Dear All:

At the inaugural GNA-G meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, co-located with TNC19 last month, it was already mentioned briefly that a facility similar to ANA (Advanced North Atlantic collaboration) and APR (Asia Pacific Ring) would be formed between Europe and Asia. This is now a fact, FYI.

Earlier this week, during APAN48 in Putrajaya, Malaysia, eight NRENs signed the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) to create *AER* (Asiapacific Europe Ring). These are AARNet (Australia), GÉANT (Europe), NICT (Japan), NII(Japan), NORDUnet (European Nordics), SingAREN (Singapore), SURF (The Netherlands), and TEIN*CC (Asia-Pacific).

This ring-shaped facility provides resilient 100 Gbit/s bandwidth for scientists, researchers, educators and students on a path that has only seen 10 Gbit/s or less until now. AER provides a major step forward for Research and Education Networking, and adds to the GREN (Global R&E Network), along the philosophy of the GNA (Global Network Architecture).

A number of public statements have been made about this, e.g.: http://www.tein.asia/sub/?mc=6010&idx=2333&a=view http://www.nordu.net/article/fast-and-stable-network-ring-between-europe-and... https://www.nict.go.jp/en/info/topics/2019/07/22-1.html https://www.surf.nl/en/news/fast-and-stable-network-ring-between-asia-and-eu... https://blog.geant.org/2019/07/22/aer-secures-resilient-link-backup-between-...

Kind regards,

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Erik-Jan Bos Policy & Strategy Officer NORDUnet A/S - Kastrup, Denmark Web: https://www.nordu.net/