To create a very high-performance digital infrastructure by 2025 on which Italian research data can travel: this is the goal of Terabit , a project financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan as part of Mission 4 coordinated by the Ministry of Universities and Research.
The presentation today in the “Giorgio Pisano” hall of L'Unione Sarda in Cagliari (piazzetta L'Unione Sarda, 24).
Managed by INFN Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, OGS Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale, Consortium GARR, and CINECA, Terabit is a strategic project for Sardinia because it will create a super-fast connection in favor of the entire scientific community of the island and, in in particular, it will connect the site of Sos Enattos, candidate to host the Einstein Telescope .
The event, which ended with a round table on the theme "The PNRR interventions as a driving force for the development of the knowledge ecosystem in Sardinia", was attended by the presidents of the scientific bodies promoting Terabit and the representatives of national and local institutions.
THE PROJECT – "In the next few years - said the president of Infn, Antonio Zoccoli - there will be an unprecedented wave of data ". Initially they are and will be mainly produced by scientific research centres, then by other sectors such as medicine or agriculture, finally by the industrial world. «The great challenge - added Zoccoli - will be that of being able to transmit data quickly, store and analyze them to extract value from them . To do all this you need minds but also infrastructures ».
Created thanks to 41 million euros from the Pnrr , the Terabit network "unites and enhances three powerful existing communication networks which now extends throughout the territory, also helping to bridge the 'digital divide' where it was still present, thus eliminating the differences in ability to access high-performance computing» explained Mauro Campanella , scientific director of Terabit.
The project was presented on the island because important new scientific research activities could soon be born right here, first of all the Einstein Telescope, a second generation gravitational wave detector, whose rapid distribution of data will be a fundamental element. «Terabit – concluded Campanella – is an investment for the present but also for the future . A network that represents the state of the art worldwide, capable of guaranteeing fast connections for at least the next 15 or 20 years and which can be further enhanced».
«Sardinia's candidacy to build the Einstein Telescope represents a historic opportunity for the island and for Italy . Today more than ever it is essential to implement and carry forward all the initiatives that can contribute to qualifying even more Sos Enattos as an ideal site to host one of the most important scientific poles at an international level» the words of the regional councilor for Public Works, Pierluigi Saiu. «In Sardinia - councilor Saiu specifies - the project will have, in particular, the objective of strengthening the ultra-broadband of the Garr network, a fundamental asset for the interconnection of research centers at a national level. We are talking about the technological highway through which, tomorrow, the data collected by the ET will also be able to travel towards the whole world».
THE INVESTMENTS – «The new network will integrate with the new fiber optic connection between the Sos Enattos site and the Garr network, for which the Region - the commissioner underlines - has allocated a loan of one million euros . Connecting Sos Enattos and the national and international research network at very high speed is strategic for the island's candidacy for the construction of the large observatory for the study of gravitational waves . The junta is then planning the resources for the necessary interventions on the provincial road network : 1.5 million on the SP73 for works on the road surface, half a million for interventions within the town of Lula and two hundred thousand euros for the entrance to Onanì . To these must then be added the resources for the planning of the further safety measures of the Bitti-Sologo". "We are playing a very important match for the future of Sardinia - the conclusion - the Region will do its part but, today more than ever, to reach the finish line, the maximum commitment of all the institutions in the field is essential".
(Unioneonline)