Connectivity Providers Database

From: rogers_d@maths.su.oz.au (Douglas Rogers) To: klensin@infoods.mit.edu, klensin@INFOODS.MIT.EDU, randy@psg.com Date: Wed, 2 Jun 93 09:54:01 +1000 For information:- Australian Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam in conjunction with:- Australian National University Research Schools of Pacific Studies and Social Sciences Computing Section Computer Networking with Vietnam - A Proposal The aim of this project is to provide a computer network connection between academic and research institutions in Vietnam, and the world-wide Internet, thereby enabling Vietnamese academics and researchers access to file transfer facilities, electronic mail, access to international databases, and the ability to easily exchange information with colleagues throughout the world. Funding is sought for this project. Because relatively low (i.e. appropriate) technology components are used throughout, it is a fairly straightforward project and there are very few uncertainties concerning the technology. The description below refers to an eventual complete Internet connection for Vietnam, which would be costly, however a useful service can be provided with relatively low levels of funding. Background The Australian National University (ANU) has a number of Research Schools whose prime function is research, and the education of postgraduate students. Among these are the Research School of Pacific Studies and the Research School of Social Sciences, who share the H C Coombs Building, and whose central computing needs are serviced by the Computing Services Section (also known as the Coombs Computing Unit). Both of these schools have interests in Vietnam, including interests in the fields of History, Politics, Economics, Language, Anthropology, Development Studies, and Demography. Both Schools have researchers who work closely with colleagues in Vietnam, and both Schools have postgraduate students from Vietnam. The ANU has an extensive computer networking system, and is connected to the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet), which in turn is connected to the world-wide Internet. Most staff of the Research Schools have access to this network at the desktop level, and are in regular contact with overseas colleagues by electronic mail, and regularly share files in joint research efforts. In addition, the Research Schools publish much of their output electronically across the network. In December 1992, investigations were begun by the Coombs Computing Unit in an attempt to establish a computer to computer link with Vietnam, that would enable electronic mail and file transfer access across the Internet. The plan was to connect one, or many, institutions in Vietnam to the Internet through the ANU connection to AARNet. Contact has been made with the Institute of Informatics (IOI) in Hanoi, and modems and good quality telephone lines made available at each end. The connection is now established on a regular basis, and electronic mail and other files are exchanged regularly. Support and Assistance The project is being assisted by the Australian Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam, and support has been provided from the Center for Nordic Research in Denmark. Equipment and Software Equipment and software has been chosen for the project such that: it is affordable, readily available, and reliable; it is appropriate for use in a country with limited infrastructure (e.g. where telephone connections are not wholly reliable); preference is given to Australian products. Thus, Maestro modems have been chosen, which have error correction and data compression capabilities. The software used with them is public domain "freeware" and, if the final plans reach fruition, the software will be an Australian built product designed to cope with a less-than-perfect physical link layer. Within Vietnam, the reliability of the equipment is very important - Maestro modems have been used, and it would be ideal if a Unix* system of known high reliability (such as a Hewlett-Packard workstation) was available. The First Phase of the Project The first phase of the project has been commenced. Dial-up connections using modems, utilising data compression and error connection, and working through the public voice/fax switched network, have been established on a regular basis. The IOI site in Hanoi is dialled up by the ANU, and a terminal session is established with a Unix* system (currently a Pyramid 9825 system, but shortly to be changed to a Hewlett-Packard Apollo 9000/710 workstation). The software available for file and e-mail exchange includes kermit, procomm, and blast - kermit has been chosen because it is free, has error checking capabilities, and has configurable parameters so that transfers can be optimised. With data compression, the potential maximum rate over the modems used is 19,200 bits per second, or 1.7 kilobytes per second, however software parameters need to be optimised for this rate to be realised. The operation currently requires a high degree of intervention, but could be automated