Connectivity Providers Database

From: Ermanno Pietrosemoli (IE) <ermanno@ing.ula.ve> To: ermanno@ing.ula.ve, nunez@ing.ula.ve, sghuter@psg.com, vitalee@ing.ula.ve Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 19:27:27-040 Data Network of the University of the Andes (RedULA) Edmundo Vitale D., Coordinator Luis A. N#$ez, Coordinator of the Academic Computer Center July 1995 EVOLUTION. RedULA, the data network of the University of the Andes (ULA), rida-Venezuela, is known as the national pilot project of academic networks. It has been the reservoir of computer science development and strategies since 1990. Currently, more than 1,600 scholars use the electronic mail service. RedULA installations span over the city of rida and the University of the Andes in Trujillo and T chira. RedULA uses the following transmission media: coaxial cable, telephone lines (twisted-pair), Optical Fiber, digital telephony and radiolinks. Therefore, th founadation is set for the "backbone" of the future project known as rida Network (MERINET). Among the elements that have contributed to the success of RedULA, the following can be mentioned: 1. A University project. It began in 1991 as a project sponsored by the University Office for Scientific, Humanistic, and Technological Research (CDCHT) meant to connect two newly created LANs between the Colleges of Sciences and Engineering. This project was carried out thanks to a digital telephone system previously installed throughout the University that permitted data communication between these two colleges. The primary network was set, and the connection to CONICIT (National Council for Science and Technological Research) national network and to Internet could be established in the fourth quarter of 1992. By November 1992, the First Latin American School of Networks was held at the College of Sciences. RedULA kept growing in 1994. In fact, it has interconnected most University installations (See Fig. 1). RedULA nodes and user statistics from 1991 through 1995 are shown both in Fig. 2 and in the table below. A 1996 projection is also therein included: YEARS No. OF HOSTS No. USERS 91 40 100 92 80 300 93 150 600 94 350 1200 95 600 1800 96 1300 4000 In order to compare ULA performance with the rest of the Venezuelan university institutions, the data1 on the average hosts connected to Venezuela domain (ve) are given below:INSTITUTIONPERCENTAGE (%) OF HOSTS CONNECTED TO INTERNET* IVIC 29 The ULA project started as a staff training program. Indeed, this concept has been broadened, and now a new program called "Alfabetizaci"n en Inform tica" (Literacy in Computer Science), has been developed to train University managers, faculty, staff, and graduate students. Through this program, they can learn to navigate through Internet. RedULA has received great support from international companies such as Protokol (3 Com), CYGNUS (CISCO), EMSCA ( formerly SUN ), SUN for Latinamerica, ERICSSON, IBM of Venezuela, NEWBRIDGE, and DATAVIZ (Silicon Graphics). SUPPORT. 1. Telecommunications equipment. RedULA consists of two-ring networks of 12 monomode Optical Fiber spanning 16 and 10 km respectively, with a transmission capacity of 100 Mbps using TDM (Time-Division Multiplexing) technology (Fig. 1). Financial costs, including the acquisition of new equipment, are about US $ 300,000.00. Various buildings around the city are connected to these two rings. Moreover, there are some backup digital radiolinks operationg on VHF and UHF frequencies, which have a capacity ranging from 9600 bps to 2 Mbps. Recently a VSAT earth station was installed at the College of Engineerig. Such a station had been previously donated to the rida SAICYT node by the Organization of American States. With this equipment, double link communication will be established with Caracas at 64Kbps and then with Internet . This link will offer an institutional support to the National Association of Data Networks (REACCIUN). 2. Human resources. RedULA has a highly qualified staff of 40 people that work on diverse areas, such as Systems Engineering (twelve engineers; nine of them, university teachers), Communications and Electronic Engineering (eight people; seven of them, university teachers), and Information Systems and Journalism (three people). In addition, there are four electronic technicians, five undergraduate students (working on their theses), research assistants, and undergraduate students doing their practicum. It is important to mention here that two systems engineers are engaged full time in network projects all around the University. 