Research and projects

CESNET’s mission is anchored in two core areas: operating and developing a national e-infrastructure for research, development, and education, and advancing research and innovation in ICT. Our efforts are focused on applying results to enhance national e-infrastructure and create licensed products for the industry. We primarily engage in publicly supported projects and collaborate with partners in research, development, and industry sectors. Below, you can find a detailed overview of our ongoing projects.

More information

e-INFRA CZ Projects

Command Large research infrastructure

Large research infrastructures are key facilities for extensive R&D with high financial and technological demands. They are government-approved and listed in the Czech Republic's Roadmap of Large Research Infrastructures (https://www.vyzkumne-infrastruktury.cz/cestovni-mapa-velkych-vyzkumnych-infrastruktur-cr/). We contribute to the development of national and international projects (see below).

Current projects

EOSC logo

A key R&D focus impacting large research infrastructures is Open Science, particularly the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). EOSC aims to ensure the long-term preservation and standardized access to scientific data. We are involved in implementing this concept through the projects below.

Current projects

Research and development projects

Security logo Security

We prioritize cybersecurity by protecting user privacy, data security, and infrastructure integrity. Our efforts include developing tools for backbone network monitoring, detecting traffic anomalies, and identifying security events and incidents. We are also advancing our own DDoS protection system. The outcomes of these initiatives are implemented within CESNET's infrastructure and other organizations' systems or are available through licensing.

Current projects

Code logo Advanced network technologies

We also focus on ICT applications in emerging sectors such as Medicine, Economy, and Arts & Humanities. Our work includes high-definition and low-latency multimedia transmissions, the digitization and presentation of cultural heritage, and addressing challenges related to the Internet of Things (IoT).

Current projects
Current projects
Completed projects

Large research infrastructure

GÉANT GN5-1

Acronym: GN5-1
Provider: European Union
Programme: Horizon Europe
Identification number: 101100680
Implementation period: 01/2023 – 12/2024
Project coordinator: GEANT VERENIGING
Number of partners: 39
Project manager for CESNET: Helmut Sverenyák

As one of the initial projects under GN5-FPA, GN5-1 aims to enhance connectivity infrastructure and collaboration services for researchers and students. The project is designed to provide faster, more resilient, and secure access to applications, facilitating effective collaboration across virtual research teams worldwide.

GN5-1 will continue to develop state-of-the-art, cost-effective connectivity solutions, offering unconstrained capacity with backbone network and NREN access at multiples of 100Gbps, and Terabit connectivity where needed. The project will also prototype, pilot, and, where appropriate, procure new online services. It will deliver pervasive, innovative, and distributed trust and identity infrastructure to support research and education collaboration throughout Europe.

The project includes trusted access to data sources and services, incorporating authentication and authorization infrastructure like eIDAS. It addresses Horizon Europe’s priorities in areas such as data security, access control, innovation, and DNSH. Additionally, GN5-1 will expand NRENs’ user base beyond traditional research communities, enabling access to common European data spaces.

GN5-1 will ensure researchers and students have access to essential services for Open Science. The project will also focus on disseminating learning and training, building community, and aligning with EU policies and standardization efforts. The consortium's network of professionals, with deep insights into evolving user needs, enhances the quality of services and makes GN5-1 a key component of the European Research Area (ERA).

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Czech National Infrastructure for Biological data

Acronym: ELIXIR CZ
Provider: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic
Programme: Large Research Infrastructures of the Czech Republic (2023–2026)
Identification number: LM2023055
Implementation period: 1/2023–12/2026
Project coordinator: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Number of partners: 14
Role of CESNET: partner
CESNET's manager: Helmut Sverenyák

The aim of the project is to ensure that the data generated by other infrastructures meets the FAIR principles which means that the data is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. To this end, ELIXIR CZ provides hardware and software resources and specific architectures according to the nature of the processed data. This unique technical solution is primarily fulfilled by e-infrastructures responsible for advanced IT solutions, building data storage, access to data and computing capacities. 

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e-INFRASTUCTURE CZ

Acronym: e-INFRA CZ
Provider: The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic
Programme: Large Research Infrastructures of the Czech Republic (2023–2026)
Identification number: LM2023054
Implementation period: 1/2023 – 12/2026
Project coordinator: CESNET
Number of partners: 3
Role of CESNET: coordinator
Managed by: Ing. Jakub Papírník

e-INFRA CZ offers a unique e-infrastructure for research, development, and innovation in the Czech Republic. It provides a fully transparent environment with a comprehensive portfolio of ICT services essential for modern research, including extensive capacities for transferring, storing, and processing scientific data for all research and innovation entities.

e-INFRA CZ serves as the Czech national node for several European and global research infrastructures and initiatives, including:

