Connectivity Providers Database

From: Andres Bauman <andresb@kbfi.ee> To: Steven Huter <sghuter@psg.com> Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 13:17:37 +0200 (EET) Hello. Mr. Lippmaa asked me to answer to your message regarding information about EE domain (see below). > Please notify us of any changes/corrections. (EE) Republic of Estonia Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics 10 Ravala Blvd., EE0100 Tallinn Republic of Estonia Administrative Contact: Lippmaa, Endel Voice: +372 2 441304 Fax: +372 2 440640 E-mail: elippmaa@kbfi.ee Technical Contact: Lippmaa, Jaak Voice: +372 6 399003 Fax: +372 6 399001 E-mail: jack@kbfi.ee Technical Contact: Bauman, Andres Voice: +372 2 455795 Fax: +372 2 440640 E-mail: andresb@kbfi.ee > Could you also provide a brief update on recent computer networking > developments and future plans for Estonia? > I will attach two documents. If you have more questions, please ask. ANdres ----------------------------------------------------------- Andres Bauman | Internet: andresb@kbfi.ee Institute of Chemical Physics | phone: 372-2-455795 and Biophysics | fax: 372-2-440640 Ravala pst. 10 | EE0100, Tallinn, Estonia | White paper on Estonian Data Networking Tallinn, February 11, 1994 The aim of this paper is to give a short overview of present situation in data networking, describe the EENet project, its operating environment, and future projects together with possibilities to integrate with European projects and initiatives. Widespread networking started in Estonia in the beginning of 1990s. First satellite connections from Tallinn and Tartu to Stockholm were established in March 1992. Terrestrial leased line connections from Tallinn to Helsinki followed in the end of May 1992. Tartu-Tallinn link was established in 1993. This was followed by rapid development of local infrastructure and today the network has over 400 permanently connected machines. Several hundred sites use dial-up electronic mail connections. Estonia also acts as an East-West gateway by linking Nordic countries with Latvia and Russia. Wide spectrum of network users has created a situation whereby electronic transmission of documents and distribution of information is becoming commonplace within the academic, government and business communities. More and more users demanding complex solutions, interconnection of LANs, MAN and WAN services, and public services accessible via the network structure. INTERNET access is the most widespread but not the only service available. Services and structures available in Estonia include EENet, the main academic network built around leased lines physical network, campus networks and using TPC/IP protocol suite. It provides access to INTERNET currently via two channels, 64 kbps Tallinn-Helsinki connection and 64 kbps Tallinn-Stockholm satellite link. Latvia is also linked to INTERNET via 64kbps Tallinn-Riga link. User base consists mainly universities, research facilities, government offices, banks and SME's. X.25, provided by ESTPAK, a subsidiary of Estonian Telephone Company. International services are offered via Finnish Telebox. The service is used by about 100 users including banks and big enterprises for international traffic and access to commercial databases like TELERATE, etc. SPRINT offers its services using INMARSAT terminals via an Estonian company Mainor-ELT. They have two nodes in Estonia, in Tallinn and Tartu. FIDONET, consisting of roughly 30 active BBSes in Estonia with hundreds of users scattered around Estonia. International access is provided by a node in Tallinn. EsPIE-Net is a fully commercial network provider offering X.400 services with international TELEX and FAX gateways. It has connectivity to EUnet and Relcom in Russia. BANet is a cross border initiative offering network services mostly within CIS countries. EENet EEnet was instituted in 1993 by the Estonian Ministry for Culture and Education to manage and coordinate academic data networking. EENet represents Estonian academic networking interests in international community in addition of being responsible for developing the network in Estonia. Up to now academic institutions have developed networking activities on their own. This has served the purpose by developing local infrastructure. The main boosting factor has been the availability of international connections. Estonia has currently several international links connecting the local academic network to Stockholm, Helsinki, Riga and Moscow. Now that these activities have acquired truly international character a certain degree of coordination is needed. The Ministry of Culture and Education has instituted a coordination committee involving representatives from ministry, Tartu University, Tallinn Technical University, Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysic, Estionian Biocentre, Institute of Cybernetics and Estonian Science Foundation. Its main purpose