TechCARE: meet Lebanon’s NREN

5 June 2018 | Cambridge, UK

“Instead of trying to build the physical network so we can build the services and then collaborate, we decided to start collaborating so that we can build the services, and then we can build the network. We flipped it around.” Dr. Yousif Asfour, AUB’s Chief Information Officer.

“GÉANT welcomes the Technology Cooperation Agreement for Research and Education (TechCARE) among Lebanese research and education institutions and is happy to provide the Lebanese R&E community with the benefits from connectivity and services provided under agreements between GÉANT and AUB. We look forward to a continuing and growing partnership.” David West, GÉANT’s EUMEDCONNECT3 project manager.

In 2016, Lebanon established for the first time access to international R&E connectivity: with support from GÉANT and the Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN), the American University of Beirut (AUB) allocated 10 Mbps of its existing internet bandwidth to an ASREN link terminating in London, from where it interconnected with GÉANT, thus providing AUB with international R&E connectivity. Driven by demand and with support from the EU-funded EUMEDCONNECT3 project, that link has been progressively upgraded to 1.4 Gbps.

Two years on, Lebanon is now joining the global NREN community: on 28 May, five major Lebanese universities signed the Technology Cooperation Agreement for Research and Education (TechCARE), formally establishing Lebanon’s national research and education network. TechCARE will connect educational institutions within Lebanon and from Lebanon to the world, allowing for enhanced collaboration and improved e-services for the member universities and their communities of researchers and learners.

From the onset, AUB’s strategy in the NREN debate was clear: focusing on value-added services such as eduroam and eduGAIN and securing the commitment of a critical mass of leading institutions across Lebanon.

Read AUB’s full press release.

Background

Lebanon is a partner in the EU co-funded EUMEDCONNECT3 project which aims to connect Eastern Mediterranean countries to GÉANT, providing a gateway for international R&E collaborations.

GÉANT partners up with regional networking organisation ASREN (Arab States Research and Education Network) to support the creation of regional networks in the Eastern Mediterranean (through the EUMEDCONNECT3 programme) and North Africa (through the AfricaConnect2 project) and their interconnection with the pan-European GÉANT network.

Banner image: Representative of the 5 universities at the TechCARE signing ceremony on 28 May 2018 at AUB in Beirut: Father Professor Georges Hobeika, President of Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK); Dr. Amr El-Adawi, President of Beirut Arab University (BAU); Dr. Fadlo Khuri, President of the American University of Beirut (AUB); Prof. Salim Daccache s.j., Rector of Saint Joseph University (USJ); Roy Majdalani, Vice President for Human Resources and University Services of the Lebanese American University (LAU).