Wide Area Network

ECMWF Wide Area Network consists of connections to its Member States and Co-operating States and a high speed Internet connection.

Links to Member States

With the exception of the UK Met Office (UKMO) all connections to the Member States and Co-operating States are via the Regional Meteorological Data Communication Network (RMDCN). The RMDCN is a Managed Data Network connecting most National Meteorological Services (NMS) within WMO Region VI. Also some NMSs outside Region VI were connected. It provides any-to-any connectivity between the RMDCN members and connects 42 sites. It is provided by Orange Business Services. The network is based on MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) technology and uses TCP/IP as transport protocol. The main features of the network are:

• It provides a Gold or Silver Service Level:
• The Gold Service Level provides Class of Service mechanisms. Three Classes of Service have been defined: D1 class is for highest priority traffic and should get 75% of the bandwidth; D2 class is for medium priority traffic and gets 20% of the bandwidth and D3 class is for lowest priority traffic and gets 5% of the bandwidth. Please note that these bandwidth allocations only will take effect when the access circuit of a site is congested.
• It can provide Load Balancing for Mission Critical sites.
• Resilience is available in three options:
• Mission Critical: The site has got two diversely routed circuits to different OBS Points of Presence. The circuits are connected to two separate routers on the User Site.
• Extra Enhanced: The site has got two diversely routed circuits to different OBS Points of Presence. The two circuits are connected to the same router on the User Site.
• Enhanced: This uses the OBS NAS backup service which uses warm standby routers and ISDN dialup connections. This then creates a logical connection to the ECMWF routers which then acts as a gateway for the site into the IPVPN.

The ECMWF project team manages the network and monitors the Service Level Agreement (SLA) on a 24-hour basis for all participating countries and organisations.

The RMDCN is a private network open to the meteorological community. To join the RMDCN, new members must complete an "Accession Agreement".

For further information please contact the WMO.

Link to the Internet

ECMWF's dual Internet connection is a 350 Mbps (since January 2008) link to JANET, the Research and Education network in the United Kingdom. JANET has got high speed connections to the rest of the Internet, especially to the Geant network, which privides a high speed backbone between most research networks within Europe and to the US.

The Internet connection is used for a variety of activities:

• Dissemination of forecast products to organizations and non-member states
• Reception of metorological observations and satellite data
• Secure access to our compute and data handling facilities
• Support research and operational activities of ECMWF staff