3. Technical and teaching facilities. RedULA has three laboratories where development, test, and transference of new technology is done. The first of them, the Unified System of Applied Computer (SUMA) offers facilities to users and contributes to applications and software development required by a network environment. The second one, the Communications Laboratory (LabCom), located at the College of Engineering, is mainly dedicated to research and development of telecommunications projects. In this laboratory, tests of different communication media are run, especially in the area of radio and optical fiber communications. The Telematics Laboratory (LabTel), located in the headquarters of the Academic Computer Center (CCA), is mainly a classroom where staff training is given. Two Multimedia laboratories (LMM), adscribed to CCA and the graduate departments of Control and Computation, will be created during this year. They will have 30 RISC (sparc) workstations that will offer videoconferencing, image processing, and symbol manipulation. All required technical processes are tested there in order to connect University premises to other Venezuelan institutions of higher learning. rida will be the starting point for the development of a national supercomputarized system, oriented to the support of academic research in Venezuela. Thanks to an agreement between IBM of Venezuela, the University of the Andes, and CONICIT, Venezuelan researchers will use computer facilities to communicate with their peers overseas and to run High Performance Computing Programs. It will be a value-added system for REACCIUN that will take advantage of it by interconnecting universities to research centers. Another important aspect with respect to support of teaching offered by this University is the implementation of undergraduate courses in Digital Communications, Optical Transmission, and Computer Network given in the School of Electrical Engineering and Distributed Systems Development together with the graduate program in Computation offered by the School of Systems Engineering. All of these major fields support network research and guarantee future programs and projects. 4. Financial resources. University authorities have understood the great importance of having a data network, and have contributed with it by providing the funds required for the implementation and expansion of new technologies. 5. Hardware and software. At the moment of writing this paper, RedULA has 425 hosts distributed in the following way: 70% ( IBM compatible PCs 20% ( workstations (Sun( and Silicon Graphics() 10% ( Macintosh Personal Computers The servers from the primary stations (FACES, SUMA, INGENIERIA AND EDIFICIO ADMINISTRATIVO) are Sun SparcStation 5, 128 MB RAM, and 4-GB information storage devices. Routers, bridges, and multiplexers from various companies (CISCO, 3Com, IBM) make up the communications structure, which is based mainly on UNIX related-operating systems such as SUNOS, Solaris, LINUX, IRIX, and AIX, Netware and Windows for WorkGroup. OBJECTIVES AND GOALS FOR 1995. The main objective is to expand both activities and facilities to the rest of the University (fig. 4) through optical fiber. New projects. One of RedULA's projects is the implementation of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network, initially formed by a trunk located between the two optical fiber rings previously mentioned (fig. 5). The trunk will enable parallel computing and knowledge acquisition for later diffusion throughout the university. Also, it will support point-to-point communications at 150 Mbps for those sites where high computing and visualization facilities are required. Big network and computation companies have contacted RedULA to offer their products since the cost of this project is very high (US $ 150,000.00). Among them, IBM and NEWBRIDGE can be mentioned. Projects and Installations. All projects from different University departments are being studied in RedULA Also, the projects from the University campuses at Trujillo and T chira are under consideration. Indeed, the acquisition of equipment to access the optical fiber network is included in the RedULA budget. The table below shows the percentage of accomplished and future projects as well as their increase rate since 1991 to 96. (See also fig. 6) YEARSPERCENTAGE (%) OF PROJECTS CARRIED OUTPERCENTAGE (%) OF FUTURE PROJECTS91 5 592 151093 201594 302595 90409610070FACILITIES.1. INFORMATION FACILITIES. There has been a great interest in and much effort has been placed on RedULA to offer value-added information services to those users connected to Internet. The Library Department of the University of the Andes (SERBIULA), RedULA, and the Computer Department include in their plans some joint-projects that, in the near future will conform, the Documentation and Information System of the University of the Andes, which will offer the following services: Documentation Service of the University of the Andes (SEDULA) Bibliographic entries to the data base of SERBIULA. SERBIULA automation (it includes six network projects in the information system service) SIGULA project: Management Information System RedULA information and documentation system 2. The Scientific Calculations service (SeCalcULA) is another resource offered by the data network because of the high speed communication requirement. 