to some extent. During this stage, electronic mail can be sent to hanoi@coombs.anu.edu.au. In Vietnam, the IOI is similarly setting up modem links with other research institutes - in particular, the Institute of Science Management. Electronic mail is distributed around Hanoi by hand (or bicycle), and by electronic links as they are established. During this phase of the project the Institute is also investigating the feasibility of connection between the larger Vietnamese cities - in particular to Ho Chi Minh City. The Institute is also exploring the Internet (using other resources as well as this connection), and using it for software acquisitions and for communication with colleagues working on similar projects to their own. Problems Problems experienced have had to do with establishment of a reliable link between the two countries, and in diagnosing the sources of unreliability. At the time of writing, the physical link is more-or-less error free. The maximum data rates have not yet been achieved and even when they are, the bandwidth is still too narrow to attempt very large transfers - for example, it would take about 14 minutes to transfer one 3< inch floppy diskette at the maximum rate achievable. Estimated Costs The direct cost of the dial-up line is at the rate of about $A6,000 per year, for one hour per week. During the second half of 1993, it would be desirable for there to be at least two hours per week available. Phase Two During the second phase of the project, the terminal protocol, using kermit for file transfer, will be replaced by a dial-up SLIP (Serial Link, Internet Protocol) line. The software used could be uucp (or ppl on a HP system), NFS, tcp, telnet, ftp. MHSNet (the old ACSNet) is also under investigation. MHSNet may prove ideal for this situation, since it is capable of handling breaks in dial-up lines, resuming transmissions when the line becomes operational again. MHSNet is an Australian developed product, and was originally written at the University of Sydney. At this stage, electronic mail addresses within Vietnam will be of the form name@hanoi.anu.edu.au. In Vietnam, the IOI will use a Unix* system as a basis for the connection with Australia, and will continue investigations into the development of an internal network for Vietnam. MHSNet is used in Thailand and may prove to be very suitable for the development of the internal network within Vietnam. A number of key sites in Vietnam should be connectable to the Institute of Informatics by this stage. Estimated Costs Again, an analogue voice/fax circuit through the public switched network would be used, at $A6,000 per year for one hour per week of transmission. More than two hours per week should be set aside for transmission during this phase of the project. It is not anticipated that digital circuits will be available to Vietnam during 1993. The feasibility of using a dedicated circuit, either full or part-time, will be investigated during this stage and full costing proposals developed. Phase Three In the final stage of this project, routing equipment would be used in both Hanoi and Australia (probably Canberra) to connect the IOI to AARNet, and hence to the Internet. A dedicated line would be needed, preferably full-time, and preferably at a bandwidth greater than the 19,200 bps used hitherto. Electronic mail addresses in Vietnam would be of the form name@site.net.vn at this stage. IOI would be the entry point for the Internet into Vietnam, and by this stage some sort of VARNet (Vietnamese Academic and Research Network) would have been developed, its extent dependent upon resource availability. Estimated Costs Routing equipment would be required in Vietnam, and in Australia. A minimum configuration would be about $A5,000 at each end. A dedicated line between Australia and Vietnam would cost about $A600,000 per year, for an analogue circuit. By the time this stage is reached digital circuits may be available to Vietnam, and the cost of a 48 kbps line would then be of the order of $A200,000 per year. Funding Requirements Funding requirements depend very much upon the course of the project. As outlined above, Phases 1 and 2 of the project need about $A6,000 per year for one hour per week of connect time. Phase 1 needs, ideally, two hours of connect time per week, or $A12,000 per year. Phase 2 needs, ideally, double this - $A24,000 per year. Phase one will last about six months , and Phase two about another six months on present indications. Thus the funding being sought is: Phase 1 (6 months) $A6,000 Phase 2 (6 months) $A12,000 That is, ideally, $A18,000 for the first year. Subsequent years will need more, depending upon the success of the project, and about $A200,000 per year will be needed in the final stages. It is of the nature of this project that progress can be made with very much less funding. For example, quite significant progress with Phases 1 and 2 could still be made with $A6,000 per year, and a connection with Vietnam maintained and established. A useful facility could be made available even if funding could not be found to