Connectivity Providers Database

From: "Guy F. de Teramond" <gdt@ns.cr> To: keng@darkwing.uoregon.edu CC: randy@psg.com, sghuter@nsrc.org Date: Sun, 23 Feb 97 12:57:50 EST >What is the current configuration of CRNet Presently the satellite link with NSF Point of Presence at Homestead is 256 Kbps and terrestrial backbone links vary from 64 to 768 Kbps. This situation will now change rapidly as the new antenna becomes operational. The new antenna will start operating at 512 Kbps and will increase 256 Kbps each three months to reach its full T1/E1 capacity. Terrestrial backbone links (appearing in the topology shown under http://www.crnet.cr) will be upgraded to 2 Mbps. Physically CRNet and GOBNet will use the same physical infrastructure but will be administered independently (also with different security requirements). The CRNet/GOBNet project will be dealing in the immediate future with 50 institutions with direct connectivity (25 academic plus 25 government). This will provide a "critical mass" to finance high capacity links. CRNet uses basically CISCO equipment at the backbone level with BGP4 to peer with its neighbor systems (US, RACSA, GOBNet, Nicaragua and Panama), and EIGRP and IGRP at the backbone level. In the future we hope to move our system connectivity to the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) SDH (US equivalent is SONET) network, and connect our educational system at 155 Mbps directly over IP. The hope is to have entire libraries on line. This is certainly at the moment just that: a project >What pricing structure have you established? Does it cover >costs or are you dependent on further funding? Pricing has been maintained constant over the years. Prices are calculated on total capacity used by a given institution, at one or more CRNet point-of- presence, according to the formula: $Price (month) = 6.25 X CAPACITY (in Kbps) + $200 For 32, 64 and 128 Kbps the above formula gives $400, $600 and $ 1000 respectively. With the operation of the antenna, the communication costs will be lower, and the pricing scheme will be revised. We intend to introduce a new scheme based on a "national proxy system" according to which institutions with a proxy wall will be given substantially lower prices. Our studies have shown that approximately 80 % of the WEB/ FTP traffic is repetitive, and thus we will encourage this operational mode.