is to create an independent organization to supervise networking activities, to build and manage trunk connections between institutions and to manage long distance and international computer links, organize training, seminars and conferences, to disseminate information about networking and available services, to extend these to Estonian academic institutions, etc. This organization is called EENet and it acts under the auspices of Ministry as a legal entity. The Board of this organization includes representatives in addition to the institutions listed above from the Informatics Council and the PTT. The aim is to include everybody who has up to now participated in building academic networks in Estonia and also to involve major users. Financial support to EENet will be provided by the state budget and user contributions. Current projects of EENet are Providing INTERNET access to High Schools and creating student support nodes at schools; Participation in joint projects under TEMPUS, PHARE, COPERNICUS, and EUROMATH, TELESERV, ESATT, etc.; Participation in building the BALTBONE infrastructure linking Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland together with the NORDUNet Baltic Initiative; Establishment of BALTnet cross boarder network utilizing the BALTBONE infrastructure; Preparation of lecture courses for university students in Tartu. Short term projects of EENet include Optimization and increasing of trunk/backbone topology and capacity within Estonia; Desing and establishment of LANs in university campuses besides Tartu University and Tallinn Technical University, where the critical mass of local network has been exceeded; Establishment of public access nodes; Installation of information servers for Client/Server applications (WWW, WAIS, Whois, Gopher, Veronica, X.500, etc.); Linking existing academic non-profit networks and commercial networks with gateway services to provide wider access and interoperability between research, business and industrial communities. Long term projects of EENet include Coordination and support in using standards accepted in EU countries to facilitate easy integration with Europe (OSI, EDI/EDIFACT, etc); Research into new transmission technologies and integrated solutions using multistandard/multitechnology access to broadband networks (SDH, ATM, ISDN, B-ISDN, GSM, DECT, VSAT, etc.) to provide flexible solutions in urban areas; Development of user friendly graphic interfaces and native language access to databases and information servers; Integration of conventional data networking applications into multimedia solutions utilizing broadband metropolitan telephone and cable-TV networks. Networking Environment in Estonia Rapid advent of academic networking has created a situation whereby the benefits of high speed electronic data transfer are becoming both appealing and affordable to the business community, especially the quickly developing world of SMEs. Automated management systems, companywide interconnected LANs, terms like Telemarketing and Telebanking are becoming commonplace also within the Estonian business community. This has created a demand for public data networks and access to international information structures. Most notable developments in the area of meeting these demands are the major restructuring of the Estonian PTT into a joint venture with Finland (Telecom Finland) and Sweden (Telia Group) - Estonian Telephone Company, and the launching of several private companies offering networking services and access to international databases. The other important area of network development involves government structures and local governments. Estonian government has shown strong support towards networking activities. The establishment of EENet under auspices of Ministry of Culture and Education and providing it with direct funding from the state budget is just one of the examples. Major policy issues in networking are prepared by the National Informatics Council, the Estonian Science Council and the National Science and Education Council. These structures decide also many of the funding issues for individual projects. Estonia has also created a certification mechanism for computer equipment vendors supplying equipment for bigger projects. The state is also supporting major networking infrastructure development projects linking local governments with digital trunk lines, and establishment of relevant information management systems. Another important project involves a distributed database management system for Estonian Customs and Borderguard. These projects form an integral part of reform and lawmaking process enabling Estonia to move towards a stable and democratic state. This process has increased considerably the interest towards joint projects with European Union. Currently, the Commission is mainly involved in PHARE/TEMPUS projects in Estonia. New projects are being extended to Estonia under