etc.). The paper seeks to leverage a discussion of opportunities for a new R&E Exchange point at Luanda, Angola, other connectivity options, and to further promote discussion and identify synergies with UbuntuNet members. Florida International University and AmLight consortium partners are planning, designing, and defining a strategy for high capacity connectivity research and education network connectivity between the US and Southwest Africa, called Americas Africa Research and eduCation Lightpaths (AARCLight). Furthermore, the other “end” of the SACS cable is being connected to an Open Fortaleza R&E Exchange point in Brazil. The new academic exchange point, South Atlantic Crossroads (SAX), is managed by Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa (RNP), where AmLight connects and continues on the Monet spectrum to Boca Raton Miami Florida. Having the transport service opened in Fortaleza will allow RENs from South America to collaborate with partners in Africa with significantly less delay, (at least 150ms lower) than using the current paths available. Interactive high-resolution video and big data applications will benefit from the establishment of the SAX international exchange point in Fortaleza.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1638990
NSF-PAR ID:
10082234
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings and report of the ... UbuntuNet Alliance annual conference
ISSN:
2223-7062
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Higher education and research science is being conducted in an era of information abundance. Sharing educational resources (e.g. Libraries, Curriculums, Online courses) and science resources, such as data commons, instrumentation, technology, and best practices, across national borders, can promote expanded global education goals and scientific inquiry and has the potential to advance discovery. Providing robust diverse Research and Education Networks (RENs) linking the U.S., Brazil (S. America) and African researcher and education communities is an increasingly strategic priority. Africa has developed research and education communities with unique biological, environmental, geological, anthropological, and cultural resources. Research challenges in atmospheric and geosciences, materials sciences, tropical diseases, biology, astronomy, and other disciplines will benefit by enhancing the technological and social connections between the research and education communities of these three continents via a S. Atlantic route to complement the existing North Atlantic routes via Europe. This paper will discuss the availability of new submarine cable spectrum for RENs via SACS between Luanda, Angola and Fortaleza, Brazil and the Monet cable between Fortaleza and Florida in the U.S. for use by research and education communities. This new infrastructure creates an unprecedented opportunity for the stakeholders to coordinate planning efforts to strategically make use of the offered spectrum towards serving the broadest communities of interest in research and education. The new links will be a foundational layer for the employment of R&E networks outfitted with leading edge technologies (e.g. Science DMZ, SDN, SDX, cybersecurity etc.). The paper seeks to leverage a discussion of opportunities for a new R&E Exchange point at Luanda, Angola, other connectivity options, and to further promote discussion and identify synergies with UbuntuNet members. Florida International University and AmLight consortium partners are planning, designing, and defining a strategy for high capacity connectivity research and education network connectivity between the US and Southwest Africa, called Americas Africa Research and eduCation Lightpaths (AARCLight). Furthermore, the other “end” of the SACS cable is being connected to an Open Fortaleza R&E Exchange point in Brazil. The new academic exchange point, South Atlantic Crossroads (SAX), is managed by Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa (RNP), where AmLight connects and continues on the Monet spectrum to Boca Raton Miami Florida. Having the transport service opened in Fortaleza will allow RENs from South America to collaborate with partners in Africa with significantly less delay, (at least 150ms lower) than using the current paths available. Interactive high-resolution video and big data applications will benefit from the establishment of the SAX international exchange point in Fortaleza. 
    more » « less
  2. Linking South and North America via a South Atlantic high-performance Research & Education Network (REN) with the nations of Africa’s researchers, students, and knowledge sharing communities has become an increasingly strategic priority. Africa offers research and education communities with unique biological, environmental, geological, anthropological, and cultural resources. Research challenges in atmospheric and geosciences, materials sciences, tropical diseases, biology, astronomy, and other disciplines will benefit by enhancing the technological and social connections between the research and education communities of the U.S., Brazil / Latin America, and Africa. For many years, we have seen the dramatic benefits of high-performance networking in all areas of science and engineering. The Americas Africa Research and eduCation Lightpaths (AARCLight) project (NSF OAC-1638990) provided support for a grant to plan, design, and define a strategy for high capacity research and education network connectivity between the U.S. and West Africa. The study indicated a high level of enthusiasm to engage in collaborative research between the U.S., Brazil, and the African communities. There is collaborative interest in sharing network infrastructure resources in the US at AMPATH in Miami, in Fortaleza and Sao Paulo, Brazil where RedClara and ANSP connect at SouthernLight, and in Cape Town, South Africa. There is strong evidence of multiple ongoing domain science projects between the U.S., Brazil, and Africa that would benefit from a new South Atlantic link. The results of this planning grant successfully supported the need to light a 100G pathway using the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) connecting to AmLight-ExP in Fortaleza, Brazil, and via the West African Cable System (WACS) cable to the Cape Town, South Africa open exchange point. Based on these findings, AmLight-ExP , a high-performance R&E network supported by a consortium of participants and funding from the NSF is the steward of the SACS 100G link. With collaborative support from UbuntuNet Alliance, RNP, SANReN, and others, AmLight is taking steps to make this first South Atlantic R&E network path available to connect all three continents. This critical infrastructure establishes a new South Atlantic route to integrate with AmLight-ExP, adding resiliency to the global R&E network fabric by adding a new path to Africa and Europe from the southern hemisphere. The SACS cable, shown on Figure 1 as a purple dashed line between Fortaleza, Brazil, and Luanda, Angola, is the first east - west subsea cable in the South Atlantic. We will leverage network infrastructure in the southern hemisphere that is available to the R&E community including spectrum on Monet committed to the AmLight-ExP linking Miami, Fortaleza and São Paulo; a 100G Ethernet link on SACS; TENET’s capacity on WACS; the R&E exchange point in Cape Town-ZAOXI operated by SANReN (South African National Research Network) and TENET connected to WACS and the Ubuntunet Alliance Network connecting East Africa; and the South America eXchange R&E exchange point (SAX) in Fortaleza, operated by RNP and connected via AmLight-ExP via Monet to São Paulo and Miami. The paper will present 1) the key partners in the AmLight-SACS collaboration, 2) the activation plan, 3) how the network will be instrumented for performance measurements, and to capture data for network analytics, and 4) science drivers that will benefit from the use of a South Atlantic network route between the U.S., South America and West Africa. 
