TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 1Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

(GN2) NA4 Support for Research and Education Networking in Less

Advanced Countries

Valentino Cavalli

TNC2005, 6-9 June 2005

www.terena.nl

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 2Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

Overview

• Background TERENA activities in support of less advanced countries

• GN2 NA4 Support activity• Focus countries and priority setting• R&E Networking in the first countries under

consideration in 2005

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 3Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

TERENA activities in recent years

• TERENA Members Development Programme • Gain better understanding about the status of

R&E networking in the country, inhibitors and opportunities

• Help understanding the role of TERENA and promoting participation in TERENA activities

• Visit the country, talk to users and stakeholders of the NREN and provide recommendations: Lithuania, Latvia, FYR of Macedonia

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 4Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

GN2 Support for less advanced countries

• Target countries – NRENs participating in the GN2 project

– countries that have obtained connectivity to GÉANT through the SEEREN and EUMEDCONNECT projects

• More advanced participants in the GN2 project will assist NRENs, and possibly regional and local research and education networks, in the less-advanced countries. This will address in particular transfer of knowledge in technical, managerial and policy areas

• Budget € 600,000 over four years Sep 2004 – Sep 2008

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 5Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

Type of support actions

• technical workshops on specific operational aspects of advanced network technologies

• managerial workshops, addressing the management of research and education networks and their relations with government, funding bodies, connected institutions, end-users and telecommunications operators

• consultancy to research and education networking organisations in less-advanced countries, including for example the development of business plans

• secondment of staff members from research and education networking organisations in less-advanced regions with more advanced NRENs and universities.

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 6Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

Method of work

• Short list of target countries• Annual revision of the priority

– Bandwidth of national network– External connectivity– Human resources– Organisation & management– Funding– Opportunity

• Focus Countries: Needs Assessment• Role of Advisory Panel: assist and assess the work done• Public GN2 NA4 report

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 7Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

Initial set of focus countries in 2005

• Albania– Visit on 26-27 May 2005– Recommendations (confidential) issued by Mid June

2005– Users workshop by mid November 2005

• Morocco– Visit on 20-22 June 2005– Follow up during summer and fall 2005

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 8Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

Albania: NREN

• No progress about Academic Network of Albania initiated by joint decision of Ministry of Education and Science and Academy of Sciences

– Management Board– Technical Board

• There is no NREN in Albania• INIMA: Institute of Informatics and Applied Mathematics of the

Academy of Sciences– DNS service for secondary level domains of ccTld .al – SMTP and

HTTP service for the ASA– institution LAN– 1 Mbit/s leased line to the Internet– International connectivity 2Mbit/s from SEEREN discontinued

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 9Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

Albania: R&E institutions and networks

• 11 Universities in Albania– 6 located in Tirana (half of country students), including:

• University of Tirana – 7 faculties > 15,000 students• Polytechnic University – 4 faculties > 3,000 students

– Other universities in Elbasani, Shkodra, Gjirokastra, Korca, Vlora

• Academy of Sciences: 14 institutes, incl. INIMA• About 40 R&D departments at ministry level• No national academic network interconnecting universities or

institutes, a few institutes in Tirana have computer labs and (partial) Ethernet-based LAN + connection to the Internet via ISPs

– Faculty of Electric Engineering, Natural Sciences, Economy

• No dedicated resources for provision of network services

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 10Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

Albania: ICT and Telecommunications

• National strategy for ICT, which includes creation of NREN, but low priority in practice

• Result of 3 June election may change the situation• ALBTELECOM incumbent operator – fixed telephony –

being privatised. Monopoly officially ended in 2004. Partially liberalised marked for mobile telephony. Internet market liberalised – confusion about data transmission

• Opportunity for acquiring optical fibre by the academic community?

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 11Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

ALBTELECOM National Network

• 97 km 34 Mb/s• 246 km 155 Mb/s• 539 km land lines• 594 km submarine

(intern.) lines 622 Mb/s

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 12Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

ALBTELECOM International Network

2 projects:• Trans Balkan Line

(TBL) East-West• ADRIA 1 North-South

• Both with STM-4 (622Mb/s) FO

• Montenegro: FO Scutari-Murriqan (border)

• Kosovo: MW Tirana-Cvilen

TNC2005, Poznan, 6-9 June 2005 13Valentino Cavalli <cavalli@terena.nl>

Albania: conclusions

• Make sure that new government gives higher priority to information society and to research and education networking

• Lobbying in favour of creating the NREN or agreeing on an institution representing the whole R&E community

• Favour the exploitation of international initiatives in promoting the creation of a national network backbone