progress beyond Phase 2 now. Contact Names and Addresses In Australia the project is being managed by the Coombs Computing Unit at the Australian National University. The contact is: Rob Hurle Coombs Computing Unit Australian National University GPO Box 4 CANBERRA ACT 2601 Australia Telephone: +61 6 249 4600 (international) (06) 249 4600 Fax: +61 6 257 1893 (international) (06) 257 1893 e-mail: rob@coombs.anu.edu.au The funding is being handled by the Australian Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam, in order to stress the national nature of the project. The contact is: Vern Weitzel ACSCV PO Box 161 BELCONNEN ACT 2616 Australia Telephone: +61 6 254 0166 (international) (06) 254 0166 Fax: +61 6 254 0166 (international) (06) 254 0166 In Vietnam the project is managed by the Institute of Informatics: Prof. Bach Hung Khang Institute of Informatics Nghia Do Tu Liem Ha Noi Vietnam Telephone: +84 43 45405 Fax: +84 43 45217 e-mail: hanoi@coombs.anu.edu.au The contact in Denmark is: Assoc Prof Jan Annerstedt Department of Economics and Planning Roskilde University PO Box 260 DK-4000 Roskilde Denmark Telephone: +45 46 757711 e-mail: NordicCenter@ruc.dk Sydney, 21st May, 1993 Mr. K. Berry. Adviser, Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Suite MG 70, Parliament House, CANBERRA, ACT 2600 My dear Ken, Visit of Prime Minister of Vietnam, May, 1993 "We will see ourselves as a sophisticted trading country in Asia, and we've got to do it in a way where everybody's got a part in it." Paul Keating, speech on winning the Federal elections, 1993 In view of the visit of the Prime Minister of Vietnam next week, it may be timely to remind you of the work of the Australian Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam (ACSCV), in case your Minister cares to draw on this in discussions during the visit as an illustration of a distictively Australian approach to bilateral realations. As you are already aware, the ACSCV has a record of contributions to open government, public diplomacy, and Federal-State relations, quite apart from promoting scientific and technological cooperation between Australia and Vietnam. The approach of the ACSCV is highly cost effective, drawing as it has on the goodwill of large numbers of people around the country. It therefore provides an outstanding working model of how the Prime Minister can articulate his vision for Australia, while staying within budgetary constraints, and warding off adverse criticism (such as the observation in yesterday's papers that about half the Ministry is off overseas during the Winter recess). Of particular interest to your Minister will be the comprehensive and integrated package of activities which the ACSCV has in preparation for July and November, as well as the electronic mail link which it is helping to establish in concert with other parties and which will be of foundational significance in deleloping links between the two countries. The ACSCV may well be closely involved with DFAT as part of a consortium preparing a tender for the conference on "National Trade and Investment Outlook" which, on this proposal, would form the centre piece of international conferences in Hanoi and Adelaide, already planned for either side of the Sydney meeting. It is interesting to note that, in private converstions, officials in DFAT often say that they lack the resources to coordinate activities as much as they should like; the rush and confusion with both Vo Van Kiet's visit and the tender process for the conference in November only prove their point. An official from AIDAB, in a frank seminar meeting on Australia's official aid program to Vietnam in Canberra in March, said that AIDAB "does not have the resources to scour the country for advise.". In truth, Australia is a country of only 18m people, and officials feel too busy already, so we needs must make a virtue of necessity by making sure that everyone is involved, quite apart from the Prime Minister's strong democratic instinct to do so. What the ACSCV lacks in financial muscle it more than makes up in the effective use of scientific intelligence, servicing the national interest by making cooperation itself more scientific. The ACSCV was alone amongst scientific organizations to show an interest in Senator Schacht before his appointment as Minister for Science and Small Business, when scientists have complained he showed no interest in them before his appointment. The ACSCV was the only organization to spot the potential significance of an official from the Vietnamese State Planning Committee being included in a scientific delegation in march, and to make contingency plans accordingly; just as well, since the official turned out to be a Vice-Chairman, who had studied English at the former Canberra CAE in the mid-1980s, exactly the sort of person on whom the Prime Minister sees us basing stronger relations with the region. The ACSCV well recognizes the importance of keeping Australia's regional interests in their global context, for example, involving the French Embassy in Canberra in discussion meetings from the outset, in itself symbolic of Australia's open- and even-handed approach to international relations. Here are some specific points which may be of help to you in preparing briefing material for your Minister. 