The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a significant increase in the use of FCCN Unit services. Learn about the steps taken to ensure support for distance learning and teleworking.
It was still March, and the effects of the pandemic were already being felt in FCCN service usage rates. At that time, Colibri recorded an increase in usage of over 28,000 %, a trend that would only grow stronger over the following months. until June 2020, there was an increase of 3423% in the number of meetings held through Colibri, surpassing the mark of one million classes/meetings.
The great demand for the Colibri service was due to the possibility of holding video conferences with capacity for 300 participants/session, thus becoming an essential support for distance learning, by ensuring teaching activities and bringing professionals together during the teleworking regime. However, the strategic action of the Scientific Computing Unit (FCCN) of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) during this period did not stop at this tool.
Also Educast – which allows the recording, editing and sharing of educational videos – registered a very significant increase between March and June, surpassing one million views. Likewise, the NAU platform, an online course platform in MOOC format (Massive Open Online Course was used, during this period, by several organizations and companies to train workers in teleworking, registering 73,248 new participants, 112,247 enrollments and issuing 54,438 certificates.
These figures highlight how, over the last few months, the provision of digital tools by the FCT's FCCN unit has enabled the community to maintain its activity, operationalizing distance learning, group meetings, information sharing and teleworkingThis scenario repeated itself at the start of the new academic year, in a context where remote work still accounts for a significant portion of teaching activities. Therefore, given that FCCN services are an essential aid to maintaining teaching and research activities, several steps have been taken to ensure a response to the increased use, given the exceptional circumstances the country is experiencing.
What was done by the FCCN Unit?
In response to the described context, of significant increase in usage, the FCCN Unit has been strengthening the capacity of its main services, to meet the needs of the national research and teaching community. From the outset, in the case of Colibri, the massive use of the service required the reinforcement of licensing in 1111% and a progressive reinforcement of the infrastructure at the service's front-end level. The capacity building of FCCN services focused not only on infrastructure and licensing, but also on the human capital that enables support to be provided to users.
Likewise, in order to support the operation of higher education institutions and research centers that use their services, Since March, bandwidth increases have been made to the connection of several institutions to the Science, Technology and Society Network – the national academic and research network that supports internet connections for the teaching and research community. Simultaneously, technological upgrades were made to some of the academic institutions' local networks, increasing network switching capacity to 10Gbps or 100Gbps, updating and expanding Wi-Fi networks (eduroam), and reinforcing security equipment, given the substantial increase in traffic in recent years, under the RCTS100 project, co-financed by structural funds.
Also worth noting is the development of technical documentation, starting in March, to respond to the need of some higher education institutions regarding the strengthening of internal VPN, with the aim of enabling remote access to platforms. Given that the FCCN Unit belongs to the GÉANT network (which brings together its European counterparts in the management of academic and research networks), it was possible to reuse a service developed at European level which allows its installation without additional charges.
It is important to highlight that the increase in devices connected to the network, as well as the sharp increase in the use of services streaming, whether in the classroom context or for developing research work and projects, has also changed the context of needs of the FCCN Unit users. As a result of the actions described, we are working to ensure that higher education and research institutions in Portugal are prepared to accommodate the increased traffic originating from, carrying out their teaching and scientific activities.
If you are a member of the RCTS community, we are available to help you overcome any challenges you may encounter. Please contact us through the channels available on our website.
