EUMEDCONNECT2

Telecommunications infrastructure in the Mediterranean: trends and

opportunities EU-MED EVENT 3

Brussels 31-03-2010GRNET

Overview

• Telecommunications infrastructure in the Mediterranean: trends and opportunities– Survey results– Eumedconnect PoPs– Terrestrial networks– Alternative networks

• Future extensions

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The need for a comprehensive network study

• To pave the way for a future “targeted” tender• To raise awareness among the beneficiary partners about

potential existing alternative infrastructures• To thoroughly examine a few network scenarios and weight

their pros & cons• To open an eye in neighbouring regions (mainly to Gulf

countries and less to sub saharan countries)

Study’s Methodology

• Interviews with EUMED (GEANT) countries (Cyprus, Italy, France and Spain)

• Consultation with telecom/capacity providers• Assessment of beneficiary’s networks through a survey

Main points of the Survey questionnaire

• Existing NREN network with emphasis on international links• Anticipated international capacity needs for the next two years• Update market information regarding:

– the supply conditions of international bandwidth– the terrestrial cross-borders for international connectivity– the option of alternative infrastructures– pricing information for international connectivity services

• Feedback in regards to potential domestic funds that could be supportive of EUMEDCONNECT extension

• Political background

Survey Results

• Market information was supportive of the developments of the supply side• Not certain projections of the increasing REN demand • Pricing information provided can not back up a safe budgeting• Pricing for alternative infrastructures is not available• Regulatory barriers, lack of political consensus and administrative issues have

to be addressed in the near future• Part of the EUMDECONNECT network could run over terrestrial / alternative

infrastructures given that the associated costs could be competitive enough to the ones of submarine links

EUMEDCONNECT2 Network

EUMEDCONNECT PoPs: Marseilles and Sicily (1)

• The majority of the submarine cables across the Mediterranean are landing in these locations

• There is plenty of capacity for backhaul at competitive prices, possibly even over dark fiber links to GEANT network

• Under a certain allocation of MED countries to each of these two POPs the links can be minimized in distance (minimum RTD as to GEANT) and possibly in cost

• Some of the cables terminated in these two locations are private and possibly procurement issues appearing in consortium cables could be overcome

• They can support a future extension of EUMEDCONNECT to the Gulf region and/or East Africa since most of the cables are transiting these areas too

EUMEDCONNECT PoPs: Marseilles and Sicily (2)

EUMEDCONNECT PoPs: Cyprus (1)

• Cyprus can play a nodal role in the east Mediterranean basin• All the regional submarine cables coming from the MED Middle East counties are

landing in Cyprus• In the light of LinkSCEEM project Cyprus could aggregate NREN traffic from Syria,

Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt so that it could be reasonable to establish an EUMEDCONNECT POP there for meeting region’s needs. In the same context, diversity links, separated from LinkSCEEM ones, could be procured for individual Levant countries

• Cyprus to GEANT link, however, should be fully protected or diversified

EUMEDCONNECT PoPs: Cyprus (2)

EUMEDCONNECT extension to Gulf and East/West Africa countries

• Plethora of fibre infrastructure in the Gulf region. Saudi Arabian telco play a critical role.

• International cables to East Africa are to enter commercial service soon.• Egypt may act as aggregator/gate of connecting those regions.• Diversity links could also be set up through Iran and Iraq and their

interconnection to Turkey.• Similarly West Africa countries could benefit and interconnect with EUMED

countries (Portugal or Spain)

Terrestrial networks: Conclusions

• North Africa and Egypt– The bulk majority of the international traffic is towards Europe. The cross-border connections to

neighboring countries are improving.– Coastal festoon networks may substitute terrestrial fiber networks.– Telecom operators with terrestrial networks are mostly incumbents that results in a high pricing

scheme tied with the half-circuit model.

• Levant– There are optical cross-border connections with protected or non-protected routes. – Capacity availability is limited in some cases, with not certain upgrade plans– Incumbents’ business model is again tied with the half-circuit model

• Gulf countries– All the Gulf countries are terrestrially interconnected– There are also terrestrial cross-border links with Levant countries and Turkey

Terrestrial networks: Recommendations

• Terrestrial connections could be a solution for off-loading multiple international submarine links particularly originating from countries with the most competitive international price list

• Terrestrial links could be adopted for low capacity connections either for aggregation or for resiliency purposes

• The main objective should be to minimize the total annual spend and maximize the actual capacity

Alternative networks: Conclusions

• When a utility wishes to market its “dark fibre” the approval of the appropriate ministries and the compliance with the regulatory regime are required

• If dark fiber is granted by a utility to a 3rd party, the management, the operation and the maintenance of the telecommunication infrastructure built upon this fiber pair is normally responsibility of the 3rd party

• Building such a network on an international scale assumes that all the issues have been resolved at a national level for all participants and operational issues such as network maintenance and management can be addressed under a certain political consensus.

• There are few examples of utilizing this fiber surplus due to the legislation regime. • According to recent information the Ministry of ICT of Jordan has submitted a request

and a proposal to the Arab Telecommunication and Information Council of Ministers to establish the Arab Regional Network using the available fiber between the Levant Arab Countries.

Alternative networks: Recommendations

• Utility (power, pipeline, railways, etc) networks could prove a very good alternative to the traditional telecom solutions for NREN international connectivity

• Coordination of interconnecting networks, where possible, is required

• Management and maintenance responsibilities of the international network should be undertaken by a single entity

• Regulatory barriers and technical issues need some time to be addressed and resolved

Pricing and network alternatives investigation

• Update price figures were not available for all the countries and for all the products.

• Lack of a realistic sample of intra-connectivity (mainly terrestrial) links’ pricing.• Pricing reflects the market conditions of supply and demand in the country of

reference, the existing and forthcoming competition and regulatory level as well as the commercial strategy of the providers there

• Regression models were adopted for countries and for speeds that update pricing was not available.

• Terrestrial intra-links proved to be expensive as being subject to half-circuit price models

Network Scenarios

As to the network topologies and having in mind that it is not easy to optimize at the same time all three indicators i.e. cost, capacity and geography, three draft scenarios have been elaborated – First a network scenario based on minimizing the cost is evaluated. In this case

the basic criterion for each country is what the minimum link cost to GEANT POP or EUMEDCONNECT POP is.

– Second, a network scenario based on a star sub-regional topology perspective has been considered. In this scenario grooming of the links of neighbouring countries to the nearest / or cheapest GEANT or EUMEDCONNECT POP is attempted.

– Finally the third network approach, that is presented next, is trying to evaluate how possible is to establish sub-regional networks ensuring, also, better resiliency.

Network ScenariosNetwork Scenario III

Gulf

Levant and Egypt

North Africa

FR

IT or FR

ITCY

Network Scenario III

Gulf

Levant and Egypt

North Africa

FR

IT or FR

ITCY

Future extensions

In order for EUMEDCONNECT to lead similar R&E networking initiatives, coming up from Africa (west, south, east) or Gulf region, it is crucial its footprint to be easily accessible from the following points:– Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – Port Sudan, Sudan– Djibouti, Djibouti– Morocco– Portugal and UK

Conclusions

• Results of the this study are very promising for the future of EUMEDCONNECT

• Telecommunications infrastructure in the Mediterranean is capable to support next research networking initiatives

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