1

Connectivity and Collaboration

Duncan Martin (CEO)Tertiary Education Network (TENET), South Africa

UNIVERSITY LEADERS’ FORUMPartnership for Higher Education in Africa University of Cape Town

19 – 21 November 2006

2

Potted history of the Internet• 1970’s: Internet started by US DoD research arm

• 1980’s: US academe takes control– Free for all. Netiquette defines the rules. Email is what it’s about.

– Distributed, user-led management.

• 1990’s: Growth of the WWW– Joe Citizen gets connected.

– Rise of the ISP industry

– Intellectual property issues become important.

– Commercial interests vie for control.

• 2000’s: Commerce and governments take control– Top level policy power passes to political and legislative levels

– Spam (unsolicited, bulk marketing by email)

– Death of Netiquette. Viruses. Hackers. Revenge of the geeks.

– E-commerce: the web in service of big business

– Network carriers and content providers vie for operational control

3

Some market factors

• Who pays for inter-continental connectivity?

• Satellites, submarine cables

• VSATs, SAT-3 (WASC and SAFE), EASSy

• “Dry” optical fibre deployment in Africa

• Incumbents, deregulation, competition

• Cross-border half-circuit tariffs

4

VSAT vs terrestrial connectivity

• Most African universities still depend on satellite (VSAT) connections

– Base stations in Europe, USA, Israel

– All traffic to and from the campus flows via the satellite

• HOWEVER! Metropolitan institutions will soon have access to fibre – finished with VSAT!

5

Academic networking• From mid ’90’s emphasis moves to student

computing– Deployment of student computing labs– Email accounts for all!– E-Learning paradigms develop– Budgets and access circuits inadequate

• However: researchers’ bandwidth needs grow exponentially– Massive growth in research data production– Grids, high performance computing– Data mining approach to research

6

Academe’s Response: RENs

And so the firstResearch and Education Networks (RENs)

were deployed.

Let’s build alternative non-commercial networks for research and education!

7

So what is a REN?

• Uses standard Internet engineering protocols

• Provides alternative, fast links and routes between connecting sites

• Subject to an Acceptable Use Policy…

• Usually, participating institutions must be research or educational institutions

• Has peering/transit agreements with other RENs

8

The RENS of the World• 34 NRENs in Europe

– JANET (UK), Renater (France), SurfNET (Holland),..

– Inter-connected by European Regional REN - Géant• Canada: CANARIE• In the USA, there are many different RENs

– Federal scope: Internet2 (Abilene), LambdaRail, ESNet,..– Statewide scope: CENIC, NYSERNET,..– Multiple inter-connection agreements

• Asia/Pacific– ERNET (India), CERNET (China), SINET (Japan), AARNET

(Australia),… Far east regional network TEIN2

• South America: Regional RENs Clara, RedClara• North Africa: EUMEDCONNECT

– Connections to Géant from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian Authority

9

Global REN

• All RENs are inter-connected

• The European Commission has funded many inter-continental links

• The result is…there is a single

10

“Commodity” vs “Research” traffic

• Every university still needs a healthy connection to the general Internet for “commodity” traffic– email, chat and telephony (in and out)– access to publishers’ and other suppliers’ sites (e.g.

open source mirrors, Microsoft updates, etc– general web browsing– allows external access to university’s own e-learning

and other web resources

• And a healthy NREN connection for “research” traffic– uncongested connectivity to other universities and

research institutions world-wide

11

What about RENs in sub-Saharan Africa?

12

The goal set at Tunis WSIS

No later than 2008, universities and research

institutions in Southern Africa will have access to

broadband services and the global Internet on the

same level as peers in the developed parts of the

world, with a quality of service in the Gbps rather

than Kbps and with delays, variations and error

rates as defined by normal properties of properly

run terrestrial fibre networks.Prof Bjorn Pehrson, AAU Conference, WSIS-Tunis, Nov 2005

13

NRENs in E’n & S’n Africa• Operational NRENs

– KENET (Kenya)– MALICO/MAREN (Malawi)– TENET (South Africa)

• NRENs in formation– MoRENet (Mozambique)– RWEDNET (Rwanda)– TENET (Tanzania)– RENU (Uganda)– ZAMREN (Zambia)

NREN Projects starting in

Botswana, DRC, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe

14

(See www.ubuntunet.net)

• Fledgling regional Research and Education Network– Aims to build the “Géant of Africa”– Registered as a non-profit association in Amsterdam– Full legal capacity to operate world-wide

• Membership open to all NRENs of sub-Saharan Africa

• Founding NRENs– KENET (Kenya), MAREN (Malawi), MoRENet

(Mozambique), RwEdNet (Rwanda), TENET (South Africa)

15

The UbuntuNet Alliance (2)

• Strong support from Association of African Universities and from the EC

• Support from donors

– IDRC (Canada), SIDA (Sweden), OSISA

• Trying to get in on ground floor of EASSy

– Attended NEPAD protocol signing in Kigali

– We’re also talking to the operators

16

Ownership models for NRENs

• Top-down, power-based ownership• By national governments? NEPAD? AU?

OR

• Bottom-up, collaborative ownership• Associations of universities• Associations of NRENs (like UbuntuNet)

Funding is the key issue• Will our governments contribute to funding, but

allow universities to own the NRENs?

17

Remember!Collaboration seldom walks more than 50 paces…

Sage

Structuring the collaborative venture

…and never climbs stairs….

18

Structuring the collaborative venture (2)

• Collaborate in building the venture, BUT NOT IN RUNNING IT!

• Design out any need for operational managers and staff to sustain collaborative behaviour!

• Design in normal customer-supplier relationships!

19

How?Have different people and levels responsible for:

• Top-level governance of the REN(Locate this at Deputy Vice-Chancellor level)

• provision of the REN’s collaborative services(Board of Directors, CEO, staff)

• Being the demanding customer in each institution (IT Directors and their staffs)

N.B. Don’t ask IT Directors to also be responsible for top-level governance of the REN!

20

Key messages of this talk• African Universities demand to be as well

connected as their peers elsewhere!– Please add your voice and energy!

• Demand affordable access for your universities to communications infrastructure!

• Get involved with and support your NREN!– Fight for it to be granted the licenses it needs!– Ensure sound governance structure

• Support the UbuntuNet Alliance

21