EVN e-VLBI report ================= The start of the EXPReS project saw the first open call to the astronomical community for science e-VLBI proposals. The first run was completely lost due to software-related problems, but the following runs were highly succesfull. The April and May real-time observations ran smoothly for many hours at 128 Mbps, and led to two (accepted) letters in MNRAS. During the October session a data rate of 256 Mbps was sustained for 13 hours, although unfortunately Onsala could not participate because of stormy weather. All science runs were combined or alternated with technical tests, during which improvements and modifications of the control system and new software tools were tested. Remote control of Mark5 units at stations during e-VLBI runs is now functioning well. Although we currently only advertise a guaranteed data rate of 128 Mbps, 512 Mbps 3-station e-VLBI fringes were demonstrated during the August session (On, Wb and Cm). GEANT2 and SURFNet6, designed to be hybrid networks, offering both IP routed connectivity and dedicated point-to-point connections in the form of lightpaths, are fully operational at this point. Right now, only Jodrell Bank and Cambridge are connected to JIVE through lightpaths, but this is expected to change in the near future. Metsahovi was connected to GEANT through a 10 Gbps connection earlier this year, and Shanghai, Effelsberg and Yebes are expected to come online in 2007. Connectivity from Torun was greatly improved thanks to the efforts of the network engineers at Poznan. All internet traffic from Gdansk, that used to pass through Torun, was re-routed via an alternative route. This has made reliable e-VLBI operations at 256 Mbps possible. Next year, further improvements in connectivity from Tr are expected. Unfortunately, the connection to Arecibo has deteriorated throughout the past year to such a degree that 32 Mbps e-VLBI is not possible anymore. The location and the nature of the bottleneck remains unclear. The observations by EVN telescopes of the crash of the SMART-1 lunar probe provided an opportunity to exercise e-VLBI to TIGO in Chile. After initial network tests by JIVE and TIGO staff (yielding 2 to 5 Mbps throughput) the Pert rapid response team of the GEANT network did a thorough investigation of the connectivity issues. Although some improvements were achieved, the data rate during the actual crash remained 2 Mbps. All the same, this allowed an initial determination of the time of the crash within one hour of the event. In all, the exercise was very useful, as it provided an opportunity to better understand the network topology and connectivity bottlenecks. A full report of the findings of the Pert team has been produced by GEANT. In the context of EXPReS a number of powerful monitoring, control and post-processing software tools were produced. Most of these tools also provide feedback to the stations through web-interfaces. Another EXPReS aim, reliable high data-rate transfers, awaits the implementation of a suitable transport protocol. This and some other networking aspects of EXPReS have suffered a delay because of the difficulty in finding suitable candidates for some of the positions. New motherboards for the Mark5 units at JIVE are currently under consideration, as is the purchase of a switching router to manage the 16 * 1 Gbps lightpaths and the 10 Gbps IP-switched lambda that SURFNet will provide. Preliminary tests of the Mark5A+ firmware upgrade, which enables playback of Mark5B recordings on Mark5A systems, were succesfull, although further tests will be needed. An upgrade to Mark5B at JIVE, which will allow us to phase out the failing Station Units, is being investigated. The replacement of the old HP correlator control computer by two Solaris servers with dual AMD processors was completed recently and has led to some dramatic improvements, most notably a reduction in (re-) start-up time of the correlator system. Porting the system to a new platform also provided the opportunity for a general overhaul and tightening up of the code, which has led to an improved reliability and robustness of the correlator. Summary: ------- Now connected: Mc, On, Tr, Wb at 1 Gbps Jb, Cm at 1 Gbps/622 Mbps Ar, TIGO at 155 Mbps Mh at 10 Gbps -Ar has deteriorated to ~20 Mbps (asymmetrical, 100 Mbps to Ar is possible) -Tr: connectivity has improved through a re-routing of traffic from Gdansk. 256 Mbps is now always possible. -TIGO ~2-10 Mbps -128 Mbps is routinely achieved from all European stations. -256 Mbps is mostly possible from all European stations. -512 Mbps is always possible from Wb, mostly from On and Jb/Cm. -JIVE: upgrade to 16 * 1 Gbps lightpaths + 10 Gbps IP routed lambda. Local network at JIVE will be upgraded (router, new fibres). -Shanghai: connected at 1 Gbps, although the path to JIVE is not yet clear (via Hongkong and USA or via Siberia through the new ORIENT network). Expected to come online early 2007. -2007: Ef at 10 Gbps, Yebes at 2 Gbps, Miyun at 2.5 Gbps (?). New hires: --------- All new positions for SA1 and JRA1 at JIVE have been filled, with the last two starting in December 2006.