    more » « less
  3. Linking South and North America via a South Atlantic high-performance Research & Education Network (REN) with the nations of Africa’s researchers, students, and knowledge sharing communities has become an increasingly strategic priority. Africa offers research and education communities with unique biological, environmental, geological, anthropological, and cultural resources. Research challenges in atmospheric and geosciences, materials sciences, tropical diseases, biology, astronomy, and other disciplines will benefit by enhancing the technological and social connections between the research and education communities of the U.S., Brazil / Latin America, and Africa. For many years, we have seen the dramatic benefits of high-performance networking in all areas of science and engineering. The Americas Africa Research and eduCation Lightpaths (AARCLight) project (NSF OAC-1638990) provided support for a grant to plan, design, and define a strategy for high capacity research and education network connectivity between the U.S. and West Africa. The study indicated a high level of enthusiasm to engage in collaborative research between the U.S., Brazil, and the African communities. There is collaborative interest in sharing network infrastructure resources in the US at AMPATH in Miami, in Fortaleza and Sao Paulo, Brazil where RedClara and ANSP connect at SouthernLight, and in Cape Town, South Africa. There is strong evidence of multiple ongoing domain science projects between the U.S., Brazil, and Africa that would benefit from a new South Atlantic link. The results of this planning grant successfully supported the need to light a 100G pathway using the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) connecting to AmLight-ExP in Fortaleza, Brazil, and via the West African Cable System (WACS) cable to the Cape Town, South Africa open exchange point. Based on these findings, AmLight-ExP , a high-performance R&E network supported by a consortium of participants and funding from the NSF is the steward of the SACS 100G link. With collaborative support from UbuntuNet Alliance, RNP, SANReN, and others, AmLight is taking steps to make this first South Atlantic R&E network path available to connect all three continents. This critical infrastructure establishes a new South Atlantic route to integrate with AmLight-ExP, adding resiliency to the global R&E network fabric by adding a new path to Africa and Europe from the southern hemisphere. The SACS cable, shown on Figure 1 as a purple dashed line between Fortaleza, Brazil, and Luanda, Angola, is the first east - west subsea cable in the South Atlantic. We will leverage network infrastructure in the southern hemisphere that is available to the R&E community including spectrum on Monet committed to the AmLight-ExP linking Miami, Fortaleza, and São Paulo; a 100G Ethernet link on SACS; TENET’s capacity on WACS; the R&E exchange point in Cape Town-ZAOXI operated by SANReN (South African National Research Network) and TENET connected to WACS and the Ubuntunet Alliance Network connecting East Africa; and the South America eXchange R&E exchange point (SAX) in Fortaleza, operated by RNP and connected via AmLight-ExP via Monet to São Paulo and Miami. The paper will present 1) the key partners in the AmLight-SACS collaboration, 2) the activation plan, 3) how the network will be instrumented for performance measurements, and to capture data for network analytics, and 4) science drivers that will benefit from the use of a South Atlantic network route between the U.S., South America, and West Africa. 
    more » « less
  4. Bandwidth in the South Atlantic is increasing for the R&E community. In 2018, four events occurred. GEANT and CLARA announced an IRU with EllaLink, connecting Europe and Latin America . FIU signed an IRU with Angola Cables on the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) and interconnection in Fortaleza to the Monet cable connecting Brazil to Florida . AmLight-ExP announced an IRU with Angola Cable for spectrum from Florida to Fortaleza and Sao Paulo. The SACS submarine cable system started interconnecting Fortaleza and Luanda, Angola. We will report on the AARCLight study and status of network infrastructure via the South Atlantic. 
    more » « less
  5. Americas Africa Research and eduCation Lightpaths (AARCLight) is a project, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), to conduct a feasibility study for the planning, designing, and defining a strategy for high capacity research and education network connectivity between the U.S. and West Africa. We propose to report on the findings from year 1 of the study. The study focuses on the following four areas of inquiry: The planned availability of submarine cable capacity in the South Atlantic for use by R&E communities; the demand for network services between the U.S. and West Africa by the R&E communities; the coordination of efforts by the U.S., nations of Africa, and Brazil to coordinate planning efforts to strategically make use of the offered network capacity towards serving the broadest communities of interest in research and education; and the planned activities for human capacity development in Angola and nations of west Africa for the effective use of the inter-regional network capacity to support the inter-regional R&E communities. 
    more » « less