191

Association Reports and Regional Reviews

Academic Networking in Ireland

G o r d o n Y O U N G University of Limerick, Plassey Technological Park, Limerick, Ireland(Tel.: + 353 61 333644 ext. 2050; Fax: + 353 61 330316; E-mail: YOUNG-G@ULIE)

Abstract. This paper describes the networks in use within the Republic of Ireland and in particular, HEANET, the network in use by the University level colleges. It discuss the history of development, rationale for design decisions, funding and charging, management and interconnectivity of HEANET.

Keywords. Charging, Coloured books, EARN, EIRPAC, EUNET, gateways, HEANET, JANET, management, Open Systems Interconnect, protocols.

Gordon Young is the Manager of the Information Technology Department at the University of Limerick. He is responsible for the provision of academic and administrative comput- ing, audio-visual, printing and tele- phone services to the University. He is a member of the HEANET Network Management Committee, RARE Working Group 8 and Chairman of DECUS Ireland Network Special In- terest Group.

North-Holland Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 19 (1990) 191-194

1. Introduction

In order to understand the need and resources available for academic networking, it is necessary to give some facts and figures on research and development within the Republic of Ireland. Ireland is a small country (population of 3.5 mil- lion) with 7 Universities, 33 third-level Colleges and 10 Research Institutes. The Government re- search and development budget is 100 million ECU. A large percentage (compared with other European countries) of the 17-21 age group at- tend some form of third-level education (27%), and a very high percentage of the population is still to reach the "third-level" age group (40%). Most companies are small and, consequently, do not undertake much research and development themselves. (Ireland only has 70 companies em- ploying more than 500 employees; however, there are 14000 companies with less than 50 employees). Most research is undertaken either by the Univer- sities, Government funded research centres or by small innovative companies. The large companies are mostly foreign based and are only just begin- ning to undertake research activity (because of the availability of trained third-level students).

Three research networks are available within Ireland: - HEANET: the Higher Education Network with

7 connected sites (the universities), - EARN: European Academic Research Net-

work with 4 sites, - EUNET: European Unix Network with 19

sites. EUNET is primarily used by small companies as the costs associated with receiving/sending data are small (mainly dial-up connections). Since read- ers will already be familiar with the protocols and use of EARN/EUNET in a European context, I will not describe these networks here.

0169-7552/90/$03.50 © 1990 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland)

192 G. Young / Academic networking in Ireland

HE T

,Galway

Limerick

t : / , f ; - t n i v e r ~ i t v C o l l ~ Z e f ; , ~ l w : l ' ,

/ ( u - [ n i v e r s i t v Col l eze D u b l i n T C U - T r f n i t v C o l l e g e D u b l i n

Fig. 1. HEANET.

2. HEANET: Description

HEANET links computers in the seven third- level institutions funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), a government body responsible for funding University education in Ireland, using Telecom Eireann's (the public carrier) packet switched X.25 network (EIRPAC) and leased lines; see also Fig. 1.

The services provided by the network include electronic mail, file transfer and interactive access. The network initially used the UK Coloured Book Protocols for mail and file transfer, but has re- cently adopted the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol as well for electronic mail (the public domain PMDF package).

3. HEANET: History

Ireland was early into networking (1977) with the provision of a packet switched network called the Irish Universities Network (IUN). This linked

three Universities via leased lines to a switch located in Dublin and then onto Euronet. This network was operational in 1981, and ran until replaced by HEANET. In 1982 a Network Work- ing Party was established to look at the future of networking, and proposed a pilot network to run for two years and then be evaluated. It was recog- nised that the network should use the emerging international standards and it, therefore, recom- mended the use of X.25 and Open Systems Inter- connect standards wherever possible. However, since no OSI protocols were available the U K JANET protocols, known as Coloured Books, were recommended.

For the pilot, the Network Study Group pro- posed that the network should use the public X.25 system, EIRPAC, a volume charged network. It is interesting to look at the reasons for this, and whether, with hindsight, they were correct as other European networks have decided to adopt privately run X.25 networks to avoid volume charging. The Study Group recommended EIRPAC for the following reasons:

(1) During the period of the pilot it was ex- pected that traffic would be slow to build up, and that the volume costs of using EIRPAC would be less than the rent required for the leased lines and costs incurred of operating private X.25 switches. In fact this is still true today.

(2) Using EIRPAC avoided the need for any centralised support staff. Telecom Eireann are re- sponsible for operating and managing the X.25 network. Each site only has to be responsible for its own interface to the X.25 network. Indeed, HEANET still has no central support or oper- ational staff.

