Black Sea Interconnection
Black Sea Interconnection (BSI) aims at building international network infrastructure among research and education networks in the South Caucasus region and connecting it to the pan-European research network, GÉANT2. The project budget (1.861.908 Euro) is in majority (1.400.000 Euro) funded by European Commission and the remaining part is covered by project partners. BSI is a typical infrastructure development activity – the network has to be procured, commissioned and equipped with a portfolio of essential services. The project will be carried out under the coordination of TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM with the participation of Greece, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.
The existence of interconnections between the South Caucasus countries (Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia) and connection to GÉANT2/3 with reasonable capacities will enable introduction of new services to the region and will be an important step towards the integration of the scientific potential in the region with Europe. The EC funded Black Sea Interconnection (BSI) project intends to realize these interconnections via Optical Internet infrastructure in Southern Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia). Currently the interconnections are finalized in BSI project and South Caucasus National Research and Education Networks are connected to Eurpean Academic Network (GEANT) with 34 Mbps capacities. BSI not only builds a regional academic and research network in South Caucasus but also composes the methodology for sustainable operation of the network. Another main aim of the project is the integration of South Caucasus scientific potential to Europe. The project contributes to the integration of South Caucasus scientific potential to Europe by successfully disseminating the infrastructure and promoting the ICT projects in South Caucasus countries.
