GRNET

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GRNET is the national research and education network of Greece. GRNET develops and provides advanced services of national and international internet access to the Research, Academic and Education communities of Greece, with its gigabit GRNET2 network and the Virtual NOC supportive scheme. The mission of the Greek Research and Technology Network [GRNET/ΕΔΕΤ][1] is the provision of high-quality international and national networking services to Greek academic and research institutions and to the public and private sector in support of their research and educational activities. GRNET also supports Universities, Technological Education Institutes and over 9500 schools via the Greek School Network [2].

Additionally, GRNET:

• operates the Athens Internet Exchange (AIX)[3], which provides local interconnection (peering) among all major Greek Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
• provides international interconnection among the National Research & Education Networks (NRENs) of Europe and the Internet through the research network GEANT[4].
• manages / participates in a number of Operational Programmes, such as the e-Business Forum[5] and the Go Digital Training Support[6].The main objectives of these programmes include the promotion of Internet technologies, the exchange of opinions, ideas and expertise, and the endorsement of e-business knowledge accumulation, focusing on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
• promotes the use and the development of open source software products in Greece [7].

Networking
GRNET develops and provides advanced services of national and international internet access to the Research, Academic and Education communities of Greece, with its gigabit GRNET2[8] network and the Virtual NOC supportive scheme. The network connects 27 Universities, 15 Technical Universities, 33 Research Institutions and 12,673 schools to the Pan-European Research and Education Network, GEANT[9]. GRNET is also promoting the use of Broadband[10] technologies in Greece.

Grid Computing
GRNET's networking infrastructure serves as the foundation for advanced computing applications, taking advantage of the processing/storage clusters that reside in different parts of the country and sophisticated middleware developed by our European collaborators. The resulting computing grid[11] is the subject of the HellasGrid[12] national project, coordinated by GRNET. Additionally, GRNET is the coordinator of the SEE Federation for EGEE[13], the pan-European Grid infrastructure. Further on the international front, GRNET participates in the GRIDCC[14] EU project for the integration of scientific instruments and the Grid.

e-Business & e-Learning
GRNET supports national and international actions which aim at the integration of e-Learning, Internet technologies and their use within the Greek business environment, with a focus on Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). In this framework, GRNET coordinates the e-Business Forum[15] project, the project for the educational support of the GoOnline[16] programme and the EU-funded ELISA[17] project.

European/International Activities
GRNET participates actively in a multitude of international projects funded by the European Union, including [18]6DISS, EUMedConnect[19], EUMedGrid, [20]ForSociety, ACTION[21], and others, for the advance of digital technologies in Europe and the world.

South-Eastern Europe eInfrastructures
GRNET is being instrumental in the execution of regional and European projects which aim at bridging the digital divide between countries of the region and the rest of Europe. In this context, GRNET is coordinating the SEEREN[22] project for building a high-speed regional network which extends GEANT to all the Balkan countries, as well as the SEE-GRID[23] project to prepare the ground for the region to join the broader European Grid computing activities. Furthermore, GRNET is a partner in the SEEFIRE[24] project which studies the existing optical networking infrastructure in SE Europe, in preparation for building a dark-fibre network which will cover the whole region.