  • GÉANT (European Communication Infrastructure)
  • EGI (European Grid Infrastructure)
  • PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe)
  • EUDAT CDI (Collaborative Data Infrastructure)
  • EOSC (European Open Science Cloud)
  • EuroHPC JU (European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking) and LUMI consortium
  • BDVA (Big Data Value Association)
  • ETP4HPC (European Technology Platform for High-Performance Computing)

The main components of e-INFRA CZ are:

  1. High-performance national communication infrastructure
  2. High-performance supercomputing systems
  3. National grid and cloud infrastructure
  4. Secure, high-capacity distributed data storage
  5. Authorization and authentication infrastructure (AAI)

Additionally, e-INFRA CZ offers tools for remote collaboration, secure communication, and data protection, integral to the e-infrastructure. The project aims to develop and operate a transparent IT environment for all entities involved in research, development, and innovation, providing services across scientific disciplines. It also focuses on advancing knowledge and technology to address current ICT challenges and support modern science and industrial innovation.

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Modernization of e-INFRA CZ II

Acronym: e-INFRA CZ
Provider: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic
Programme: Programme Johannes Amos Comenius (2021 - 2027)
Identification number: CZ.02.01.01/00/23_016/0008329
Implementation period: 7/2023 - 12/2026
Role of CESNET: coordinator
Number of partners: 3
CESNET's manager: Jakub Papírník

The project aims to modernize and upgrade components of the e-infrastructure to meet current and future ICT capacity needs. It seeks to elevate IT infrastructure support to match state-of-the-art standards and accommodate predicted user requirements.

To achieve this, the project will:

  • Upgrade and expand supercomputing infrastructure for high-demand computations.
  • Enhance distributed computing environments, including grids, clouds (MetaCentres), and data repositories for large-scale unstructured data.
  • Improve transmission capacity and develop advanced network communication features and flexibility.
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ELIXIR CZ: Capacity Extension

Provider: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic
Programme: Programme Johannes Amos Comenius (2021 - 2027)
Identification number: CZ.02.01.01/00/23_015/0008210
Implementation period: 3/2024 - 12/2026
Project coordinator: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Number of partners: 3
Role of CESNET: partner
CESNET's manager: Helmut Sverenyák

The project focuses on researching and developing advanced solutions for cyber protection and enhancing the resilience of critical information infrastructures, which are crucial for delivering key services to the information society.

It aims to create a flexible, high-speed network traffic filtering technology designed to eliminate unwanted traffic or extract relevant communication. This initiative addresses the growing threat of asymmetric attacks that pose risks to national cyberspace and security.

The goal is to build a system capable of efficient traffic filtering at very high speeds, with a total throughput of Tbps. The system will utilize a programmable switch for high-level filtering and secondary filtering using a 400GbE network card accelerated by FPGA technology. Additionally, network traffic will be filtered at the software level on servers equipped with accelerated network cards.

The technology will be developed for use by providers of essential services, operators of critical information infrastructures, and organizations responsible for national cybersecurity.

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EOSC (European Open Science Cloud)

European Open Science Cloud Czech Republic

Acronym: EOSC-CZ
Provider: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic
Programme: Programme Johannes Amos Comenius (2021 - 2027)
Identification number: CZ.02.01.01/00/22_004/0007682
Implementation period: 1/2023–12/2028
Project coordinator: Masaryk University
Number of partners: 3
Role of CESNET: partner
CESNET's manager: Helmut Sverenyák

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is a European initiative focused on developing infrastructure to enhance open science practices and research data management. A national node of this initiative is being established in the Czech Republic to promote best practices in research data management across the scientific community on a federated basis.

The goal of the EOSC Implementation in the Czech Republic is to create the National Data Infrastructure (NDI), a unified platform for sharing, managing, and accessing data and computing resources for research purposes. The NDI will support both scientific and multidisciplinary research activities across various fields and disciplines.

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EuroScienceGateway - leveraging the European compute infrastructures for data-intensive research guided by FAIR principles

Acronym: EuroScienceGateway
Provider: European Union
Programme: Horizon Europe
Identification number: 101057388
Implementation period: 09/2022 – 08/2025
Project coordinator: ALBERT-LUDWIGS-UNIVERSITAET FREIBURG
Number of partners: 15
CESNET's manager: Miroslav Ruda

In the past decade, many scientific domains have been transformed into data-driven disciplines relying on the exchange and integration of internationally distributed data. Exploiting this data is still a laborious and largely manual task, prone to losses and errors, and increasingly specialised beyond most users technical capabilities. FAIR practices are encouraged but their adoption curve is steep. The needs for compute and data resources, tools, and application platforms are often domain-specific. Many scientists struggle to navigate this intricate ecosystem. Generally, researchers do not possess the computing skills to effectively use the HPC or Cloud platforms they need. Thus, new approaches are needed to enable all researchers, with widely ranging digital skills, to efficiently use the diverse computational infrastructures available across Europe, for asynchronous and for interactive applications.

