UbuntuNet Alliance: From Dreams To Achievement

www.ubuntunet.net

Iman Abuel Maaly, Vice-Chair, UbuntuNet Alliance, Sudan

12-13 December 2012, Dubai, UAE

Contents

UbuntuNet Alliance: From Dreams To Achievement

1. The Alliance Today and Current Operations2. Fiber Opportunities3. Africa Connect Project: Connectivity, Services,

Capacity Building, and business model .

4. Success Factors

1. The Alliance Today: Membership1. Eb@le, DRC 2. EthERNet, Ethiopia3. iRENALA, Madagascar 4. *KENET, Kenya 5. *MAREN, Malawi 6. *MoRENet, Mozambique7. XNet, Namibia8. *RwEdNet, Rwanda 9. SomaliREN, Somalia 10. SudREN, Sudan 11. Southern Sudan (de facto)12. *TENET, South Africa 13. TERNET, Tanzania 14. RENU, Uganda 15. ZAMREN, Zambia

Alliance Membership (14)

UbuntuNet, London

Internet

UbuntuNet, Mtunzini

LINXGÉANT AMS-IX

UbuntuNet, Amsterdam

MoRENet

KENET

TENET

TERNETZAMREN 10Gbps,

SEACOM

5Gbps, WACS

SudREN

1. The Alliance Today: Current Operations

HartRAO to JIVE light path

• 2 Gbps light path• Transfers e-VLBI data in real time• HartRAO (Hartebeesthoek Radio-Astronomy

Observatory, South Africa)• JIVE: (e-VLBI Data processing at "D“ wingeloo,

Netherlands)

UbuntuNet Géant+

TENET SurfNet

HartRAO SurfNet

1. The Alliance Today: Current Operations

2. Fibre Opportunities (Regional And Global) Increasing

SLIDE 7

The Research and Education Network for sub-Saharan Africa

3. AfricaConnect: Filling part of the regional connectivity gap

SLIDE 8

The Research and Education Network for sub-Saharan Africa

3. AfricaConnect: Filling part of the regional connectivity gap

LusakaBlantyre

Nairobi

Mombasa

Dar es Salaam

Kampala

Kigali

Maputo

Mtunzini

Windhoek

Kinshasa

Terrestrial Ring: Nairobi Kampala Kigali Dar

Backbone Ring: Nairobi Dar Maputo Mtunzini

Backbone:Windhoek

Mtunzini

Backbone:Kinshasa Mtunzini.

Khartoum

Cape Town

3. Africaconnect: Capacity Building

• The Twinning umbrella• Secondment of experts to NRENs• Attachment to advanced networks• Workshops to address common capacity building

needs (online as much as possible)• Implementation of AfricaConnect• Establishment of a regional online lab• Working with identified universities to improve

engineering curricula

Approaches/ Opportunities

3. Africaconnect: The Four Major Services we Offer

1. African Transit Service (IPv4 or IPv6): • IP Interconnectivity within Africa with other

UbuntuNet NRENs and African commodity peers and transits

2. Global Transit Service (IPv4 of IPv6): • IP Interconnectivity worldwide withRegional

RENs the Internet (delivered at LINX, AMSIX)

3. Intercontinental Connectivity Service:• Layer 2 Interconnectivity between Africa and

Europe (UbuntuNet Backbone Hub in Africa to UbuntuNet Hub in Amsterdam or London)

4. Intercontinental Restoration Service:• Protects individual specified circuit in the event

of submarine cable outage

3. Africaconnect: The Four Major Services we Offer

• Sustainability:• Alliance must recover full costs (Operating and

Overhead) from its Member NRENS• Geographic Agnosticism:

• The same base charges apply everywhere• Charges shall be set from time to time by Board of

the Alliance to ensure sustainability of operations

3. Africaconnect: Cost Recovery Principles

4. Success Factors

• The Real Need – many universities still pay >$2,000 per Mbps/month (target: <$100);

• Development opportunity: reaching out to all levels of education;

• Market impact/ dividend: negotiated reduction in BW cost will drive the entire BW market;

• Alliance community commitment: Already raisied > €1.2m of our contribution;

• Policy level awareness of benefits in Africa• EUC support and goodwill

Prognosis:

• Our Success is not an IF Question; it is a WHEN Question!

• Appreciation: DANTE and other EUC NREN partners; our friends CLARA, C@ribNet, ASREN, WACREN

• EUC and the People of Europe – Thank You! AfricaConnect has brought the WHEN a lot closer; and AfricaConnect 2 would bring the success tomorrow

• Always remember: a helping hand brings mutual benefit

THANKS FOR LISTENING