New exchange in Montreal will strengthen the critical global communications network serving research and education

[TNC17, Linz, Austria]

CANARIE, a vital component of Canada’s digital infrastructure supporting research, education and innovation, today announced the launch of Canada’s first Global Exchange Point for research and education (R&E): MOXY. Located in Montreal, and operationally supported by NORDUnet, MOXY provides ultra-high-speed connectivity for the R&E community in Canada and internationally. The exchange enables researchers to collaborate with their peers around the world by facilitating the interconnection of global research and education networks and content providers. Made possible through CANARIE’s close partnership with National Research and Education Networks in Europe and the United States, MOXY connects directly to Europe, augmenting existing exchanges that connect Europe to New York and Washington, DC.

Benefits to Researchers and Research Institutions

As researchers around the world increasingly collaborate on advancing global initiatives, their ability to share and analyze research data becomes more critical. As the size of these datasets grows, so does the need for global ultra-high-speed network connectivity. The launch of MOXY in Montreal provides an additional North American interconnection point where research and education networks may openly meet to exchange connectivity, improving the resiliency and redundancy of global R&E networks. Additionally, MOXY benefits researchers by providing:

• A direct connection from Canada to worldwide research and education networks and their connected institutions, research facilities, researchers and collaborators;
• Added control over jurisdiction of research data: research institutions now benefit from increased flexibility for interconnections through North America.

“Canada continues to collaborate on global initiatives in support of the research and education community,” said Jim Ghadbane, CANARIE’s President and CEO. “Not only will MOXY boost the resilience of global R&E networks, it will provide further flexibility for how researchers collaborate and share their data with their peers.”

“NORDUnet is thrilled that CANARIE is now opening the first Research and Education Global Exchange Point in Canada bringing the Canadian, Nordic and the global R&E community closer together,” said Rene Buch, CEO of NORDUnet. “This is an important step in achieving the vision of a Global Network Architecture serving researchers, scientists, and students on a global scale and NORDUnet is happy to support this initiative.”

A Collaborative Transatlantic Alliance

To help accelerate innovative discoveries around the world, national and regional R&E networks have joined forces to meet the needs of the research community for world-class infrastructure. CANARIE is part of the Advanced North Atlantic (ANA) Collaboration. Started in 2013, the ANA consists of six leading R&E networks: CANARIE (Canada), ESnet (USA), GÉANT (Europe), Internet2 (USA), NORDUnet (European Nordics), and SURFnet (The Netherlands). Via the ANA Collaboration, MOXY offers dedicated 100Gbps connectivity to both the NetherLight exchange in Amsterdam and MAN LAN in New York.

“The start of MOXY in Montreal is a great step forward in diversity of connectivity between North America and Europe,” said Erik Huizer, SURFnet’s CTO. “It provides a broader range of options to serve the Research and Education community worldwide and also strengthens our long-term relationship with CANARIE.”

Steve Cotter, the CEO of GÉANT added, “CANARIE is a close strategic partner for GÉANT and we welcome this news. Research and education is truly global and to support this fully, national and regional research and education networking organisations need to work together to deliver a global research and education infrastructure that helps to accelerate research and enrich education. GÉANT will continue to collaborate with CANARIE and all our international partners to achieve this.”

“CANARIE has made a significant contribution to the capacity, resiliency and capabilities of the global research fabric with the development of MOXY in Montreal,” said Rob Vietzke, Vice President for Network Services at Internet2. “This new optical exchange will enable new research workflows not only for our Canadian partners, but also for all of the Americas as we collaborate with our global partners.”

Evolution to Align with Global Network Architecture

To ensure that global research and education networks evolve to support future science initiatives, a group of network specialists from R&E networking organizations from around the world collaborate under the Global Network Architecture (GNA) Technical Working Group. The GNA aims to define a reference architecture by developing a set of global principles and technical guidelines for collaborating, sharing costs and aligning investments. The design and delivery of MOXY aligns with GNA principles.

Connecting to MOXY

MOXY exclusively serves the Canadian and international R&E community. MOXY connections are available to:

1. Global R&E institutions (through their National Research and Education Networks) and/or
2. Commercial entities who directly support or offer mission critical services to the global R&E community.

For more information, please contact:

Ela Ienzi
Director, Communications
CANARIE
(613) 943-5432
[email protected]

About CANARIE

CANARIE strengthens Canadian leadership in science and technology by delivering digital infrastructure to support world-class research that directly benefits all Canadians.

Twelve provincial and territorial network partners, together with CANARIE, collectively form Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN). Canadians at universities, colleges, research institutes, hospitals, and government laboratories rely on this ultra high-speed network to collaborate in data-intensive, cutting-edge research and innovation within Canada and with colleagues in over 100 countries.

Beyond the network, CANARIE funds and promotes reusable research software tools to accelerate scientific discovery. CANARIE also supports Research Data Canada as it leads national research data management initiatives, and through the Canadian Access Federation, provides identity management services that enable secure, ubiquitous connectivity and content access to the academic community. To boost commercialization in Canada’s technology sector, CANARIE offers cloud resources to startups through its DAIR service, and links a powerful community of public and private sector partners in the Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN).

Established in 1993, CANARIE is a non-profit corporation, with the majority of its funding provided by the Government of Canada.

For more information, please visit: www.canarie.ca.