The Singapore Advanced Research & Education Network

SingAREN

and

Singapore MIT Alliance

Driven by :

National Science & Technology Board

Kent RidgeDigital Labs

National Universityof Singapore

Nanyang TechnologicalUniversity

Funded by :Infocomm DevelopmentAuthority of Singapore

Overall Network Configuration

SingAREN now has a PoP in Los Angeles to aggregate all its US traffic US local connections to StarTAP & Abilene upgraded to 45 Mbps & 155

Mbps respectively PoP provides control over the amount and type of in-bound traffic

entering SingAREN’s 14Mbps international link

Features Update

Current multicast peers– vBNS, StarTAP, APAN (Japan & Korea), SurfNet & NUS– Selective multicast streams to conserve bandwidth

IPv6 peers– Native : 6TAP, 6BONE, APAN (Japan & Korea) & NTRC

(NTU)– Tunneled : Merit, UUNET, AMS-IX, Deutche Telekoms

Rudimentary “Quality-of-Service” is provided– SingAREN’s 14M link to US is partitioned into different

bandwidths– Each partition carries different grades of traffic– Currently, traffic is being graded as either premium or normal

Distance LearningSingapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) Program A very selective Master/Ph.D. joint program Involves National University of Singapore (NUS),

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) & MIT Launched in July 1999 Students undergoes initial orientation in Singapore,

then 1 month in MIT followed by continuation of program in Singapore.

Students earn single degree with indigenous registered institution

3 programs totaling about 67.5 conferencing hours/week

Expand to 5 programs totalling about 100 hours/week in August 2001

SMA DE - Configuration

Studentaccess via web forrevision

NUS Auditorium / NUS Auditorium / SMART ClassroomSMART Classroom

Online digitizationonto videoserver

Video ServerVideo Server

MITMITAuditoriumAuditorium

Internet 2Internet 2Audio / Video ConferencingAudio / Video Conferencing

Application Sharing via Internet 2Application Sharing via Internet 2

ISDNISDN

View videoView video

SMA DE Connectivity

NUS Gateway

SingAREN*GigaPoP

NUS Classroom

LAPoP

MITGateway

MIT Classroom14 Mbps ILC

OC-3

Abilene

155 Mbps

SMA DE Connectivity (cont.)

CC1ATM GW

FirewallR

R

R

R

137.132.4.2NUS One Arm Router

137.132.2.3NUS

137.132.2.98NUS

178.18.163.66NUS

SingAREN(Ayer Rajah)

202.8.94.1202.8.94.50

SingAREN(LA PoP)

202.8.94.94

MIT

198.32.8.17198.32.8.2

198.32.8.14198.32.8.6

198.32.8.26198.32.8.39

137.132.21.134NUS PT210

18.39.0.145MIT PT210 192.5.89.101

192.5.89.1018.168.0.14

SingNet

Internet IINUS MIT Layer 3 Route

Abilene

SMA DE – Distance Counseling

Primary instructor works with remote assistants Multiple platforms:

– Email– Discussion forum– Desktop conferencing– Chat rooms

Lecturers equipped with Distance Education kits:– Desktop conferencing– Scanner– Writing tablet mouse

Students have access to desktop multimedia conferencing stations

SMA DE – Lessons Learnt

Synchronous teaching/learning:– A challenge to maintain Line of Presence in large

classroom– Sustained audio quality a challenge (noise &

breakups)– Single screen mode demands higher video resolution– Delay in camera tracking system poses problems for

Q&A sessions – improvements using push-to-talk system

– Secondary communication channels for inter-team session monitoring to ensure rapid problem resolution

SMA DE – Lessons Learnt (cont) Pedagogical Issues:

– Faculty needs to understand technical limitations– Adaptation required– Conducting an effective Q&A session is challenging– Backup connectivity activation disrupts flow of lessons

Support Issues:– Requires well understood inter-team operational

protocols– Inter-technical team building essential– Core technical staff available on mobile/beepers– 1-man operation highly risky– Replicated services in local helpdesk a necessity for

quality service

www.singaren.net.sg

Tel: +65-7796692