EuroScienceGateway will leverage a distributed computing network across 13 European countries, accessible via 6 national, user-friendly web portals, facilitating access to compute and storage infrastructures across Europe as well as to data, tools, workflows and services that can be customized to suit researchers‘ needs. At the heart of the proposal workflows will integrate with the EOSC-Core. Adoption, development and implementation of technologies to interoperate across services, will allow researchers to produce high-quality FAIR data, available to all in EOSC. Communities across disciplines – Life Sciences, Climate and Biodiversity, Astrophysics, Materials science – will demonstrate the bridge from EOSC?s technical services to scientific analysis.

EuroScienceGateway will deliver a robust, scalable, seamlessly integrated open infrastructure for data-driven research, contributing an innovative and customizable service for EOSC that enables operational open and FAIR data and data processing, empowering European researchers to embrace the new digital age of science.
 

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GraspOS: next Generation Research Assessment to Promote Open Science

Akronym: GraspOS
Provider: European Union
Programme: Horizon Europe
Identification number: 101095129
Implementation period: 01/2023 – 16/2025
Project coordinator: ATHINA-EREVNITIKO KENTRO KAINOTOMIAS STIS TECHNOLOGIES TIS PLIROFORIAS, TON EPIKOINONION KAI TIS GNOSIS
Number of partners: 18
CESNET's manager: Zdeněk Šustr

GraspOS aims to build and operate a data infrastructure to support the policy reforms and pave the way towards a responsible research assessment system that embeds OS practices and accelerates its adoption in Europe. GraspOS will focus on extending the EOSC ecosystem with tools and services that will facilitate monitoring the use and uptake of various types of research services and outputs (publications, datasets, software) and will catalyse the implementation of policy-level rewards to foster OS practices. These tools and services will build upon multiple sources of metric data (e.g. OpenCitations, Scholexplorer) including capabilities offered by the EOSC Core, that will be federated in the context of the project, and will take into consideration both contemporary guidelines for Responsible Research Assessment (RRA), like those provided by initiatives like DORA and the Leiden Manifesto, and the suggestions from a diversity of relevant stakeholders. GraspOS will also incorporate piloting activities to co-design, showcase, validate, and evaluate GraspOS’s key results considering domain-specific aspects and different levels of OS-aware RRA, such as the researcher (individual/group), institution, and national level.

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EOSC Beyond: advancing innovation and collaboration for research

Acronym: EOSC Beyond
Provider: European Union
Programme: Horizon Europe
Identification number: 101131875
Implementation period: 4/2024 – 3/2027
Project coordinator: STICHTING EGI
Number of partners: 33
CESNET's manager: Zdeněk Šustr

EOSC Beyond overall objective is to advance Open Science and innovation in research in the context of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by providing new EOSC Core capabilities allowing scientific applications to find, compose and access multiple Open Science resources and offer them as integrated capabilities to researchers. To do so, EOSC Beyond supports a new concept of EOSC: a federated and integrated network of Nodes operated at different levels, national, regional, international and thematic, to serve the specific scientific missions of their stakeholders. Further specific objectives of the project are to accelerate ‘time to product’ of new scientific applications with software adapters, enable Open Science with machine composability and dynamic deployment of shared resources, support innovation in EOSC with a testing and integration environment, and align the EOSC Core architecture and specifications to integrate with European dataspaces.

The project extends the state of the art of the EOSC Core and adopts a co-design methodology, including requirements elicitation, software development and validation in collaboration with different use cases from EOSC national and regional initiatives (e-Infra CZ, Czechia, NFDI, Germany, and NI4OS, South East Europe region), thematic research infrastructures from Social Sciences and Humanities (CESSDA), Life Sciences (CNB-CSIC and Instruct-ERIC), Environmental Science (ENES and LifeWatch), and Health and Food (METROFood-RI).

EOSC Beyond builds on the capacities of prospective EOSC Nodes and partners with multi-annual experience in developing solutions for large-scale federated digital infrastructures and aligns with the technical architecture and requirements of data spaces from different business sectors. Ultimately, EOSC Beyond supports Open Science in modern, data-intensive, and multidisciplinary research, facilitating resource discovery, access, and reuse across scientific communities, organisations, and countries.

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ENVRI-Hub NEXT - ENVironmental Research Infrastructures delivering an open access Hub and NEXT-level interdisciplinary research framework providing services for advancing science and society

Acronym: ENVRI-Hub NEXT
Provider: European Union
Programme: Horizon Europe - RIA
Identification number: 101131141
Implementation period: 2/2024 - 1/2027
Project coordinator: STITCHING EGI
Number of partners: 21
CESNET's manager: Zdeněk Šustr

ENVRI-Hub NEXT develops and implements the open access hub to the data and services provision framework of the Cluster of Environmental Research Infrastructures (ENVRI) and connects the environmental research community to the European Open Science Cloud.

