16 March 1993
Frode Greisen
Ebone
-----
Ebone is a European international network backbone connecting research
network service providers. Connectivity is offered between these
networks, to the United States and indeed to the International
Internet. Ebone offers two services:
- an Internet IP (level 3) production service;
- an ISO-CLNS (level 3) pilot service.
Ebone is constituted as a consortium of organizations that share the
costs of to the management, operation, and funding of the network.
'Ebone' stands for "European Backbone".
The Need for a European Research Backbone Network
-------------------------------------------------
The requirement for Europe-wide network connectivity at increasing
bandwidth and for high-speed connectivity to US networks has long been
recognized. In recent years, this demand has focused on IP services.
Until late 1991 such connectivity was available only to individual
national and international research networks. With Ebone, network
interconnection is simplified, increased bandwidth is made available,
better connections are provided to the United States, and there is
greater economy of scale in terms of operations and transmission cost.
The Community Served
--------------------
Ebone focuses on supporting networking organizations which serve the
European academic and research communities. Through Ebone, European
researchers have improved access and higher-performance connections to
their colleagues throughout Europe and the United States.
Furthermore, by encouraging the participation of commercial network
service providers (e.g. PTTs, information technology companies), Ebone
increases the size of the participating communities, reduces individual
costs, encourages the participation of industrial researchers, and
stimulates the creation of competitive international IP networking
services in Europe.
Ebone complements other European activities such as EuropaNET, the
European MultiProtocol Backbone project.
Ebone Today
-----------
Ebone operates a core backbone between London, Stockholm, Amsterdam,
Geneva, and Paris.
1536 Kbps
US --------------- E Stockholm
/ \
256 Kbps / \ 512 Kbps
/ \
1024 Kbps / \
US ----------- E London E Amsterdam
| |
| 512 Kbps |
| |
| 256 Kbps |
| |
1536 Kbps | 256 Kbps |
US ------------- E-----------------E CERN
Paris |
US -------------------------|
1024 Kbps
Intercontinental links to the United States are provided from London
(1 Mbps), Paris (0.5 Mbps), Stockholm (1.5 Mbps) and Geneva (1 Mbps).
The European links initially operated at speeds between 256 and 512
Kbps, but the demand for Ebone services has grown such that the
Stockholm-Amsterdam-Geneva links are now being upgraded to 1.5 Mbps,
Paris-Geneva will become 2 Mbps and the Paris-US link will be 1.5 Mbps.
A new core site in Bonn is being set up and one in Vienna is being
investigated to support extension of the network to the Central and
Eastern European countries.
Ebone is managed by the Ebone Management Committee elected by the
participating organizations. Operational support is provided by core
sites and other sites in cooperation with Ebone Network Operations
Center at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm.
Development is planned by the Ebone Action Team which consists of
technical representatives from the participating organizations.
Background
----------
Ebone began in September 1991 when representatives of several European
academic and research networks met to resolve long-standing European
connectivity problems. Their approach was to evaluate existing
available links, to look for opportunities to bring these links
together quickly under a unified approach, and to make plans to enhance
these links. Contributions were secured, a management structure was
established, operational procedures were put in place, and an overall
contribution-oriented funding approach was agreed.
The effort was formally started in January 1992 and has proved
successful enough to continue. Ebone provides two types of service,
the provision of backbone services and interconnect services. Ebone is
strictly neutral and does not impose access restrictions on the
participants. In the years to come Ebone will focus more on the
interconnect (Global Neutral Interconnect) service as other backbones
come into existence, providing networking services for research.
Ebone is a not-for-profit cooperative effort. The participants share
the costs via an access speed based fee.
For More Information About Ebone
--------------------------------
Please contact Marieke Dekker at the RARE Secretariat (E-mail:
ebone@rare.nl, tel: +31 20 639 1131) or Frode Greisen at UNI-C
(E-mail: Frode.Greisen@uni-c.dk, tel +45 45 931420) who is acting
as general manager for Ebone.
Annex
-----
The following Member Organisations have formally joined the Ebone
Consortium to date:
ACOnet, Austria
ARIADNet, Greece
Belgium National Fund for Scientific Research, Belgium
EARN
ECRC
EUnet/EurOpen
FCCN, Portugal
FORTH, Greece (Crete)
GMD, Germany
HEANET, Ireland
ILAN, Israel
JANET/JNT, UK
KTH, Sweden
NORDUnet
PIPEX, UK
RedIRIS, Spain
Renater, France
SURFnet, Netherlands
SwipNet, Sweden
SWITCH, Switzerland
TIPnet/Telecom Finland