The Regional Meteorological Data Communication Network (RMDCN) is a specialised communication network supporting meteorological data exchange between 53 national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs) and other meteorological organisations around the world. The journey of the RMDCN is one of continual renewal. Run by ECMWF and now in its 26th year, we recently completed another Technical and Commercial Refresh exercise, designed to maintain performance and value for money.
History of the RMDCN
Before the RMDCN, meteorological data was exchanged using many bilateral links established between pairs of organisations wishing to connect their computer systems. In the late 1990s ECMWF proposed to replace this costly and complex mesh with a single managed service in the European region, to serve the needs of ECMWF and those of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Region VI. In agreement with the WMO, the service is also offered to Global Information System Centres (GISCs) around the world to enable reliable and timely delivery of weather data and bulletins.
During its first few years of operation, the RMDCN was built using leased lines and Frame Relay technology. In 2006 the network was upgraded to use Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP-VPN) – the backbone technology of the Internet as we know it today. This enabled the service to become truly ‘any‑to‑any’, meaning any site can choose to communicate directly with another site without needing to involve ECMWF.
Technical and Commercial Refresh
In 2012, the service evolved again with the award of a new commercial contract transitioning to a new service provider. To support longterm stability for the service, which was now an established and critical part of the global meteorological infrastructure, the new contract allowed for a periodic Technical and Commercial Refresh (TCR) to be conducted on a three-yearly cycle.
This exercise involves the provider of the service proposing either a bandwidth upgrade or reduced costs on a per‑site basis, with sites being free to choose their preferred option. ECMWF reviews the offer together with consultants familiar with the IP‑VPN market, to ensure pricing and technology provide value for the investment. Some negotiation may be required to refine the proposals to reflect current market rates.
As we have seen on previous occasions, this latest TCR resulted in an approximate doubling of bandwidth for the same price, reflecting progress in internetworking technologies in the intervening three years. The base connection speed for ECMWF’s Member Sates was upgraded from 20 Mbps (megabits per second) to 50 Mbps, with many sites opting to purchase more, up to around 200 Mbps.
By modern standards these are not high capacity links, particularly considering the size of today’s numerical weather prediction outputs. However, the very high level of reliability and security assurance provided under the RMDCN contract has kept the service relevant, providing resilience to deliver the most essential observations and products.
Many lessons have been learnt along the way by ECMWF’s Computing Department, procurement, and legal teams. The RMDCN’s contract envisaged a TCR exercise every three years. In practice, however, this stretches out somewhat, as the implementation of a TCR turns out not to be straightforward. For example, it can require significant lead times for user sites to secure budget approval to make decisions. The expected time to commission a service upgrade is approximately 90 days, but it can take longer. Occasionally, unexpected challenges are encountered, and with many subcontractors involved and over 100 connections to deliver and test, project management is key to a successful implementation of the TCR.
Future of the RMDCN
Times are changing, though, and to improve efficiency the WMO has developed WIS 2.0, a new architecture for information sharing within the weather community. Notably WIS 2.0 proposes migrating to the technologies of the Internet and the use of open-standard web technologies for data publication and exchange. WMO Members consider that the Internet is sufficiently robust and mature to support safety-critical applications – so long as those applications are built in a fault-tolerant way. Many NMHSs around the world are already using the Internet to support all or most of their time-critical and safety-related data exchange.
For this reason, the current RMDCN contract has been extended until 2028, but it is likely this recently completed Technical and Commercial Refresh will be the last. This year, ECMWF will carry out an internal task to survey readiness for WIS 2.0 among its community, and to consider any steps or service developments necessary to address gaps.