The Online Knowledge Library (b-on) is an online library that provides access to thousands of journals and e-books by some of the major international scientific publishers.

The following institution types can join b-on:

• Higher education institutions (public or private)
• Scientific research and technological development institutions (public or private);
• Public Administration institutions;
• Private non-profit institutions;
• Hospitals. For profit institutions cannot access to b. More information is available on the b-on website.

Access to b-on has subscription fees. For further information, contact b-on via email: info@b-on.pt .

Content may be accessed using any computer connected to the Internet with an IP address belonging to the b-on network. The content may be accessed from the b-on search service, publishers’ website or any search engine.

Being a library, the main service provided by b-on is access to content. However, b-on also provides a training service (in person and online), a statistics service and several electronic services (search portal, context and preservation services). Find out more at www.b-on.pt/en.

Educast is a video management service for simple content recording and distribution for academic content (seminars). The central system ensures the required post-processing in order to make it available to students via the Internet and mobile devices in the following formats: Flash, QuickTime and iPod.

The content production process is simplified in three steps: Record, Edit and Publish.

You can find out more on the service’s help page.

FCCN provides several support services for distance learning that should be used according to the pedagogical objectives of the sessions. The Colibri service should be used for interactive dynamic sessions, in which the students are required to work together. For sessions for which work in the classroom is to be later made available in the portal for the relevant subject, in order to be accessed by other students, the educast service should be used.

The Educast service has a set of unique features, targeted for the academic community, in comparison with other services, particularly: synchronous recording and playback of the speaker, online content editing that allows you to select and highlight parts of the video for new content, integration with distance learning tools, explanation of the rights of use through creative commons, display of content in open education repository networks, content control via “RCTSaai”. The infrastructure is also housed in the FCCN datacenter, and thus is not subject to any restriction imposed on foreign commercial services. See some examples of content created and shared via Educast.

You can start using Educast straight away, using your computer with a webcam. The service provides software for Windows and Mac, which allows you to make recordings and automatically upload them to the Educast servers. Once transferred, you can edit and publish videos independently. For better results, there is local support staff in each institution.

The main objective of the eduroam (Education Roaming) network is to provide a wireless network service to the academic community, between the participating institutions.

All institutions connected to the RCTS network (RCTS IP Service) can join.

There are no additional costs for entities that subscribe to the RCTS IP Service.

At present, the eduroam network is available in 76 countries. In Portugal, 61 institutions currently subscribe to this service. In Portugal, most of the State’s teaching institutions and laboratories have access to this network. Here is the list of locations.

Authentication is carried out at the user’s home institution, using their institutional log on credentials.

Any mobile device (laptop/phone/tablet) can be used to connect to the eduroam network.

You should contact FCCN/FCT using the e-mail address noc@fccn.pt , or visit the service webpage.

If you are one of those responsible for access to your organization’s RCTS, you should contact noc@fccn.pt, which, after validation, will send you an application form to request an IP address. If that is not the case, then you should contact your organization’s head of computer services.

No. RCTS still has a reasonable stock of IP addresses to distribute to its members, according to demonstrated demand and the description of the infrastructure that will use the available addresses.

Yes. FCCN only delegates space for larger blocks assigned to it (by RIPE/NCCC), which is necessary to maintain its integrity. This means that if your organization disconnects from RCTS, it can no longer use the same public IP address. In this case, you will have to have your IP address reassigned, by “returning” the addresses assigned in the RCTS environment to the FCCN.

stat.ripe.net is a public access service provided by RIPE/NCC.

PTCRIS consists of a framework of rules, principles and guidelines to ensure the integration of scientific activity support information systems in a single coherent and integrated ecosystem.

The PTCRIS framework is based on international standards and codes of good practice, namely persistent identifiers, data exchange standards, information security and privacy policies, among others.

By creating an integrated information ecosystem through a common framework, PTCRIS will support the development of programs such as “Mais Ciência Menos Burocracia” (More Science, Less Bureaucracy) and services aimed at increased efficiency in management and production processes and access to information regarding national academic and scientific activities.