The overarching goal of ENVRI-Hub NEXT is to consolidate and advance the robust conceptual and technical structure established by the ENVRI-Hub to empower the ENVRI Science Cluster to provide interdisciplinary data-driven services. These services will support climate change research, including the development of mitigation and adaptation measures and strategies, and the assessment of the climate change risks. Through this platform, ENVRI-Hub NEXT will facilitate the integration of the environmental sciences community into EOSC, guided by the concept of Essential Climate Variables.

In direct answer to the Call Topic, ENVRI-Hub NEXT expands the frontiers of multidisciplinary environmental sciences by fostering operational synergies between ENVRI RIs and developing and utilising complementarities in their data and services provision. The joint forces of ENVRI and e-infrastructures allow for the integration of cutting-edge information technology, alignment with the EOSC architecture, and efficient resource allocation for the advancement of a more integrated, productive, and globally competitive ENVRI Science Cluster.

The ENVRI-Hub NEXT consortium brings together the key ESFRI Landmarks (ACTRIS, AnaEE ERIC, EPOS ERIC, EuroArgo ERIC, IAGOS AISBL, ICOS ERIC, LifeWatch ERIC) and ESFRI Projects (eLTER) participating in ENVRI-FAIR, the ENVRI information technology development and support providers from the University of Amsterdam, SeaDataNet as the key marine data infrastructure, FMI for the close relationship to EOSC Association and stakeholders, and the EGI Foundation and members of the EGI Federation to implement the operation of the services and the integration with EOSC Core.

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Security

NU-CRYPT - Quantum encrypted communication with increased physical layer security

Acronym: NU-CRYPT
Provider: The Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic
Programme: VK – Otevřené výzvy v bezpečnostním výzkumu 2023-2029 (OPSEC)
Identification number: VK01030193
Implementation period: 01/2023 – 12/2026
Project coordinator: Institute of Scientific Instruments of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Number of partners: 3
Project manager for CESNET: Dr. Josef Vojtěch

The project is focused on enhancing the cybersecurity of critical communication infrastructure by incorporating quantum cryptography for key transmission in the near future. Its aim is to bolster the security of optical quantum links through a sophisticated system designed to detect undetectable attacks on the physical layer of secure communication.

The project will implement continuous monitoring of telecommunication fiber path integrity and develop experimental quantum repeaters to extend quantum communication over longer distances than current systems permit. Research findings will be shared with select user organizations, published in scientific journals, and presented at professional workshops.

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CYBERTHREATS - Use of artificial intelligence for defence against cyber security attacks

Acronym: CYBERTHREATS
Provider: Ministry of Defence
Programme: OY – Ambice – podpora rozvoje oblastí, ve kterých ozbrojené složky dosahují významných výsledků v rámci NATO a EU (2020 – 2026)
Identification number: OYCESNET20221
Implementation period: 05/2022 – 12/2025
Project coordinator: CESNET
CESNET's manager: doc. Ing. Tomáš Čejka, Ph.D.

The aim of the project is development of a working prototype of high-performance hardware-accelerated monitoring probe (probe) and a central system (collector), which are integrated as a CYBERTHREATS system for traffic processing using IDS Suricata, classification and detection of security threats in network traffic including encrypted communication using machine learning, and automatic creation of annotated datasets. Integration of CYBERTHREATS probe outputs with IBM QRadar SIEM tool.

FETA - Flow-based Encrypted Traffic Analysis

Acronym: FETA
Provider: Ministry of the interior of the Czech Republic
Program: VJ – Strategická podpora rozvoje bezpečnostního výzkumu ČR 2019 – 2025 (IMPAKT 1)
Identification number: VJ02010024
Implementation period: 1/2022 – 6/2025
Project coordinator: CESNET
Number of partners: 3
CESNET's manager: doc. Ing. Tomáš Čejka, Ph.D.

The aim of this project is to develop new technologies, tools, and procedures that will enable monitoring of encrypted communications and identification of attacks on network infrastructure, thereby increasing their cyber defenses. The main objectives of this project will be to implement (with tight collaboration with the National Centre of Cyber Operations) (V1) architectures and software for high-speed network traffic processing, focusing on encrypted traffic, and (V2) visual-analytic extensions to the QRadar SIEM for network threat detection. The additional objectives of the project are targeting the use of Machine Learning for network traffic analysis: (V3) classification and detection modules that are going to need maintained and well-curated (V4) datasets of network communication samples and (V5) a system for semi-automated dataset creation and annotation.

