The establishment of 100 Gbit/s network e-infrastructure begins within the HR-ZOO project
February 25, 2021
Today, two contracts were signed at the University Computing Centre (SRCE), which represents the establishment of new national e-infrastructure within the Croatian Scientific and Educational Cloud (HR-ZOO) project. The network component will enable a dedicated 100 Gbps connections among all HR-ZOO data centres, and at the same time will enable upgrade of the backbone of the national academic and research network CARNET.
Contract for the procurement of the electronic communication capacities and lines was signed with Hrvatski Telekom d.d., represented by Vice President for Corporate Sales and ICT, Marija Bačić. Contract for the procurement of active network and telecommunications equipment was signed with CS Computer Systems d.o.o., represented by President of the Management Board of CS Computer Systems d.o.o., Paško Labura. Deputy Director of SRCE and Project Manager of HR-ZOO, Ivan Marić, signed the contracts worth more than 18 million HRK.
"The new broadband network infrastructure is a prerequisite for building a reliable and robust national e-infrastructure HR-ZOO. As a result of the HR-ZOO project, a network infrastructure will ensure the connection of HR-ZOO data centres in Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka and Split with capacities of 100 Gbit/s. This will provide sufficient capacity for the needs of the national e-infrastructure for a longer period, enabling users faster and safer access to HR-ZOO cloud services and connecting the national infrastructure with the European and global infrastructures. At the same time, this continues the long tradition of SRCE's active contribution to the construction of the CARNET network, which has lasted, from the very beginning," said Ivan Marić, Deputy Director of SRCE and Project Manager of HR-ZOO.
The project activity of designing and establishing a new high-capacity transport network and its implementation has been assigned to CARNET, HR-ZOO project partner. A new transport network will connect all HR-ZOO data centres with transmission capacities of 100 Gbit/s, but at the same time it will expand the CARNET network service catalogue by enabling the creation of virtual private networks (VPN), whether it is a solution based on L2VPN or on L3VPN”, said Bojan Schmidt, Assistant Director of CARNET and Head of the project activity "HR-ZOO network connectivity".
HR-ZOO data centres are located in four university cities: Split, University of Split, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture; Osijek, J. J. Strossmayer University in Osijek, student dormitory within the University Campus Osijek; Rijeka, University of Rijeka, university department building within the University Campus Trsat; Zagreb, University of Zagreb, University campus Borongaj and and at the University Computing Centre (SRCE).
HR-ZOO network infrastructure will consist of two layers: a physical / transport layer that establishes physical connections between data center’s locations and a logical / service layer of network connectivity that establishes network services for the needs of HR-ZOO users. Connection are made respecting the principles of robustness so that each element of the network has redundancy to ensure reliability and also scalability, which means the possibility of future upgrades of interfaces and network devices to expand capacity or connect new users.
The HR-ZOO project is a strategic project in the system of science and higher education in which, in addition to SRCE, the following partner institutions participate: CARNET, Ruđer Bošković Institute, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, University of Rijeka, University of Split and University of Zagreb.
The total value of the HR-ZOO project is almost 200 million HRK, and the project is co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund in the amount of 85%, while the remaining 15% is provided by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia.