In addition to the regulatory framework, PTCRIS also ensures the management and development of infrastructures that support Science and Technology management in Portugal (e.g., the Science Vitae curricular management system, the National Organizations registry and the national research funding registry and the synchronization framework) as well as strong value-added services, namely the Business Intelligence system and Data as a service.

PTCRIS is intended for all stakeholders in the Scientific and Technological Portuguese system, and all those interested in the results of its activity.

RCAAP is an aggregator portal (meta-repositories) of documents located in several existing institutional repositories in Portugal and Brazil. RCAAP gathers and indexes not only the description (metadata) but also the full text. You can access the RCAAP portal via www.rcaap.pt.

Institutions with scientific resources in electronic format that meet the RCAAP membership criteria are eligible to join.

The RCAAP portal provides access to scientific and academic literature available in the public domain. However, some documents do not fulfil these requirements, either because they have restricted access due to censorship, or because only the metadata rather than  the full text is available.

The institutions that are currently part of the RCAAP project, as well as the respective repositories may be accessed through the Portal’s directory.

Of the set of activities/services developed in the RCAAP environment, the following  deserve a special mention:

RCAAP Portal – The RCAAP portal is the main component of the Portuguese Open Access Scientific Repository project. It is a single point of research, discovery, localization and access to thousands of scientific and academic documents, particularly articles from scientific journals, conference presentations, theses and dissertations, distributed by the national and Brazilian repositories in the network.

Project Website – Collates all relevant information relating to the RCAAP project.

Portuguese-Brazilian Directory – This directory provides a complete and exhaustive list of repositories and open access scientific journals available in Portugal and Brazil in a single location.

Scientific Journals Hosting Service (SARC) was created to develop the online publication of scientific journals in Portugal, facilitating the management of scientific journals and supporting best practice. The service is based on an OJS (Open Journal System) publications management and publishing platform, an open source system with a broad user community and strong impact on the open access domain. See the journals hosted on the service at http://revistas.rcaap.pt.

Scientific Data – Hosting Service for Scientific Data Repositories (SARDC) provides a platform for free access to data created and used within the framework of research atf national institutions. The service is available at http://dados.rcaap.pt.

Additionally, RCAAP performs, develops and executes activities in the promotion of open access, support services (especially to repositories managers), develops standards and defines procedures. Learn more about RCAAP services in the project webpage.

It is an authentication and authorization infrastructure (AAI) which aims to simplify web service access for the teaching and research community.

An identity provider ensures the necessary infrastructure for user authentication. All institutions connected to the RCTS network (RCTS IP Service) can join as identity providers.

All entities that provide one or several services considered to be in the interest of the academic and research community.

There are no additional costs for entities who subscribe to the RCTS IP Service.

See the list of connected institutions.

See the RCTSaai service catalog to learn more about the services provided.

Students, teachers, researchers and employees of participating institutions.

Authentication is carried out via the user’s home institution, using his/her institutional credentials.

You should contact FCCN | FCT at noc@fccn.pt or visit the service webpage.

To incidents that have source or destination IP addresses that belong to RCTS.

Only to entities connected to RCTS, through accredited contacts.

You should send any data you have available regarding this incident to report@cert.rcts.pt.

This service ensures the supply of various types of certificates, which guarantee the security, authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of the information sent over the Internet.

All institutions connected to the RCTS network (RCTS IP Service) can join.

There are no additional costs to subscribers to the RCTS IP service.

See the list of connected institutions.

This service provides four categories of certificate: Server, GRID, Personal and Code Signing. For more information, see the RCTS Certificates web page.

Yes, the certificates are issued by a globally recognized issuing authority, such as a CA – Certification Authority.

Personal certificates issued by this service are valid and identify a user as an element of an institution. However, due to the fact they are not issued by a CA recognized by the National Security Office, they cannot replace the Citizen Card certificates.