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NeSPoQ - Network Cybersecurity in Post-Quantum Era

Acronym: NeSPoQ
Provider: Ministry of the interior of the Czech Republic
Program: VJ – Strategická podpora rozvoje bezpečnostního výzkumu ČR 2019 – 2025 (IMPAKT 1)
Identification number: VJ01010008
Implementation period: 01/2021 – 12/2025
Project coordinator: Brno university of technology
Number of partners: 2
Role of CESNET: partner
CESNET's manager: Dr. Josef Vojtěch

The project is focused on long-term strategic research and development of systems for communication network security. The project will provide data about the efficiency and technical readiness of systems for the protection of critical communication networks, will verify the practical applicability of QKD (quantum key distribution) and PQC (post-quantum cryptography) technologies in applications specific for Czech Republic and will further extend research topics in which Czech Republic is unique and excellent (e.g., optical sensors, hardware-accelerated encryption for >100 Gbps traffic, transmission of ultra-stable quantities). Besides the above-identified topics, the project also contains activities for raising awareness and training of experts, in particular in the state sector.

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HFT - Acceleration platform for low-latency trading

Acronym: HFT
Provider: Technology Agency of the Czech Republic
Programme: FW – Programu na podporu průmyslového výzkumu a experimentálního vývoje TREND
Identification number: FW03010350
Implementation period: 1/2021 – 12/2024
Project coordinator: Netcope Technologies, a.s.
Number of partners: 2
Role of CESNET: partner
CESNET's manager: Jakub Cabal

The project aims to significantly technologically extend the product of the acceleration platform for low-latency trading on the stock and thus increase its competitiveness on foreign markets. This platform includes an acceleration card with a PCIe interface, equipped with network interfaces and a FPGA gate array. The main functionality, i.e., processing information from the stock, comparing them with a set of trading strategies and sending requests back to the stock market, is implemented inside the FPGA chip. The key features of this platform include the ability to implement trading strategies directly within the FPGA chip, the support of multiple stocks simultaneously, and effective access to information about trading items using high-capacity memories such as DRAM or HBM.

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SOCCER - Developing and deploying SOC capabilities for the academic sector - a teamwork of Universities and RTOs in the CEE region

Acronym: SOCCER
Provider: European Union
Programme: DIGITAL JU SIMPLE
Identification number:  101128073
Implementation period: 10/2023 – 9/2026
Project coordinator: Akademia Gorniczo-hutnicza IM. Stanislawa Staszica w Krakowie
Number of partners: 9
Role of CESNET: partner
CESNET's manager: Dr. Martin Žádník

Developing and deploying SOC capabilities for the academic sector - a teamwork of Universities and RTOs in the CEE region project is aimed at strengthening the cybersecurity capabilities and resilience of the EU by supporting the development of Security Operations Centres (SOC) preparedness, readiness, capabilities, and infrastructure within the academic sector – Universities and Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) particularly in the Central Eastern Europe (CEE).

The CEE region is now being heavily affected by a multitude of cyber operations executed parallelly to growing geopolitical tensions, the same trend can be observed regarding the academic centres which are now under a permanent threat, experiencing “the highest volumes of attacks every month in 2022 and in 2021”. Thus, the project is expected to support a structured and underpinned with unified methodology, development and deployment of SOC infrastructure and services within academic centres involved in the project’s consortium. This includes a creation of a Toolbox to share best practices regarding the SOC establishment and models of possible SOC services deployment and integration. Academic sector saturation with given SOC solutions will result in better monitoring, detection and response to cyberattacks and threats, including knowledge and cybersecurity threat intelligence (CTI) sharing (vulnerability databases), as well as supporting the popularisation of a framework for joint reaction against cyber incidents (FIRST, SIM3). An important objective of the project is a popularization of knowledge about the SOC development, deployment, and functioning and a buildout of relevant SOC’s skills across cybersecurity community within universities, a future grouping of cybersecurity professionals expected to support private and public entities in upgrading their cybersecurity capabilities.

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HALOGEN - Hardware acceleration of high-speed DPDK SmartNIC

Acronym: HALOGEN
Provider: Technology Agency of the Czech Republic
Programme: FW – Programu na podporu průmyslového výzkumu a experimentálního vývoje TREND
Identification number:  FW09020003
Implementation period: 7/2023 – 6/2025
Project coordinator: BrnoLogic, spol. s r. o.
Number of partners: 2
Role of CESNET: partner
CESNET's manager: Ing. Tomáš Martínek

The aim of this project is to create a unique FPGA accelerated SmartNIC solution based on widely used DPDK and RTE Flow standards, which will achieve high level of performance sufficient for network speeds of up to 400 Gb/s. The key goal is to provide a complete acceleration solution for easy use by network applications developers. Instead of tedious FPGA design, they would be able to directly use prepared accelerated features in their applications. Standard software DPDK API used with popular RTE Flow processing offload interface enable software developers to easily unlock the benefits of FPGA technology. This will lead to a more rapid development cycle for new services, lower know-how threshold for design teams, and reduced initial cost or risk associated with firmware implementation.

