Trinity College Dublin announces the launch of the €1.3 million ‘Twilight’ project, aiming to revolutionise optical networks with cutting-edge digital twin technology, enabling rapid and disruption-free advancements.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science of the Government of Ireland, Patrick O’Donovan TD, has recently announced 28 funding awards valued at €34 million to support research across seven Higher Education Institutions.
One of the awarded projects is Twilight: Twin Lightpaths, A Digital Twin Framework For Full Automation Of Disaggregated Optical Networks. Marco Ruffini, Professor at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Principal Investigator in the CONNECT Centre, and lead author of the project proposal, emphasises the project’s transformative potential:
“Optical networks are the lifeblood of the internet. They must evolve to support the ever-increasing usage of the internet and digital innovations like Smart Cities and Virtual/Augmented Reality. Twilight’s digital twin project will ensure safe, rapid advancements without network disruption. We are grateful to Minister O’Donovan for supporting this important initiative. I would also like to thank our colleagues from HEAnet and GÉANT who supported us and are going to be collaborating with us on this project.”
HEAnet, Ireland’s National Education and Research Network, manages a national optical network of over 2,500 km, which is a central part of Ireland’s national research infrastructure. HEAnet has collaborated with the SFI Connect Centre over many years, from providing connectivity services and research demonstrations on the HEAnet production network.
In 2022, HEAnet connected directly to Prof. Ruffini’s Open Ireland test network at Trinity College Dublin. This has provided Prof. Ruffini’s group with access to the production HEAnet optical network while also enabling HEAnet to gain valuable insights into the characteristics of the HEAnet production network. HEAnet connects to the GÉANT pan-European research and education network in both Dublin and Cork. The Twilight project will provide optical connectivity from the Open Ireland test bed to the GÉANT optical network via the HEAnet network for the first time.
Eoin Kenny, Innovation and R&D Manager at HEAnet, highlights the project’s efficiency:
“Planning network changes has always been challenging. Twilight’s digital twin will streamline this process, save time and help HEAnet to optimise our network resources. We are very pleased with the work carried out on the OpenIreland research infrastructure and look forward to continuing this close collaboration.”
HEAnet is a member of GÉANT, the collaboration of European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), who interconnects Europe’s NRENs with the high bandwidth, high speed and highly resilient pan-European backbone, together connecting Europe’s researchers, academics and students to each other, and linking them to over half the countries in the world.
Guy Roberts, Senior Transport Network Architect at GÉANT also expressed enthusiasm for the Twilight project:
“The future for anyone working with optical networks looks bright with all the new technologies on our side. We are continually dealing with the issues of dynamic provisioning of optical paths. Despite making extensive use of optical equipment vendors’ planning tools, we have discovered anomalous situations that can lead to some level of service disruption. GÉANT will work with TCD and HEAnet to provide measurements to train the digital twin algorithms, help with any fine-tuning and carry out experiments on the use cases we have jointly defined.”
To learn more about the Twilight project or to get involved, contact marco.ruffini@tcd.ie
About Trinity College
Trinity College Dublin, is Ireland’s leading university, ranked first in Ireland and 81st in the world (QS World University Rankings 2024). Trinity has over 21,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students across three faculties – Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM); and Health Sciences. Visit www.tcd.ie to learn more.
Trinity College Dublin is CONNECT’s host institution and the location of the Centre’s headquarters. CONNECT is the world-leading Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications. CONNECT is funded under the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres Programme. Visit www.connectcentre.ie to learn more.
About HEAnet
HEAnet is Ireland’s National Education and Research Network. They deliver high-speed internet connectivity and associated ICT services to all levels of the Irish education sector.
Encompassing approximately 210,000 students & staff (third-level) and approximately 900,000 students & staff (first and second-level), HEAnet connects these Irish learners and researchers to the Internet, online educational resources, and fellow national educational and research networks in Europe, the USA and the rest of the world. Visit www.heanet.ie to learn more.
About GÉANT
GÉANT is Europe’s leading collaboration on network and related infrastructure and services for the benefit of research and education, contributing to Europe’s economic growth and competitiveness. The organisation develops, delivers and promotes advanced network and associated e-infrastructure services, and supports innovation and knowledge-sharing amongst its national research and education network (NREN) members, partners and the wider research and education networking community. For more information, visit www.geant.org.
