Fiber Optic at the Lido island thanks to Ca’ Foscari, Garr and the City of Venice

An underwater fiber optic connection was installed thanks to the investment of the GARR, the Italian network for ultra-wideband technology for education and research, and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice as well as the infrastructures and technology shared by the City of Venice, in a perspective of increased synergies in the metropolitan city.

The new 14 km long connection, including sections that run underwater, between GARR’s point of presence at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice at Dorsoduro and the Palazzo del Cinema has a capacity of 10 gigabytes per second: a significative difference in speed compared to the previous wireless connection of the Lido island.

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice initiated the project in preparation for ICCV 2017, the most important international conference on Computer Vision that will take place between the 22nd and the 29th of October on the Lido, connecting over 1500 researches from the whole world and the main companies  that keep technological innovation as their main focus.

“Collaboration between institutions of the region continues to yield important benefits to the whole community” - says Michele Bugliesi, Rector of Ca’ Foscari university of Venice. “The realization of a permanent infrastructure is a perfect example of how we create services in collaboration that are useful to both institutions and citizens. We pooled skills and resources, technological innovation and scientific research, showing that in Venice these collaborative interactions can help us collectively reach interesting goals.” 

The web connection and high-capacity Wi-Fi connection at the Palazzo del Cinema and the Palazzo del Casinò at Lido, created by VELA and Venis spa for the City of Venice with contributions from INFN and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, was also made possible by this agreement. Furthermore, thanks to GARR’s connection with international research networks, the convention space has become more attractive for important scientific events attracting researchers from across the world.

The fiber connection to the Lido island was preceded a few months earlier by a connection to the island of San Servolo that hosts a  prestigious academic college. These are clear messages that suggest collaboration between GARR, the city of Venice, Venis Spa and Venetian universities will continue to grow; future projects set to extend the access to new seats of scientific and cultural interest are currently under evaluation.