E-SCIENCE CONNECTION POLICY FOR INDUSTRIAL PROJECT-PARTNERS
Background

Following the establishment of the UK e-Science programme it was realised
that the scale of existing JANET connection tariffs might discourage the
participation of industrial partners in e-Science projects, although such
participation was being strongly encouraged elsewhere in the programme. This
issue becomes particularly acute at higher bandwidths which many e-Science
projects are expected to need.

In response to this the JISC Committee for Networking (JCN) has approved a
policy recommendation which effectively reduces the cost of connecting to
JANET in the context of participation in e-Science projects. Details of this
policy are described below.
Policy

The organisation will be required to take out as a minimum a 10Mbit/s
Primary Connection to JANET at tariffed rates (assuming it does not already
have such a connection), and JANET(UK) will then discuss with the
organisation the provision of additional bandwidth suitable for its
collaboration within the project. It is expected that this would be
100Mbit/s or greater.

The cost to the organisation or project will be the incremental cost of
providing the additional bandwidth ‹ typically that of an enhanced access
link and associated equipment.

JANET(UK) will seek the most cost-effective solution to provide high
bandwidth and this will not necessarily be compatible with the service
levels which apply to normal JANET connections. This is not expected to
cause significant difficulties for projects but JANET(UK) will apply no
specific service levels beyond reasonable endeavours to connections
established under this policy.

The duration of any agreement to provide a connection will be tied to and
limited by specific objectives in the project.

JANET(UK) will need to verify that the organisation is a bona-fides
collaborator in a recognised e-Science project and will ask for a letter of
sponsorship from the relevant Research Council which supports the
requirement for enhanced bandwidth. This would typically come from the
Research Council's e-Science programmme manager.

Please contact David Salmon for further information or to discuss details of
a potential e-Science connection.