This workshop will bring together international experts in Grid networking, a new field where people study the engineering, provisioning, use, monitoring, and performance analysis of the long-distance gigabit networks that underpin Grid applications (e.g., the LHC Computing Grid). The areas specifically covered by this workshop are network infrastructure, end-to-end protocols, end-to-end performance, high-speed firewalls, and performance monitoring infrastructure.

The key objectives of GNEW 2004 are to:

• share and challenge the lessons learned by national and international projects in the past three years;

• share the current state of network engineering and infrastructure and its likely evolution in the near future;

• examine our understanding of the networking needs of Grid applications (e.g., see the ICFA-SCIC reports);

• develop a vision of how network engineering and infrastructure will (or should) support Grid computing needs in the next three years.

The main outcome expected from this workshop is to advance the community's understanding of what is possible and affordable in the next few years, and what interactions are required between Grid middleware and the underlying networks. A topic of particular interest is whether there is general agreement that one needs to depart from the shared network model and move toward a circuit-oriented model (e.g., "switched lambdas").

This workshop, reflecting the nature of the Grid networking community, is a joint international effort, technically co-sponsored by leading organizations from several continents around the world.

Participation will be limited to 60 individuals. This workshop will be broadcast live via VRVS.

Shortly after the workshop, the following joint statement was issued by the organizers:

"Further to the 1^st International Grid Networking Workshop (GNEW 2004) that was held at CERN on March 15-16, 2004, there is a large consensus among the organizers (CERN/DataTAG, DANTE, ESnet, Internet2 and TERENA) that hybrid network services capable of offering a bandwidth from 10 Gbit/s up to several Tbit/s over wide areas, both packet switching and circuit/lambda switching, highly advanced performance measurements, and a new generation of distributed system software will be required in order to support emerging data-intensive Grid applications. Application domains include High Energy Physics, Astrophysics, Climate and Supernova Modeling, Genomics and Proteomics."