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broadband_connection@home

for students and employeesTom Koppen

director computing center

TERENA Networking Conference 2000Lisbon, 22-25 May

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And now something totally different

• Different accent

• Not a technical expert

• Case study on home connection for students

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University of Twente

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University of Twente

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University of Twente

• 2000 students living on campus• 4000 students living in town• 2500 staff living in town

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University of Twente

• technical and social studies• telematics, chip technology,

process engineering, biomedical engineering educational technology

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The network on campus

• Within buildings: switched Fast Ethernet

• Between buildings: Gigabit Ethernet

• SURFnet:• 1994: 4 Mbps• 1997: 34 Mbps• 1999: 155 Mbps• 2000: 1 Gbps• 2002: 20 Gbps

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Why connection at home?

• “ICT in education”– Intranet– Internet– File serving– Communication

• Education free of time

• Education free of place

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Why broadband connection?

• Course Management Systems

• Streaming video

• Multicast

• Videoconferencing

• Collaborative workspace

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1992: dial back

• Own modem pool• For file-transfer and internal e-mail• 14.4 kbps, later 28.8 kbps• In the beginning: free of charge• Later: 300 minutes/month free

• Results:– Number of accounts slowly growing– Users want to be “always on”

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1994: CAMPUSnet

• all 2000 student rooms on campus

• 10 Mbps shared Ethernet

• Fee: € 7 per month

• Also: free e-mail account for all students

• Result: from 50 % subscription 100 %

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1996: ISDN

• Faster: 64 or 128 kbps

• Phone calls possible while surfing

• More used by staff then by students

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1998: Dial-in

• Special contract with cable company

• PSTN and ISDN

• Free of charge (except phone pulses)

• Local phone tariff everywhere in NL

• Possible by competition in telecom world

• All students and staff an account

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1999: update CAMPUSnet

• 50 hubs replaced by switches• Faster:

10 Mbps shared 100 Mbps switched• Safer: no sniffling anymore• Paid by raising fee from € 7 to € 10

• Conclusion: once you possess the localloop, updating the technology is affordable.

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April 2000: cable modems

• Special arrangement with cable company

• Faster: maximum 0.5 Mbps

• Authentication by UT

• Fixed IP-numbers: intranet access

• At last a flat fee: € 19

• Sharing the connection permitted

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July 2000: ADSL

• Access Pilot with GigaSURF• Partner: datacom company Casene• Concentrators in 6 cities in the region• Minimum 2 Mbps 8 Mbps• Flat fee: € 36

• Results: earlier at our disposal, much more bandwidth, more certainty, a lot cheaper.

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Menu à la carte

Dial-in PSTN 56 kbps phone pulses

Dial-in ISDN 64 or 128 kbps+ € 9 subscription

phone pulses

Cable modem max 0.5 Mbps € 19

ADSL 2 - 8 Mbps € 38

CAMPUSnet 100 Mbps € 10

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200X: wireless

• Wireless LAN’s

• GPRS

• UMTS

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Internet traffic during the day

Twente

Big city

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Prognosis

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

1999 2000 2002

PSTNISDN

cablemodem

ADSL

FastEthernet

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How to lower costs and improve quality• The telco only for the local loop• To be done within university:

– Authentication– Access to Internet– E-mail and other network services – Helpdesk– Administration and billing

• Keep administration simple

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Conclusion

The connections to the homes commercial ISP’s offer are not fast enough for a reasonable price.

Universities should take responsibility for broadband Internet access of their students, if they have any ambition with “ICT in education”.

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