1. People a) Vern Weitzel (tel and fax 06-2540166), who chairs the ACSCV, is now back in Canberra, after five months in Vietnam where he made extensive, high level contacts with the scientific community, including meetings with the Minister for Science, Technology, and Environment, who was supposed to be accompanying the Prime Minister on the visit next week; a copy of Vern's appointments diary for this period is enclosed for your ease of reference. b) The Minister's son, Chung (tel 02-2110844) is studying electrical engineering at the University of Sydney. Dinh Nam Thang (tel 02-5642027), the son of Mde Nguyen Thi Binh, who was in Australia last year after the US-Vietnam dialogue session in Fiji, and who is now Vice-President, is studying English privately in Sydney. c) Huong NGUYEN (tel 02-7964355; fax 02-7968184), of the accounting partnership Chan, Saad, and Nguyen, in the Prime Minister's parliamentary constituency of Bankstown, has extensive experience working with small businesses wanting to trade with Vietnam. Another glimpse of the local Vietnamese community can be gained from Thu Nguyet LE (tel 02-6496404), a third year student in economics at the University of Sydney, who is active in the formation of a national organization for local Vietnamese students; the attitude of these young people to Vietnam will be crucial to the development of Australia's relations with Vietnam. 2. Events A general sketch of the program of events in readiness for the remainder of the year is sketched in the enclosed copy of a letter to the Secretary of ASTEC, while further details of plans for the first portion of this in July are given the copy of the letter to AIDAB. The timetable is as follows:- Monday, 26th July, in Canberra: ACSCV Mid-Year Review Meeting The ACSCV plans to bring leading scientists from Vietnam to Australia to sample some of the many national and international scientific conferences on offer here in July, before gathering them together in Canberra at the end of the month for the review meeting, which functions as a clearing house for information on activities relating to Vietnam. * Included in the list of those to be invite is Professor Phan Dinh Dieu, the leading critic in Vietnam of one party Government. [Tuesday, 27th July, in Canberra: ASEAN-Australia Science Cooperation Council This is a preliminary discussion meeting; it has been timed to reinforce the ACSCV Mid-Year Review Meeting the previous day.] Monday, 15th - Sunday, 21st November: Hanoi Heritage Week Peter Wallman, of the Friends of Hanoi Heritage, has discussed this with you. Wednesday, 24th - Friday, 26th November, in Sydney: National Trade and Investment Outlook Conference The ACSCV is part of a consortium planning to tender as organisers for this conference, so as to achieve synergy between events before and after it. Monday, 29th November, in Adelaide: ACSCV Annual Meeting The ACSCV notes that Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are amongst the biggest investors in Vietnam and the most interested in the Multi-function Polis. The aim of the meeting, which has the strong interest of the Premier of South Australia, will be to show that Australia is a suitable partner for those wishing to increase their access to South-East Asia, especially in the areas of scienctific and technological research (that is, what your Minister was saying in Seoul last November). The benefit of combining the organization of these events in Novemeber is that it allows us to project a stronger image of Australia, and, in particular, enables us to draw interest from North-East Asia through Vietnam to Australia. Two reports, those of the East Asia Analytical Unit, in DFAT, and of Cisca Spencer, of the Asia Research Centre, at Murdoch University, have been disparaging about Australia's prospects in Vietnam, while recent comments AUSTRADE suggest that business opportunities there are more difficult that might be supposed. However, from the point of view of investment flows in the region, Vietnam currently occupies a pivotal position. The North-East Asian economies have moved so smartly from investments in the ASEAN countries to investment in Vietnam that they have pulled the ASEAN countries with them, most strikingly those until recently most hostile to Vietnam. Thus Singapore has already is already setting up a special Commission to handle trading relations with Vietnam, while Australia has nothing of the sort. * The Annual Meeting may provide an opportunity to bring the Minister for Science, Technology, and Environment to Australia, after the previous two attempts have failed. [Tuesday, 30th November, in Adelaide: ASEAN-Australia Science Cooperation Council Again, the launch of the Council has been timed to strengthen the appeal of and consolidate the overall program; the dates of this and the previous meeting may be interchanged, to give the