You should contact FCCN | FCT at noc@fccn.pt or visit the service web page.

RCTS Fiber is a service that provides fiber optics connections between two locations without the need for any intermediate active equipment. Due to being a distinct physical environment from the other RCTS communications, these are totally isolated.

Eligible entities in order to subscribe to the RCTS IP service with the need to connect two locations using fiber optics without relying on third-party technologies.

You may request the service or request more information by sending an e-mail to noc@fccn.pt. Together, we will find the solution that best suits your requirements.

Implementation time will always be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the existence of fiber optics between the locations.

Yes, the financial details for activation and operation depend on the technical solution decided upon.

A dark optic fiber pair is provided between the RCTS fiber network and the user entity. All equipment and configurations are the responsibility of the buyer of the service.

No, due to the fact that no active RCTS equipment is used. However, there is a monitoring team 24 x 7 x 365, which will provide support for any situation that may occur.

RCTS IP is the oldest service provided by FCCN and provides IP connectivity between RCTS institutions and the Internet.

The type of organizations that can access the RCTS IP are defined in the “AUP RCTS” document. Essentially, these are all organizations that carry out teaching and/or scientific research activities.

Between 100Mbps and 10Gbps. These speeds are synchronous, i.e., the data uploadr capacity is equal to the data download capacity.

These situations always require an assessment of the requirements and are analyzed individually.

No. The RCTS IP Service only provides services to IP addresses that belong to the RCTS or its own organizations. In case of disconnection from a commercial ISP, and if the addressing is not the property of the organization, this address must be “returned” to the commercial ISP.

“Commercial traffic” refers to communications that originate in networks that are neither teaching and research networks nor entities with a direct traffic exchange link with RCTS or the GÉANT network.  “Academic traffic” refers to all remaining traffic, from the remaining sources.

No, the service does not include any type of filtering.

The costs are calculated according to the nature of the purchasing organization, its geographical location and the tariff in force.

Yes, there is a minimum period of 12 months. After this period, the request for termination of contract should comply with a 30 day notice period.

Yes, and in addition to monitoring there is also a support service (human support) for the same period.

The list is available here.

60 days. This timeframe may vary according to geographical location and the existing telecommunications infrastructure.

We would like to ask you to send an email to noc@fccn.pt. After the service has been activated, only registered administrative and technical contacts may request information or changes to the active service.

RCTS Lambda is a high-performance point-to-point connection service that uses the RCTS optic network. It establishes private connections between two locations, isolated from the other RCTS communications and, therefore, with protected capacity.

The entities eligible to subscribe to the RCTS IP service.

You may request the service or ask for more information by sending an email to noc@fccn.pt. We will find the solution that best suits your requirements.

The implementation time is always analyzed on a case-by-case basis, and is dependant on the existence of fiber optics between the locations.

Yes, financial details of the activation and operation depend on the technical solution found.

Communication between two locations is accomplished through the RCTS optic transfer platform, based on DWDM technology.

A specific optical wavelength is reserved to establish connection between two locations without interfering with the remaining RCTS communications.

This platform allows you to transfer multiple network protocols, such as Ethernet or Fiber Channel, among others. The usual transmission speed is 10 Gbps, but other options may be considered.

One of the requirements is the existence of fiber optic between the two locations. This service also requires the existence or installation of optical transmission equipment between the ends of the connection.

Yes, the service may be implemented with a redundant topology.

Yes, and in addition to monitoring there is also a support service (human support) for the same period.

RCTS Plus is the virtual private network service that FCCN provides for its members.

Entities eligible to subscribe to the RCTS IP service.

The virtual private network ports can be configured to 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps.

Yes, at least two locations are required. For this service, several sites located in different locations can be connected.

No. The service provided is completely private. There is no intervention at the IP level (or higher) by the FCCN, and the address itself may be chosen by the organizations belonging to the same service.

The costs are calculated according to the nature of the purchasing organization, its geographical location and the tariff in force.

