14 km of submarine connections bringing the ultra-high speed of GARR network to the Lido, a result of the collaboration between GARR, the City of Venice and Ca' Foscari University

Venice and its islands are more and more connected in high speed. Thanks to the agreement between GARR, the City of Venice and the Ca' Foscari University, the national research network has now landed to the Lido with a fibre optic link. The new connection that provides connectivity to the Palazzo del Cinema starts from GARR PoP (Point of Presence) at the Ca’ Foscari University in Dorsoduro and reaches the new PoP, the first on the Lido, hosted in a municipality site. The result is 14 km of connections (some of them submarines) and a capacity of 10 Gbps: a significant breakthrough compared to the previous link made with microwave radio link.

The submarine link was made possible thanks to the investment made by GARR and the Ca' Foscari University and the sharing of resources with the City of Venice, such as network infrastructures and equipment, with a view to create synergy across the metropolitan area. An important role was played by the collaboration with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in occasion of the European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP), which opened on 5 July 2017 at the Palazzo del Cinema.

"The collaboration between the various institutions in the Venetian territory" said Claudia Battista, coordinator of GARR Network Department, "is an outstanding example of how sharing greatly amplifies the benefits for all parties involved. On this occasion, GARR, Ca' Foscari University and the City of Venice joined forces to make a long-term investment and address the needs of its users with a high quality service. Our hope is that this model can be replicated again in Italy."

One of the objectives of the agreement is to act with a planning perspective. The network connection and the high-capacity Wi-Fi infrastructure of the Palazzo del Cinema and the Palazzo del Casinò at the Lido are an important attraction for the convention centre of the city which was made possible thanks to this agreement with VELA and Venis spa for the City of Venice with the contribution of INFN and Ca' Foscari University. In addition, thanks to the interconnection of GARR network with all the other global research networks, the convention centre increases its attractiveness also for high level scientific events, attracting researchers from around the world.

The connection of the Lido took place just a few months after the one of San Servolo island, which hosts prestigious academic institutions. It is a clear message that the collaboration between GARR, the City of Venice, Venis spa and the Venetian universities will continue to grow and, in the future, it might aim at extending the connectivity to new sites of scientific and cultural interest.