Connectivity for research and education networking
A celebrated internet figure, Vincent Cerf wrote "Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program" – making the first known use of the word "internet". It established guidelines known as the TCP/IP which soon became the only acceptable way to transfer data within a network. The standards were provided to all of the other major networks at the time, and one by one they converted their machinery to the new protocol. Because of this universal compliance, almost any two networks could be joined, no matter the type.
TENET
When I recently interviewed Dr. Duncan H Martin, CEO of the Tertiary Education Network (TENET), he expressed a similar view – his vision was for TENET to provide a information super-highway for tertiary education and research institutions in South Africa.
Both Cerf and Martin’s assertions were right. The internet is just about the only way in which many of us communicate and Tenet, together with the South African National Research Network (SANReN), is delivering on its vision to create a broadband network explosion. This is in partly enabled by the completion of the Seacom sub-marine cable project.
TENET is a section 21 company with universities and research councils as members. In the past it struck a deal with Telkom to provide the bandwidth and management of the network. "It was largely an outsourced network", the current TENET chief technical officer, Andrew Alston said. "About two years ago we started looking at building our own network, taking control and obviously looking for better pricing. We went to tender which was won by a combination of Internet Solutions (IS) and Neotel. IS provides the hosting and the international bandwidth while Neotel provides the MPLS backbone".
UbuntuNet Alliance
The UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking was established to capitalise on the emergence of optical fibre and other terrestrial infrastructure opportunities and thus became the Research and Education Network (REN) backbone of Africa. Tertiary education and research institutions throughout the rest of the world are connected to the internet using fast low-cost fibre. This gives them a huge research and learning bonus. Until now, most of Africa has been missing from this connected world. However, this is changing with the emergence of UbuntuNet Alliance which enjoys close linkages with the Association of African Universities and various regional higher education bodies.
The current member NRENs (National Research and Education Networks) of the UbuntuNet alliance are: Ebole (Democratic Republic of Congo), KENET (Kenya), MAREN (Malawi), MoRENet (Mozambique), RwEdNet (RWANDA), SUIN (Sudan), TENET (South Africa), TERNET (Tanzania), RENU (Uganda) and ZAMREN (Zambia). The vision of delivering very high speed – Gb/s connectivity instead of the current kb/s between African universities and research institutions is driving the alliance forward at a rapid pace.
SANReN
In 2003 the SANReN initiative was conceptualised in partnership with the then Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. Extensive planning and consultation on the South African approach to high performance computing and research networking (CHPC) was conducted. SANReN and CHPC were discussed at cabinet level and the budget line items as part of the research infrastructure budget of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) were approved and announced during Minister Mosibudi Mangena’s budget speech in 2006.
The responsibility for the implementation planning was given to the Meraka Institute of the CSIR – at that stage already involved with the process of establishing the CHPC – in the beginning of 2006 to ensure a comprehensive and holistic approach to cyber-infrastructure development. A three year contract was signed between the CSIR and DST in 2006 for the implementation and management of this project. This includedall aspects of the research, design, planning, implementation and monitoring of the network for the period.
Christiaan Kuun, Meraka Institute project manager for SANReN said that Meraka had signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with TENET. "While Meraka has the overall responsibility for the network and is taking care of the planning and implementation of the network, TENET will be responsible for its operation".
As widely reported, South Africa’s international internet bandwidth will get a major boost in June this year when the Seacom cable comes into operation. Seacom said that it will reduce the cost of international bandwidth for universities and research institutions in South Africa by a very large percentage To put this in perspective: it amounts to 40 times the amount of bandwidth for the price currently paid by Tenet for its 250 Mbps pipe out of the country.
Seacom has extended the below-cost bandwidth offer to the alliance of Southern and Eastern African universities called UBuntuNet – further enhancing inter-university cooperation.
By the time this article is in print a fibre ring around the Johannesburg area will connect all the campuses of the University of theWitwatersrand and the University of Johannesburg. "The ring is composed of three fibre pairs, one of which we call a grey ring which will be used to connect the smaller sites sharing 10 Gbps. For the bigger sites it a dedicated dense wavelength division multiplexing ring will provide each campus with a 10 Gbps connection. A further 10 Gbps connection is going out to the Satellite Application Centre and the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory", said Alston.
"Similar rings will be built in Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban to include the smaller centres. We are working with all the service providers and with metros to provide the necessary infrastructure. We are doing our utmost to complete our national backbone ring by the end of June but not later than by the end of the year", said Kuun. "This does not mean that centres not connected by the end of June will lose out, they will still enjoy greater international connectivity through the current Tenet network"
"Work on the project is continuing to complete a backbone ring right around the country to ensure that all major centres are connected by the time Seacom delivers the 10 Gbps international pipe to the SANReN and Tenet network.
"Once the network is up and running there will be a lot more work, such as closing some of the rings and ensuring that all smaller sites are connected. Meraka will continue managing the network and look at future expansion", said Kuun.
"From Tenet’s perspective we will continue to operate the network such as all the routing, trouble shooting and network management. At the same time we are heavily involved with the UBuntuNet alliance where we are working on establishing structures in participating countries with the end goal of building a continental wide fibre research and education network" Alston said.
It is hard to visualise what 40 times the bandwidth will achieve. Right now it seems massive but no doubt universities will soon be looking for more as their research initiatives, which up to now were bandwidth-throttled, will expand exponentially.
Education connectivity discussion
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