3. Network Facilities/Internet - Access to Internet - Electronic Mail - Library Consultation (public catalogues, access to CD-ROM databases, acquisition systems) - Remote printing - File Transfer 4. Maintenance and repair service. There is a workshop near CCA where all RedULA equipment is maintained and/or repaired. EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES 1. Incorporation of journalists to Computer Science. Three seminars have so far been offered in Caracas, rida, and San Crist"bal to journalists from all around Venezuela. In those cities, networking information has been given so that these professionals may spread it to the public. Currently, the First National Meeting on Interactive Journalism (CNPIN) has just been held with great success (September 14-16) in rida. 2. The Latin American School of Networks (EsLaRed). In November 1992, the First Latin American School of Networks was held in rida with sponsorship of CDCHT-ULA, Fundaci"n Polar, Fundacite-rida, and the Venezuela's Oil Trust (PDVSA). The School received international support from the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) of Unesco in Trieste, Italy, as well as from the OAS. Fifteen network experts from USA, Finland, Italy, Brazil, and Switzerland came to rida and gave highly qualified courses to people from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. Later, in the Second Meeting on Academic Networks for Latin America and the Caribbean Region celebrated in Guadalajara, Mexico in December 1992, the success of this event was considered a pioneer experience for regional courses and evaluations of the state-of-art of networks. Among other conclusions, it can be mentioned the selection of rida as the EsLaRed permanent seat and the participation of RedULA instructors in Latin American courses. An international commission of which RedULA members take part, was created in EsLaRed to continue this event every two years and plan specific regional courses. In February 1993, the First Regional Workshop on Networks was held in Lima, Peru, where four RedULA members participated as instructors. During the Third Meeting on Academic Networks for Latinamerica and the Caribbean Region, held in Caracas in October 18-22 1993, RedULA was considered one of the few data network projects that has experienced an uninterrupted development. During the fourth meeting, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in December 1994, EsLaRed received institutional support in the area of network training. In 1993, the ICTP also considered EsLaRed as a successful experience outside Trieste. The Second Latin American School of Networks is scheduled for November 5 through 17, 1995 in rida. During this event, Latin American managers will receive workshops on a high level of technology. In addition, there will be two kinds of courses: a. Basic training directed to unexperienced professionals who want to enter the network management world. Duration: two weeks. b. Lectures given by international experts about recent technologies and the state-of-art of data networks. Duration: one week (November 13 through 17). A hardware and software products exhibition called LATINFO'95 will be presented on November 10-12. Conferences and meetings will be carried out by experts from well-known international companies under the sponsorship of the University of the Andes, CONICIT, ICTP, OAS, Fundaci"n Polar, and Fundacite-rida. 3. Regional distribution of information. The ICTP has recognized that many resources in the Internet cannot be effectively accessed by people from South America due to the limited bandwidth of the international channel. To ammeliorate this situation, a program to establish a Proxy Information Server in the area has been established. The information selected will be distributed through optical/magnetic means such as exabytes, streaming tapes, diskettes, and CD-ROMs following synchronous/asynchronous transference depending on the bandwidth and equipment. Some of the areas identified are: Regional Scientific and Technical Information. Regional technical publications, technical information about some products, and commercial technologies. Software of Public Domain. Public domain programs of generic use that have been tested or used by regional institutions and/or individuals. Scientific Calculation Service. Numerical libraries of public domain or low-cost software developed by university institutions or tested by regional institutions and/or individuals. Electronic publications. Emphasis on diffusion of electronic papers will be given. 4. First Latin American School of High Performance Scientific Calculation and Parallel Processing. This event, scheduled for November 1996, will offer the opportunity to different area researchers to see the last tendencies and advances in calculation techniques led by accredited area experts. The support from ICTP will be received again. 1 The data were collected in May, 1995.