N3 Janet Gateway Phase 2 Project

Update June 2013:

Unfortunately the N3 Janet Gateway Phase 2 project has been overtaken by events before its completion. This is because understandably the attention of the relevant Health and Social Care Information Centre functions (formerly at the Department of Health NHS Technology Office/Connecting for Health) has moved to the reprocurement of N3 and the Public Services Network for Health Programme in England and the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) Programme in Scotland.

If an organisation wants a direct N3 connection then there are a number of things that need to be done including:

- finding an NHS organisation sponsor

- completing the Information Governance Statement of Compliance, which incorporates the self-assessment through the Information Governance Toolkit

- completing a Logical Connection Architecture document

- creating the internal justification for a relatively high cost

With the N3 Janet Gateway Phase 2 project it had been hoped the NHS and Janet could reduce the size of some of these barriers - particularly the cost and partly the Logical Connection Architecture as this could be done once for the N3 Janet Gateway component. What became clear in the project was that there would be no way round the Information Governance Statement of Compliance, although it was clarified that the Information Governance Toolkit view that would usually be relevant for University Departments would be the Hosted Secondary Use Team/Project view. Until recently very few University departments had achieved that but this is starting to change now it has become a requirement for Section 251 data access requests for research, although that is not without its issues. The list of those who have achieved the IGT so far and other background is here.

For those who have achieved the IG SoC process, then an alternative route for N3 access is the N3 Remote access for non-NHS Users Product/VPN solution. This should be a good way forward if the access to N3 is for a small number of users who are accessing a small number of applications on N3. It only became available in summer 2012 and as yet I have not yet heard of an example of it being implemented. If you have then it would be great to hear more.

Brief updates on other aspects that were going to be explored:

• the improved use of videoconferencing between N3 and Janet users - this is available for NHS Scotland through the N3 Janet Gateway and NHS Scotland's Hierarchy of Gatekeepers approach, in England the N3 Videoconferencing Service now has an guest from the internet facility which can include Janet endpoints.
• the support for eduroam across the two communities - this is being progressed currently external to N3
• the provision of a facility for a secure data transfer mechanism between N3 and Janet e.g. for data approved for use in research - now looking at available shared service or commercial options outside of N3
• the potential for a joint approach for federated access management between N3 and Janet users - the work that went on with this contributed to the Department of Health's identity and access management strategy development.

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Background to the N3 Janet Gateway Phase 2 Project

Once the N3 Janet Gateway was established in June 2010, with its initial functionality for supporting sessions initiated in N3, then attention was turned to the prospect of extending the scope of the services offered over the Gateway and therefore the benefits to both the NHS and research and education communities that would use it. Thus a case was made for a N3 Janet Gateway Phase 2 project and once agreed this was kicked off in May 2011.

Scope

Initially it had been assumed that the following scope could be included in this project:

• sessions initiated in Janet i.e. bidirectional working across the Gateway
• the improved use of videoconferencing between N3 and Janet users
• the support for eduroam across the two communities
• the provision of a facility for a secure data transfer mechanism between N3 and Janet e.g. for data approved for use in research
• the potential for a joint approach for federated access management between N3 and Janet users 

The first of these was always seen as the most critical but during 2011 all these aspects were explored and reviewed. However it was realised after a while that insufficient attention had been given to the Information Governance model and agreement that would need to be in place for any of this to happen. This led to a fundamental review of the scope of the project at the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012, and a hiatus in the project. In September 2012 it was agreed that the project should continue but concentrate on a proof of concept for achieving the Information Governance requirements that are a precursor for any sessions initiated in Janet that need to access N3.

Fortunately the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) Coordinating Centre based within the University of Leeds, had already started on a project themselves to achieve the required Information Governance Toolkit (IGT) for other purposes, and they volunteered to be a proof of concept site. The N3 Janet Gateway Phase 2 Project is working with them on the Proof of Concept for this unit to achieve the Information Governance Statement of Compliance (which includes the IGT as a major component) and this will involve a test connection to a particular service on N3. The NIHR CRN are planning to achieve IGT approval by April 2013.