TERENA COMPENDIUM - Géant

TERENA Compendium of National Research and Education Networks In Europe /Services3C.15 Indexation of the Digital DivideWithin the framework of the EARNEST studies, an attempt was made to developan index to measure the state of research and education networking in a countryand which allows comparisons between countries. The final report of the substudyis due to be published by TERENA towards the end of 2008.The index, termed the REDI (Research and Education Networking DevelopmentIndex), is based on five sub-indices, addressing:• infrastructure;• usage;• affordability;• knowledge;• quality.These sub-indices are based in part on Compendium data and in part ongenerally available data such as Gross Domestic Product, country size, number ofinhabitants and school / university enrolment figures. In other parts, further workis needed. Thus, in the area of quality, it is proposed to measure items such aspacket loss, TCP throughput, round-trip time, and jitter. These measurements arenot yet readily available for all NRENs.For the infrastructure index, the study makes certain assumptions about thenumber of users per country that need to be further tested.The EARNEST Summary Report recommends further work in this area andrecommends that NRENs provide online measurement of traffic data 2(as many already do).822EARNEST Summary Report, TERENA, 2008, p. 40.