The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has published a Preliminary Market Inquiry, asking for information in order to develop the proejct “Redundancy in the Terrestrial Optical Network of RedIRIS”, which was awarded in a resolution approved by the Secretariat of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure (SETELCO) in August 2022. The project will be funded within the NextGenerationEU fund, under the heading “Digital Connectivity,impulsing cybersecuritty and 5G deployment in the Plan for Recovery, Transformation, and Resilinece (PRTR) of the Spanish Government. The request for information is available in the profile of IAC as a contractor, and a response is possible by operators and economic agents who may be interested until January 2023.
The investment funded by the PRTR is a complement to the project “Redundancy in the Maritime Optical Network of RedIRIS”, currently in the ajudication phase. The projects being address by the IAC in the framework of the PRTR will allow the strengthening of the connectivity of the Canary observatories, giving them greater capacity and resilience, enhancing their international competitiveness and their attractive value for the economic development of the islands of La Palma and Tenerife. The new connectivity infrastructures will also favour the digital transformation and the resilience of the economy of the Autonomous Community and the access by its citizens to the digital services for the development of their personal and professional activities.
The request for information will permit a bwetter knowledge and understanding of the possible alternatives for the execution of the project. The questionnaire has been structured in four domains of connectivity, two in each of the islands. The econnomic opoerators are asked to bring their solutions to strengthen the connectivity with the Roque de los Muchachos and Izaña Observatories, and between the two of them and their respective IAC Headquarters at sea level, the Centre for Astrophysics of La Palma (CALP) and the main offices in San Cristobal de La Laguna. Within the sub-projects to stengthen the connectivity between the observatories and their headquarters requirements are established so that the route of the deployment foments the improvement and the competitivity of the broad band services of citizens and companies in the islands of La Palma and Tenerife.
The projects which are being tackled by the IAC will give the sea and land communications redundancy and greater capacity, and will allow the continuous opertation of all the installations within the observatories without any downgrading of services, even if there is a breakdown or a disaster. The progressive automaton of tthe observing instruments and the exponential increase in the volumen of the data they generate makes advanced telecommunications one fo thte main factors in decisions to commit to the observatories new telescopes in the front line of technology with the most innovative instruments, such as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and other projects in early phases of consideration. The culmination of these activities will make it possible for the IAC to contnue its role as a lever to power research and technological development in Spain.