Yes, there is a minimum period of 12 months. However, this period may be reduced depending on the type of the communication contract supported by the service. After the initial 12 months, requests for the cancellation of the service should comply an with a 30 days notice period.

Yes, and in addition to monitoring there is also a support service (human support) for the same period.

The list is available here:

Please send an email to noc@fccn.pt. After the service has been activated, only registered administrative and technical contacts may request information or changes to the active service.

The Voice Over Internet Protocol – VoIP is a technology that allows the user to make telephone calls over a data network, converting an analog voice signal into a set of digital signals, which are sent through an Internet connection in the form of packets using IP addresses. As it is not new, this technology has now reached such a state of maturity and quality that it can be used in production environments interconnected with conventional telephone systems. Similarly, the supply of equipment and carrier services has been growing exponentially.

One of the main features that the VoIP@RCTS service enables is Mobility, i.e., each user can use it everywhere as long as network access point is available.

Voice mail also gains a new dimension and it is possible to integrate it with electronic mail. Therefore, any message that arrives via voice mail may also simultaneously reach the e-mail inbox.

Authorization levels for making calls may now be defined by the user according to his/her needs.

The creation of virtual conference rooms is another feature of the system. By sharing the room with other participants, it is possible for anyone to take part in a virtual room to conduct telephone conferences.

Of course, all the existing services for a traditional telephone system are also available, such as extension blocking, call transfer, among other features.

One of the objectives of the RCTS VoIP service is to reduce costs in voice communications. This reduction is accomplished, not only through call routing to different operators using the lowest-cost route, but also because virtually dedicated IP connections between the institutions participating in the service are created, which allow calls to be made between them at no cost.

The RCTS VoIP address is intended for all public higher education and research community institutions connected to the academic network through RCTS Plus.

Contact FCT | FCCN to request information using the data provided in “Contacts”.

The use of antivirus is mandatory on Windows systems and optional on Linux or MacOS based systems.

You can perform a preliminary test by downloading a file from the site www.virustotal.com, but above all you should notify RCTS CERT of this incident.

Do not open files of unknown origin, and in terms of web access, respect browser alerts for potentially malicious websites. It is also very important to make copies of content that is not usually backed up by the organization. Relevant information will be stored on the organization server (which will be backed up) rather than on individual workstations (which are not backed up). Finally, never share authentication data (passwords).

Despite the fact that both services are based on audio and video transmission, they differ in terms of the direction and scope of the audience.  Appropriate for one-way communication, a small number of speakers for a large number of viewers, the videocast service allows video broadcast of events such as seminars, conferences and sports events. Video conferencing services (COLIBRI) are designed for two-way communications between a limited number participants, with equivalent participation levels, being able to participate and “confer” as necessary.

All the elements (Teachers, Researches or Students) of entities present in RCTS may use the FFCN Video Services free of charge. Online services, such as Colibri, Videocast, or  access to Educast videos work on a self-service basis, after identity validation using a federated authentication process (learn more about RCTSaai). Other more specialized services, such as Studio or access to video conferencing rooms, requires previous bookings that can be carried out via the service web pages.

All the elements of the entities in RCTS and registered in RCTSaai have valid accounts with access to FCCN services. Occasionally, there are access errors that need to be validated with the managers of the institution’s local technical infrastructure. If the entity you belong to does not yet belong to RCTS, but complies with the objectives and mission of this network, please contact us. In duly validated situations, it is possible to create temporary accounts to access the services provided by FCCN.

The objective of the studio’s technical infrastructure is to facilitate access to a set of audiovisual and production facilities for entities connected to RCTS. Use of this equipment is, therefore, free of charge and exclusive for these entities. The FCCN is a public non-profit entity and, therefore, it would be inappropriate and unfair to the market to rent this infrastructure. The use of the studio by unconnected for profit organizations is therefore not allowed and rental not possible. However, for non-profit Academic, Cultural or Scientific content, in line with the studio’s mission, the FCCN may provide production support.