An African perspective on R&E networking in s ub-Saharan Africa

An African perspective on R&E networking in

sub-Saharan Africa

Meeting on enhancing research and education networking within and to Africa

Washington DC, 5 May 2005

Duncan MartinCEO of TENET

Tertiary Education Network of South Africa 2

What’s meant by“Research and Education Networking”?In the developed world: ensuring that advanced networking traffic is not

disabled by congestion from commodity-type traffic developing next-generation networking and

applications in research and higher education.

In Africa, south of the Sahara: securing affordable Internet access;

special “holy cow” deals for research and education institutions;

relaxed VSAT license conditions enabling participation in collaborative international

research projects.


The reasons are well-known

Terrestrial communications infrastructure is sparse (except in South Africa)

Many countries still have a single incumbent operator protected by restrictive license regulations

Full cost of long-haul connectivity to “the Internet” in Europe and the USA has to be borne by the Africans

Punitive cost of cross-border circuits within Africa


The University of Witwatersrand11.3 Mb/s Internet access

Cost breakdown

Appox. unit cost ($ per kb/s per month) $4.00

Carrier transit cost in UK 7 %

Long haul to UK (via SAT-3 cable) cost 63 %

Transport and peering within South Africa 30 %


The University of Swaziland192 kb/s Internet access

Cost breakdownAppox. unit cost ($ per kb/s per month) $ 10.00

Carrier transit in UK 3 %

Long haul to UK (via SAT-3 cable) 25 %

Transport and peering within South Africa 12 %

Trans-border link: S African half-circuit 30 %

Trans-border link: Swazi half-circuit 30 %


SAT-3/WASC/SAFE

4 56

6 7

8

9

10

11 12

13

14

15

16

3

2

1

SAFE Landing Points 12. South Africa 13. France (Reunion) 14. Mauritius 15. India 16. Malaysia

SAT-3/WASC Landing Points 1. Portugal 2. Spain (Canaries Islands) 3. Senegal 4. Côte d’ Ivoire 5. Ghana 6. Benin 7. Nigeria 8. Cameroon 9. Gabon 10. Angola 11. South Africa

SAT-3 / SAWC / SAFE


SAT-3 connectivityto and from South Africa

Layer 2 pipes between Cape Town or Johannesburg and New York, NY Ashburn, VA London Amsterdam

Back up pipe via SAFE cable Westwards around the World from New York

GRE tunnel between Géant and TENET network Géant PoP in London TENET’s Cape Town gateway Shares TENET’s SAT-3 bandwidth (~ 100 Mb/s)


Cable versus VSAT (1)In South Africa TELKOM SA’s exclusive SAT-3 landing rights last through

2007 Sentech has satellite landing rights (as does TELKOM SA)

TELKOM SA has a comprehensive broadband national network Capacity leased by commercial ISPs TELKOM SA is by far the largest ISP…. 3 other 1st tier ISPs; 200+ resellers Long haul via SAT-3 and SAFE cables, satellite TENET institutions have a special deal from TELKOM SA

Latency via SAT-3 to New York: 220 msCost of Internet access to TENET institutions in SA around $ 4.00 per kb/s (full duplex) per month


Cable versus VSAT (2)

Second Network Operator (SNO)

has extensive fiber connectivity into neighboring countries

will become useful one day (2006?)

EASSy cable planned for 2008

Tata Communications has shareholdings in

SNO and EASSy


Cable versus VSAT (3)Elsewhere: Sparsity of terrestrial infrastructure limits usefulness of SAT-3 Even in Nigeria, Ghana, …. Campuses rely mostly on VSAT services Some exceptions (e.g. U of Dar-es-Salaam) Consortial procurement (“Partnership universities”)

Carnegie Corp, Ford, MacArthur, Rockefeller Leadership from African Virtual University

Latency to New York: 550 msCost to institutions Special deals around $2.00 per kb/s (half-duplex)

per month (plus cost of satellite dish)


About TENET

Non-profit, private company Incorporated in 2000 Owned jointly by the 24 public universities in SA Extending ownership to public research institutions

Appointed by each institution as its agent for procuring Internet access 45 institutions; 90 connected campuses; 100 Mb/s on SAT-3

Negotiated special deals with TELKOM SA

Runs program to develop IT support capacity Training, coaching, technical workshops Funded by Andrew W Mellon Foundation


The SARUA initiative

Southern African Regional Universities Association Launched in March 2005

46 public universities in the SADC region 26 have access to SAT-3 20 use VSAT connectivity

SARUA envisages adopting a TENET-like agency model Negotiating a common VSAT deal for SARUA universities Lobbying, where necessary, for relaxation of VSAT license

restrictions and/or fees Achieving a shared connection to Géant / Internet2


The “strong agent” model

Each participating institution authorizes the Agent to Negotiate and enter into service provider agreements on its

behalf Administer the agreement (handling orders, billings,

payments,..) Levy an agency fee to cover the agent’s direct costs.

This puts the Agent in a very strong negotiating position

Moral and political pressure can be very helpful on incumbent operators from international donors and agencies


Beyond Internet access – becoming part of the global REN

SA Government is creating SANReN Department of Science and Technology (DST) Has contracted TENET’s assistance Needs of “big e-science” projects

Radio and optical astronomy, VLBI, ALICE Project, tropical medicine

Inter-connection with TENET network “Connectable” institutions in other countries welcome Will support IPv6

EC very supportive dedicated connection to Géant (1 Gb/s?)

In place by year-endSKA bid grabs the imagination!


Beyond Internet access – high performance computing

Center for High Performance Computing Being planned as a national facility To be located in Cape Town Operated by CSIR Supported by SA Government (DST) Accessed via SANReN

An African perspective on R&E networking in s ub-Saharan Africa

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