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CZQCI – Czech National Quantum Communication Infrastructure

Acronym: CZQCI
Provider: European Union
Programme: Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL)
Identification number: 101091684
Implementation period: 01/2023 – 06/2026
Project coordinator: CyberSecurity Hub, z. ú.
Number of partners: 8
CESNET's manager. Dr. Josef Vojtěch

CZQCI will deploy quantum communication infrastructure (QCI) in the Czech Republic. The infrastructure composed of advanced experimental European QKD devices will comprise:

(a) backbone connecting the cities of Prague, Brno, and Ostrava, serving as a first long distance quantum communication network;
(b) metropolitan side branches connecting public authorities and testing advanced use cases and scenarios;
(c) advanced testing and training infrastructure concentrated in a single laboratory providing a representative sample of diverse QKD technologies.

CZQCI will design and perform training programme to prepare users and experts from all sectors for exploitation of future quantum communication infrastructures. The infrastructure and expertise developed by CZQCI will allow testing advanced communication scenarios involving public institutions and users from industry, testing operational demands over long distance and long time, and testing QKD and network components. The ambitious testing exercises will pave the way to large-scale deployment of QCI.

CZQCI will engage in international collaboration to exchange experiences and prepare connections to neighbouring countries and integration into EuroQCI. CZQCI will increase awareness of quantum technologies among diverse target audiences. In the Czech Republic, the responsible public authorities have delegated the responsibility for QCI deployment to CyberSecurity Hub, an institute co-founded by three leading Czech universities to coordinate cybersecurity research and knowledge transfer on the national level. Seven academic institutions with expertise in quantum technologies join the deployment consortium to concentrate the national knowledge relevant to quantum communication and facilitate its transfer through training and dissemination. This way, CZQCI will present a significant contribution to increasing cybersecurity efforts in Europe through promotion and adoption of European quantum communication technologies.

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SEQRET - Secure and Industrialized Quantum Key Distribution for European Telecom Networks

Acronym: SEQRET
Provider: European Union
Programme: Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL)
Identification number: 101091591
Implementation period: 01/2023 – 06/2025
Project coordinator: KEEQuant GmbH
Number of partners: 8
CESNET's manager: Dr. Josef Vojtěch

Secure and Industrialized Quantum Key Distribution for European Telecom Networks, “SEQRET”, is a consortium led by KEEQuant and organized along the EU27 quantum supply chain that covers the full scope of the DIGITAL-2021-QCI-01-INDUSTRIAL call. SEQRET will deliver two quantum key distribution (QKD) systems: a highly industrialized QKD system (TRL 8) and a next-gen, QKD system (TRL 7) based on integrated photonics.

Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity will integrate the initial prototyping work into their secure product design process in order to ensure a high-quality, volume-manufacturable product. A modular design approach will enable future upgradability towards other types of QKD or even post-quantum cryptography.

SMART Photonics will manufacture quantum-limited photonic integrated circuits for usage in the next-gen system. SMART will optimize parameters such as yield and chip quality in order to enable a high-volume and cost-effective production.

Together with Quant-X Security & Coding, as well as Deutsche Telekom Security, the world’s first QKD certification process according to Common Criteria with an evaluation assurance level EAL4+ will be established. Hereby, QXS is adapting the QKD security proof towards a practical device model, whereas DTS will write a Security Target document, which will serve as the basis for a QKD system evaluation.

Dacoso will formulate a Customer Concept that covers the full device life cycle of a QKD device, allowing for secure shipping, commissioning, maintenance and end-of-life decommissioning.

The experience of the network operators EXATEL, Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center and CESNET will be used to derive network requirements early on in the project to influence the product design, maximizing the chances for a good product-market-fit.

Finally, the produced QKD systems will be tested in realistic use cases with the networks of our partners to allow for a full cybersecure system integration.

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HSPF - High-speed Packet Filtering

Acronym: HSPF
Provider: Ministry of the interior of the Czech Republic
Programme: Security research program of the Czech Republic 2021-2026: development, testing and evaluation of new security technologies (SECTECH)
Identification number: VB02000066
Implementation period: 1/2024 – 12/2026
Role of CESNET: coordinator
Number of partners: 2
CESNET's managers: Martin Žádník, Jan Kučera

The project focuses on researching and developing new solutions for cyber protection and enhancing the resilience of critical information infrastructures essential for key services in the information society.

It aims to develop a flexible, high-speed network traffic filtering technology designed to remove unwanted traffic or extract relevant communications. This effort addresses the increasing threat of asymmetric attacks that pose risks to national cyberspace and security.

The system will feature high-capacity, high-speed traffic filtering with an aggregated throughput of Tbps. It will utilize a programmable switch for primary filtering, complemented by secondary filtering through a 400GbE network card accelerated by FPGA technology. Additionally, network traffic will be filtered at the software level on servers equipped with accelerated network cards.

