UNIVERSITY LEADERS FORUM Partnership for Higher Education in

UNIVERSITY LEADERS’ FORUM Partnership for Higher Education in Africa University of Cape Town 19 – 21 November 2006 Connectivity and Collaboration Duncan Martin (CEO) Tertiary Education Network (TENET), South Africa 1

Potted history of the Internet • 1970’s: Internet started by US Do. D 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 2

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 3

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! 4

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 5

Academe’s Response: RENs Let’s build alternative non-commercial networks for research and education! And so the first Research and Education Networks (RENs) were deployed. 6

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 7

The RENS of the World • 34 NRENs in Europe – JANET (UK), Renater (France), Surf. NET (Holland), . . – Inter-connected by European Regional REN - Géant • Canada: CANARIE • In the USA, there are many different RENs – Federal scope: Internet 2 (Abilene), Lambda. Rail, ESNet, . . – Statewide scope: CENIC, NYSERNET, . . – Multiple inter-connection agreements • Asia/Pacific – ERNET (India), CERNET (China), SINET (Japan), AARNET (Australia), … Far east regional network TEIN 2 • South America: Regional RENs Clara, Red. Clara • North Africa: EUMEDCONNECT – Connections to Géant from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian Authority 8

• All RENs are inter-connected • The European Commission has funded many inter-continental links • The result is…there is a single Global REN 9

“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 10

What about RENs in sub-Saharan Africa? 11

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 12

NRENs in E’n & S’n Africa • Operational NRENs – KENET (Kenya) – MALICO/MAREN (Malawi) – TENET (South Africa) • NRENs in formation – – – Mo. RENet (Mozambique) RWEDNET (Rwanda) TENET (Tanzania) RENU (Uganda) NREN Projects starting in ZAMREN (Zambia) Botswana, DRC, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe 13

(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), Mo. RENet (Mozambique), Rw. Ed. Net (Rwanda), TENET (South Africa) 14

The Ubuntu. Net 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 15

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 Ubuntu. Net) Funding is the key issue • Will our governments contribute to funding, but allow universities to own the NRENs? 16

Structuring the collaborative venture Sage Remember! Collaboration seldom walks more than 50 paces… …and never climbs stairs…. 17

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! 18

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! 19

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 Ubuntu. Net Alliance 20

21