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