The technology will be tailored for providers of essential services, operators of critical information infrastructures, and organizations responsible for national cybersecurity.

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Advanced network technologies

HPLT - High Performance Language Technologies

Acronym: HPLT
Provider: European Union
Programme: Horizon Europe
Identification number: 101070350
Implementation period: 09/2022 – 08/2025
Project coordinator: Charles University
Number of partners: 7
CESNET's manager: prof. RNDr. Luděk Matyska, CSc.

The EU-funded HPLT project applies high-performance computing to scale and advance language technologies. Taking advantage of recent advances in machine learning and astonishing storage capacities, it will create and process huge language datasets and produce language and translation models in a large number of languages. The resulting models will be tested from various angles to ensure smooth integration, high accuracy, and regulatory compliance concerning privacy, unwanted biases and ethical issues. The models and data sets will be a game changer in the language service market in the EU and beyond. The resulting models will be open, free and available from established language repositories for anyone interested in pursuing research or innovation projects.

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SUBMERSE – SUBMarine cablEs for ReSearch and Exploration

Acronym: SUBMERSE
Provider: European Union
Program: Horizon Europe / HORIZON-INFRA-2022-TECH-01-01
Identification number: 101095055
Implementation period: 5/2023 – 4/2026
Project coordinator: EUROPEAN FUTURE INNOVATION SYSTEM CENTRE
Number of partners: 36
Role of CESNET: partner
CESNET's manager: Dr. Josef Vojtěch

This project responds to the call Next generation of scientific instrumentation, tools and methods (2022) (HORIZON-INFRA-2022-TECH-01).

The proposal seeks to directly address the challenges to develop a new world-class research instrument integrating already existing NREN and EPOS infrastructures and Copernicus Marine service, from three European nations, as well as Pan-European and Pan-American institutions, to disseminate FAIR compliant State of Polarisation and Distributed Acoustic Sensor data, gathered from the same, already installed, live, telecommunications submarine optical fibres, in a temporally consistent and geographically dispersed way. Such an instrument would deliver innovative scientific instrumentation, methods and tools as well as advancing the involved research infrastructures by developing new state of the art services and long-term data sets of unique scientific value.

This project will enable continuous recording of these types of data for research use by NRENs for the first time, thus supporting of diverse academic, industrial and governmental user communities. Through the integration with EPOS data infrastructure , existing research communities in solid earth (EPOS) and marine science (EMSO), industrial and public body communities can be complimented with entirely new types of data sets unavailable to them before, which it is believed will lead to new areas of research.

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interTwin - An interdisciplinary Digital Twin Engine for science

Acronym: interTwin
Provider: European Union
Programme: Horizon Europe
Identification number: 101058386
Implementation period: 09/2022 – 08/2025
Project coordinator: STICHTING EGI
Number of partners: 28
Project manager for CESNET: Miroslav Ruda

InterTwin co-designs and implements the prototype of an interdisciplinary Digital Twin Engine (DTE), an open source platform that provides generic and tailored software components for modelling and simulation to integrate application-specific Digital Twins (DTs). Its specifications and implementation are based on a co-designed conceptual model – the DTE blueprint architecture – guided by the principles of open standards and interoperability. The ambition is to develop a common approach to the implementation of DTs that is applicable across the whole spectrum of scientific disciplines and beyond to facilitate developments and collaboration.

Co-design involves DT use cases for High energy physics, Radio astronomy, Astroparticle physics, Climate research, and Environmental monitoring, whose complex requirements are expected to significantly advance the state of the art of modelling and simulation using heterogeneous distributed digital infrastructures, advanced workflow composition, real-time data management and processing, quality and uncertainty tracing of models, data fusion and analytics. As a result, a consolidation of software technologies supporting research will emerge.

The validation of the technology with multiple infrastructure facilities, will boost the accessibility of users to technological capacity and the support of AI uptake in research. interTwin builds on the capacities of experts from pan-European research infrastructures and the long tail of science, an open source community of technology providers that will deliver TRL 6/7 capabilities to implement the interdisciplinary DTE, experts of the European Centre of Excellence in Exascale Computing, and infrastructure providers from the EGI Federation, PRACE and EuroHPC supporting data and compute intensive science. interTwin key exploitable results will be continually co-developed and aligned with the contribution of external initiatives such as Destination Earth, EOSC, EuroGEO and EU data spaces.

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DigiOrloj - Digitalization of the Prague astronomical clock

Acronym: DigiOrloj
Provider: Technology Agency of the Czech Republic
Programme:SIGMA-DC2 (2022 - 2029)
Identification number: TQ03000290
Implementation period: 1/2024–12/2025
Role of CESNET:: coordinator
Number of partners: 3
CESNET's manager: Jiří Kubišta

The first objective of the project is to carry out research and development of creation of digital models of historical clocks and similar machines and to propose their presentation for research, educational and popularization use.