launch greater prominence, depending on foreign particpation. * It is hoped that this meeting will entice Professor B. J. Habibie, the Indonesian Minister of State for Research and Technology, at long last, to visit Australia, as it is planned to invite him to be one of the Council's Senior Patrons (along with Dr. Tony Tan, the former Minister of Trade and Industry, in Singapore, whose doctorate in applied mathematics was awarded by the University of Adelaide).] * [It should also be possible to integrate into this program the activities of other parts of DFAT, particularly of the Australia Abroad Council Secretariat.] I trust that these few, disjointed remarks will be of some small help to you, and, through you to your Minister. I look forward to further contact in due course. With all best wishes, Yours ever, Douglas Rogers. Sydney, 12th April, 1993 Director, Statistical Services, AIDAB, GPO Box 887, CANBERRA, ACT 2601. Dear Director, Half-yearly meeting of the Australian Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam, July, 1993:request for support under the International Seminar Support Scheme (ISSS) The Australian Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam (ACSCV) proposes to hold another half-yearly meeting in late July, 1993, following the pattern of the very successful meeting last July. The meeting then was particularly useful as it brought together a large number of Government departments and agencies, as well as several universities in both Australia and Vietnam, all with plans of their own for activities later that year, most of which were not fully known to the others. Thus, the meeting created the opportunity for participants to coordinate their activities and, indeed, to work together on them. The ACSCV believes that, if anything, the need for improved communication within Australia is greater this year than last, because of the increased contact with Vietnam. The ACSCV was highly embarrassed last month to be alone in spotting the potential significance of the inclusion of an official from the State Planning Committee in a delegation of scientists from Vietnam being looked after by CSIRO, and to have laid on an number of supplementary activities for the delegation accordingly. In the event, the official turned out to be a Vice-Chairman of the Committee, ranking therefore as a Vice-Minister, and to have studied English in the mid-1980s at the former Canberra CAE under a scheme supported by AIDAB. By way of illustration of the work of the ACSCV, I enclose a list of participants at a lunch in Canberra for the delegation on 18th March, along with a similar list for a dinner the following day in Sydney. As you will see, the ACSCV was able to gather together many of the people involved in the early days of the AIDAB scheme. The ACSCV deeply regretted that present officials at AIDAB were all to busy to attend, all the more because a week or so later AIDAB advertised a "feasibility study" for an "anticipated consultancy requirement" of a "Vietnam English Language Resource Centre", expected to cost A$120,000. Since this project has not been approved by the State Planning Committee, nor is AIDAB actually commited to it, the ACSCV felt that it might have been handy for officials from AIDAB to have had lunch with a Vice-Chairman of the Committee whose responsibilities encompass education and science and who, to boot, had actually studied English under an AIDAB scheme. However, you will at least be pleased to know that the delegation did meet Mr. Allan McKinnon and Ms Tania Utkin in the Office of the (then) Minister for Trade and Overseas Development when it visited Parliament House, another of the supplementary services arranged by the ACSCV. This example of the want of timely information is but one of many; visitors come and go, and it is often only after they have been that it is realized that, had others but known, much more could have been made of the visit. Let me mention here only one further example of special bearing on scientific cooperation between Australia and Vietnam, namely the visit last month of the Rector of the Hanoi National Pedagogic University and the Director of the Centre for Research and Cooperation with Australia, at that university. You may recall that, in February, 1992, this Centre mounted a conference on science in Australia; the Director of the Centre happens to be a biologist, and thought that this would be a particularly appropriate conference theme for his Centre. News of the meeting reached Australia in time to ensure that no scientist from Australia was able to attend, and even a scientist then in Vietnam on a grant from DFAT was unable to reschedule his itinerary to be present, although the Embassy in Hanoi had sponsored the meeting, something which the Ambassador did concede was odd, when the ACSCV brought the matter to his attention. The frequency of the diplomatic bag to and from Hanoi had been cut at about that time, following the full recognition of Vietnam by Australia in October, 1991; now the Ambassador is apparently offerring up about half his budget for