KISTI Builds the World’s First Secure Global Research Backbone
… Accelerating International Joint Research Collaboration

- KISTI and ETH Zurich Sign MOU to Build and Operate a Secure Global Research Backbone Network 

□ The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI, President Sik Lee) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ETH Zurich on April 9 to advance the establishment and operation of the world’s first secure global research backbone and to promote future international joint research. The initiative is based on SCION, a next-generation Internet architecture that addresses the limitations of the conventional Internet built on Internet Protocol (IP) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

   * SCION (Scalability, Control, and Isolation On Next-Generation Networks) is a future Internet architecture developed by ETH Zurich’s Network Security Group, led by Professor Adrian Perrig. Designed to address security issues in the current Internet, SCION significantly enhances network security. It is already being used in Switzerland, including by the Swiss National Bank and more than seven ISPs.

□ KISTI’s Korea Research Environment Open NETwork (KREONET) has been pursuing cooperation with ETH Zurich’s Network Security Group since 2017. Following in-depth discussions beginning in 2021 on SCIERA, a secure global research backbone based on SCION, KREONET of Korea, GÉANT of Europe, and SWITCH, the Swiss National Research and Education Network, have jointly built and are now operating the SCIERA backbone.

   * SCIERA (SCION Education, Research and Academic Infrastructure) is a SCION-based global research network that connects researchers across Asia, North America, South America, Europe, and even Africa. KISTI has established and is operating the SCIERA infrastructure over KREONET across the Asia–North America–Europe segment.

□ KREONET is a world-class national research and education network capable of transmitting massive volumes of data at ultra-high speed for big science, convergence research, and the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), quantum, and high-performance computing (HPC). Through this MOU, the two institutions will pursue △ the joint development and operation of SCIERA, △ the establishment of a secure science and technology research backbone based on SCION, and △ the development of advanced testbeds. In addition, the two sides plan to expand SCION-based international joint research through international collaborative research programs, including the European Union’s Horizon programme.

□ Buseung Cho, Director of KREONET Center at KISTI, said, “Through cooperation with the ETH Zurich SCION team, we will not only advance the establishment and operation of the SCIERA infrastructure as a secure global research backbone, but also prepare joint international research to develop SCION-based high-performance virtual private network (VPN) technologies between Korea and Switzerland, as well as between Korea and Europe. We will further strengthen practical research collaboration so that these technologies can be applied to global scientific and technological research fields that require highly secure and high-performance networks.”

□ Professor Adrian Perrig of ETH Zurich, who leads the SCION project, said, “KISTI is a highly innovative research institute in networking, and KREONET is a globally leading research and education network. We are very excited to collaborate with KISTI to build the world's first high-security research network.”

KISTI–ETH Zurich MOU Signing Ceremony

Architecture of the SCION-based Global Research Network