The key challenges for connecting Iceland to global research and education networking is the limited number of subsea cables, and the relative cost of using these cables.  At NORDUnet we work to ensure that Iceland has the same level of services as other Nordic countries, and that the Icelandic R&E community has the network capacity needed.

Data Centres in Iceland

One driver of network requirements for Iceland is major research data centres, located in Iceland to reach zero-emission footprint by taking advantage of CO2-neutral geothermal energy.

An example of this is a new high-performance computing (HPC) centre for meteorology, jointly used by the meteorological services in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Iceland, recently established in Reykjavik at the Icelandic Meteorological Office. Such a facility is critical to weather forecasts in Northern Europe and require significant network capacity for transfer of the large data sets used for meteorological computation. Data is sourced from many locations, and must be transferred from across Europe, just as results must be transferred back to the member countries. 

The 100 Gbps network for this new facility is offered provided by Icelandic NREN RHnet, with international connectivity from NORDUnet connecting to the NRENs of Denmark, Netherlands, and Ireland. 

North Atlantic Connections

To serve the research and education needs, Icelandic NREN is connected to NORDUnet at 3 x 100 Gbps. To ensure diversity, the connections across the North Atlantic go on different subsea cables, to Denmark, UK, and Ireland, respectively.  Two of these connections are on subsea cables that have been in place for some time, one to the North Sea coast of Denmark connecting to a NORDUnet point-of-presence (pop) in Copenhagen, and one to Scotland connecting to a NORDUnet pop in London.

The third connection is a recent addition, using the newly established IRIS subsea cable to connect from Iceland to Ireland, and in collaboration with Irish NREN HEAnet to a NORDUnet pop in Dublin. From here, a 100 Gbps connection connects to NORDUnet in London.

Three Independent Connections

The addition of the IRIS cable and the collaboration with HEAnet has allowed NORDUnet to fulfill the promise to all our members to have a minimum of three independent connections from each country the global R&E network. This is to ensure redundancy in situations with breakdowns or flooding of a given connection. Due to its remote location, Iceland was the last Nordic country to get three connections.

Read more about the collaboration to set up the IRIS connection here.