cultural relations (about A$50,000) as a voluntary cut, at a time when the importance of cultural relations with countries in the region is being stressed in the wider context of Australia's balance of trade. The ACSCV understands that the visit of the Vietnamese Prime Minister, postponed earlier in the year in view of the then impending Federal elections, is being rearranged for May, and that the Prime Minister will be accompanied by the Minister for Science, Technology, and Environment. The Minister was supposed to have attended the ACSCV Annual Meeting last November as a prelude to attending the meeting of the Association for Science Cooperation in Asia (ASCA) later that month, but withdrew at the last month. The ACSCV is therefore especially pleased that it now seems that he will accompany the Prime Minister, reflecting as this does the emphasis which the Vietnamese place on scientific cooperation. A science agreement between Australia and Vietnam was supposed to have been signed when the (then) Minister for Small Business, Construction, and Customs visited Hanoi last Septmeber, but it seems that little has been done to activate it, although the work of the ACSCV could well be placed under it at almost no cost, but to great credit. The ACSCV considers that the half-yearly meeting provides, in the meantime, an especially appropriate vehicle for Australia to demonstrate its ability to follow up on the Prime Ministerial visit in a constructive manner, and hope therefore that AIDAB will support the meeting through the ISSS, as it did the ACSCV Annual Meeting last November. In July, there is a very large number of national and international conferences, on scientific and other themes, so it is an particularly good time to have visitors from Vietnam. The Vietnamese are well aware of these conferences, and often want to send participants with the aim of identifying suitable contacts in Australia with whom it will be worthwhile to develop closer cooperation, for example, by inviting to similar conferences in Vietnam. Certainly the delegation of scientists in March were anxious about this, suggesting several colleagues in Vietnam for specific meetings which interested them, such as the International Conference on Automation in Sydney in July (the delegation was conducting a sectoral overview of industries based on electronics and information technology, so this was a natural choice). However, the ACSCV recognizes that AIDAB will not always be familiar with the technical significance of some of these meetings, which would consequently be unlikely to obtain support under the ISSS on their own. The intention of the ACSCV is to allow visitors to sample a selection of specialist conferences, and then gather them together in Canberra for a meeting devoted to the more general issues of scientific and technological cooperation at the end of the month. The ACSCV hopes that, amongst other things, this will be of benefit to AIDAB itself in planning its programs with Vietnam, as well as easing the work involved in dealing with applications under the ISSS. For the meeting in July, the ACSCV has in mind inviting four key scientists from Vietnam as follows:- a) Professor Nguyen Van Hieu, President of the National Centre for Scientific Research; also a member of the National Assembly; to visit universities and CSIRO divisions and to attend a physics conference. b) Professor Phan Dinh Dieu, Institute of Informatics, National Centre for Scientific Research; to visit universities,and the CSIRO Divisions of Information Technology and of Mathematics and Statistics; and to attend conferences in computation and mathematics. c) Professor Dang Dinh Ang, University of Ho Chi Minh City, an applied mathematician of international standing; to work with CSIRO on the application of inverse problems to industry (this is in preparation for a conference on this theme in Vietnam planned for early 1994 in which Australian researchers are actively involved); and to attend conference in computation and mathematics. d) A specialist in automation yet to be named by the Vietnamese Ministry for Science, Technology, and Environment; to attend the international conference on automation. In all four case, the aim is to provide a tour of facilities of interest in various parts of Australia, bringing them together in Canberra for the ACSCV meeting in late July; they would be in Australia, on average three week each. Last year, AIDAB awarded the ACSCV A$5,000 for two visitors (ISSS 2029), but the ACSCV actually spent more like A$7,000 or more. This year the ACSCV estimates that the cost of doing things properly for four visitors will be of the order of A$16,000. I look forward to hearing from you. With all best wishes, and thanks for your kind attention, Yours sincerely, Douglas Rogers. National Coordinator, Australian Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam, ACSCV mailing address:- PO Box 161, BELCONNEN, ACT 2616; tel and fax 06-2540166. cc. P. Flood, Director-General R. Stensholt, Assitant Director-General for South-East Asia T. Utkin, Minister's Office