Although the network is a volume charged net- work, all charges have been paid centrally by the HEA, giving the users the impression that the service is free.

Gateways were provided to E A R N / E U N E T in 1986. These gateways are provided on a voluntary basis by two member Universities.

In 1987 the pilot phase came to an end and the network became an integral part of the service provided by the computer service departments of the different member institutions.

Figure 2 shows the usage of H EA N ET during the years 1986 to 1989.

Note: This graph only shows the traffic that is sent across the public X.25 service. A leased line

G. Young / Academic networking in Ireland 193

Segments (millions)

30

25

20

15

10

19~ 1~7 1988 1~9

Within Ireland ~ International ~ Total

Fig. 2. HEANET usage over EIRPAC.

also exists between two of the Universities and the traffic on this line is not shown here.

4. HEANET: Funding and Charging

During the first four years of operation, HEANET received a grant of 140000 ECU per year from the Government. This covered all devel- opment and running costs. However, since HEANET has no central support staff, the true costs of the provision of the network are hidden in each University's staffing budget. Staffing to manage, develop and operate the network is pro- vided on a voluntary basis by each University. For the last three years the Government grant has been cut to 64000 ECU per year, insufficient to meet the running costs of the network.

It has, therefore, been necessary to introduce a charging mechanism to each of the member sites. The algorithm adopted for the current year is

(1) All X.25 traffic within Ireland, leased lines, fixed EIRPAC costs (rental) and R A R E / E A R N / EUNET costs will be paid from a central budget.

(2) All International X.25 traffic (note this does not include traffic to E A R N / E U N E T as this is sent to a gateway located within the country, and then onto these private international networks) to be paid for by the local site (most of this traffic is to commercially available database providers).

(3) The central budget would be raised from member University contributions based upon the

percentage budget they receive from the Higher Education Authority. This algorithm avoids the necessity for dealing with the charging of unsolicited traffic from one of the gateways onto the public X.25 network destined to one of the other Universities.

Figure 3 shows how the current costs are in- curred. It must be noted that the E A R N / R A R E / E U N E T costs account for 28% of the budget. Since most of the X.25 volume charges are made up of X.25 packets going internationally, over 50% of the budget is spent in support of traffic t o / f r o m other countries.

X25 Volume 38%

Fixed 5%

7% EARN 19%

Fig. 3. HEANET costs 1989.

Other 10%

INET .~%

194 G. Young / Academic networking in lreland

5. HEANET: Management Development Oper- ation

HEANET has no full time or part time staff. All effort has been provided voluntarily by the seven Institutions. The network is managed by the Network Management Committee. This commit- tee meets approximately once every three months. It consists of the Directors of the computer services departments in the Universities and Colleges and the Chairmen of the Technical, Applications and Operations Working Groups.

The HEANET Management committee has set up three working groups-- the Technical Working Group, the Network Applications Group, and the Network Operations Group. These working groups consist of representatives from the computer services staff in each Institution and are responsi- ble for the technical development, applications, availability and operational aspects respectively.

6. Other Networks in Ireland

Both EARN and EUNET operate within Ireland. However, the same University staff who " run" HEANET also administer these networks. This has meant that we have avoided the political rivalry experienced in other countries. Indeed, very pragmatic decisions are made as to the best net- work for a site to connect to and are based on real considerations, such as costs, availability of soft- ware, local support staff, etc.

7. lnterconnectivity

The gateways between HEANET, EARN, EUNET and other national networks are operated

by two Universities (University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin). An informal naming group has been created and an address used in one network is valid in all the others. It, therefore, appears to the end user that there is only one network. The users do not have to worry if the site they want to contact is on EU N ET or EARN; the network can work that out and route accordingly.

8. Uniqueness of Ireland

There are some factors relating to networking that pertain to only small countries, especially Ireland. In particular, usage is mainly outward bound internationally, and very limited funding and technical resources are available.

Ireland has a very small research community, which is lacking a critical mass in most areas. Research funding is becoming EC based; there- fore most of the traffic is outward bound to other countries. This implies that Ireland requires easy and reliable access to other networks at an affor- dable price. As there is only very limited funding available, Ireland cannot afford to pay for a duplicated European infrastructure and requires co-ordinated long haul connections.

9. Conclusion

This paper has shown how it is possible, with a small budget, limited resources, and voluntary staff for a small country to plan, implement, and run a comprehensive national network with interna- tional connections, provided good co-operation can be achieved by the participating sites.