The second objective is to research historical sources for the Prague Astronomical Clock, which is the best preserved medieval clock, to create a kinematic digital model of the clock including all its parts and to prepare a presentation of its functionality and historical development for use in an exhibition, for educational purposes and with distance access.

The proposed procedure and presentation will be applicable to other similar historical clockwork machines. A unique benefit will be virtual access to the normally inaccessible interior of the clock.

CESNET is the coordinator of the project and will be responsible for the creation of a digital model of the Old Town Clock and the preparation of the technical infrastructure for the presentation, including storage and computing resources available over the network from kiosks in the exhibitions and from the devices of individual users.

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QUEENTEC - Quantum engineering and nanotechnologies

Acronym: QUEENTEC
Provider: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic
Programme: Programme Johannes Amos Comenius (2021 - 2027)
Identification number: CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004649
Implementation period:: 1/2024 – 12/2028
Coordinatior: Institute of Instrumentation of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i.
Number of partners: 5
Role of CESNET: partner
CESNET's manager: Dr. Josef Vojtěch

The QUEENTEC project brings together key national scientifically excellent partners in an interdisciplinary consortium connecting electronic engineering with quantum nanotechnologies. By concentrating its capacities and in international cooperation, the consortium will focus on hybrid quantum technologies. The goal is quantum gates combining electrically charged atoms, molecules, nanoparticles and superconducting circuits with application potential in atomic clocks connected by a photonic network and in the future in advanced quantum computing. Quantum gates are the building blocks of quantum technology, future quantum computers, and a number of other systems based on technology using the principles of quantum physics.

The project has three supporting areas: nanoparticles, quantum metrology with cold ions and superconducting quantum circuits with nanoparticles, atoms and molecules.

The consortium consists of the Institute of Instrumentation of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i.; Palacký University in Olomouc; J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i.; Institute of Photonics and Electronics Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v. v. i. and CESNET, z. s. p. o.

Based on many years of experience and achieved results in the field of photonic fiber networks, CESNET’s role consists in connecting workplaces with special non-data transmissions.

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GreenDIGIT - Greener Future Digital Research Infrastructures

Acronym: GreenDIGIT
Provider: European Union
Programme: Horizon Europe
Identification number: 101131207
Implementation period: 3/2024 – 2/2027
Project coordinator: UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Number of partners: 15
CESNET's manager: Jiří Sitera

Lowering the environmental impact of digital services should be a priority for the operation and design of digital infrastructures. GreenDIGIT tackles the challenge of environmental impact reduction from the perspective of 4 major federated Digital Infrastructures, EGI, SLICES, SoBigData, EBRAINS, with the ambition to provide solutions that are reusable across the whole spectrum of digital services on the ESFRI landscape.

The project will capture good practices and existing solutions in low-impact digital service provisioning from Research Infrastructures and industry, and will develop a reference architecture for service providers to guide them during the sustainable setup, operation and evolution of their digital services through their lifecycle.

GreenDIGIT will develop technical building blocks for service providers to monitor and lower their environmental footprints by intelligent job scheduling and with increased use of green energy. The project will support scientific communities in lowering the environmental impact of their digital workloads and open science practices by moving to improved resource allocation frameworks
that consider the environmental consequences of task execution and storage across the entire compute continuum. A workload manager, a Virtual Machine Manager, an AI/ML training framework and various IoT/5G/network management solutions will be extended from the 4 participating Digital Infrastructures with new brokering logic to optimise task execution towards low-energy use.
User-side tools and Virtual Research Environments will be expanded with energy usage reporting and reproducibility capabilities to motivate users in applying low-energy practices. The new capabilities will be validated through reference scientific use cases from diverse disciplines, and will be promoted to providers and users through an intensive dissemination and training programme.
CESNET – among other contributions – is going to head the development in the area of power-grid support, that is, collection, processing and application of information provided by the operators of today’s advanced intelligent electric grids.

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Laboratories – Shared Workspaces

Laboratories – Shared Workspaces

SITOLA

Laboratory of Advaned Network Technologies

The Centre for R&D of Advanced Network Technologies and Applications was established in 2002 as a collaborative effort between the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University, the Institute of Computer Science at Masaryk University, and the CESNET Association.

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SAGELab

Networking Multimedia Laboratory

The SAGElab laboratory is a collaborative facility operated jointly by the CESNET Association, the Faculty of Information Technology, and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague.

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Datasets

 

 

We provide datasets created for comparing research methods and sharing know-how.

The Liberouter project is a collaborative research initiative involving several Czech universities and the CESNET Association.

It focuses on monitoring, security, and network infrastructure configuration, with the goal of developing innovative technologies and applications for telecommunications and corporate networks.

 

Datasets of Project Liberouter >> 
 


 

Interested in using our labs?