Networking Activities
- WP1 - Management of the Consortium oversees the project on all levels.
- WP2 - EVN-NREN Forum brings together experts from the radio astronomy and national research and education network communities to identify users and developers of dynamic light paths, assess progress in the field and determine what additional work is required for e VLBI to effectively use the networks. It will also identify other geographic regions of interest to radio astronomy but under-connected in terms of network.
- WP3 - e VLBI Science Advisory Group coordinates the discussions linking the science and the technology of e VLBI with possible operational and policy impacts.
- WP4 - Communications supports the internal and external communication needs of the project, such as dissemination of project results, interaction with the scientific press, coordination with astronomy organizations and outreach to non-scientists.
Service Activities
- WP5 - Cloud Correlation will develop high-speed (>1 Gbps) recording/transmitting capabilities for the full observation cycle. This will take advantage of the higher observing bandwidths available to the EVN within the next few years and will prepare the EVN for the higher operational data rates that will follow. This leap in e-VLBI capability will remove the current distinction between disk-based and electronic VLBI, creating a system in which all observations benefit from having a real-time component, while retaining the option to re-correlate the data at a later time with more telescopes and/or different correlation parameters.
- WP6 - High Bandwidth on Demand will encourage the adoption of dynamic networking technologies on a European and global scale, pushing the capabilities with e-VLBI and LOFAR applications.
Joint Research Activities
- WP7 - Computing in a Shared Infrastructure will create an automated, distributed correlator, developing the components of a real-time infrastructure that integrates network and computing resources.
- WP8 - Provisioning High-Bandwidth, High-Capacity Networked Storage on Demand has two distinct aims with a common storage component. First, it will explore ways to implement on-demand, distributed, networked storage that can match the future multi-Gbps bandwidth and petabyte-class capacity requirements of VLBI. Second, it will address the use of such high-capacity storage systems for the data archives of the future, such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).