COPERNICUS (ESATT and TELESERVE). The increase of projects supporting businesses and the reform process can clearly be seen. Such an increase in interaction between the EU and Estonia together with other Baltic States is most welcome and will undoubtedly provide a direct channel between respective business communities. This exchange has to be accompanied by establishment of Business Advisory Centres which can also serve as Business Communications Nodes. Once set up and connected with local network, these can act as gateways between the EU and the target country. Such centrescan also serve as testbed for new Value Added Services, facilitating better connections between states. Direct connections to the EMPB would be advisable in countries with rapidly developing local networking infrastructure like the Baltic States. Estonia is currently establishing 2Mbps and wider metropolitan backbone structures for commercial networks. First pilot project to link commercial banks with 2Mbps backbone was launched in June 1993. This project is now in its second phase, introducing the EDI/EDIFACT and preparing necessary software for banking applications. This project is supported by Bank of Estonia. The next important issue is using Business Communications Nodes to establish R&D programmes to support common interface development for accessing and sharing information with Pan-European networks. Projects like this should make good use of the existing initiatives as set out in the 4th Framework Programme for period 1994-98 and integrate local databases. Major restructuring and overhaul of the PTT will also affect the data networks and solutions for specific applications. Most notable changes will be the introduction of fibre-optic cabling, digital switching and public ISDN basic rate access to large number of customers. Adherence to common European standards will be of extreme importance in introducing these news services. First ISDN subscribers will be connected in March 1994. EENet contact addresses: Director: Enok Sein EENet Tahetorn Toomel Tartu, EE2400 Republic of Estonia INTERNET enok@EENet.ee Phone: +372 34 33635 Fax: +372 34 35430 Board: Tiit Laasberg Ministry of Culture and Education Tonismagi 11 Tallinn, EE0100 Republic of Estonia INTERNET tiit@eenet1.edu.ee Phone: +372 2 682898 Fax: +372 6 311213 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Academic Networking in Estonia Current situation. January, 29th, 1995. Since 1992 has Estonia been using internet (on-line) services. For now there are about 6000 people using internet daily. Estonian Educational and Research Network - EENet EENet is a nonprofit organisation assigned the task of coordinating network development for educational, cultural and scientific purposes. EENet is non-profit organization established and supported by Ministry of Culture and Education. EENet has proceeded from attitude that there is easy way to connect an organisation to the world via electronic mail. To arrange full internet connection that would satisfy the user it takes much more time and funds. So have users divided to two groups. E-mail service only For now there has been arranged electronic mailboxes to more than 70 schools over Estonia, 10 research institutes situated mainly in Tallinn but also in other places. There are also 5 foundations, 11 govermental organisations, but also 10 commercial enterprises and 8 other organisations (like Tallinn Zoo, confidence telephone etc.) having UUCP connections to the network. Full internet services Tallinn In Tallinn there are 2 universities, 3 research institutes, 1 secondary (high) school, 8 governmental organizations, about 20 commercial enterprises and 4 other institutions (Estonian Maritime Board) connected to net. Tartu Main user in Tartu for internet is Tartu University using mostly big servers for number of users. In current moment there are about 2500 students and personnell who have their own e-mail address. There are also 3 scientific institutes Institute of Physics, Institute of Zoology and Botany, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics located 23 km from Tartu), Estonian Biocentre Tartu Science Park Eesti Telefon is providing Internet access (router ports) in some towns - most important telephone exchanges in Estonia. Number of users is still low. Connection lines and network hardware Going outside For now there are two lines directed to the world. There is 64 Kbps sattellite link from Tallinn KBFI to Sweden KTH. Another 128 Kbps link proceeds from Institute of Cybernetics in Tallinn and follows the fiberoptics to Finland FUNET. This link is serving Latvia as well. Lines inside Estonia Between Tallinn and Tartu there is a 2 Mbps TCP/IP link (PTT!) and 2*64 Kbps lines (EsData). Both in Tallinn and Tartu most of lines for now are based on leased lines and do not cross 19200 bps border. Some buildings located near routers are connected via ethernet. The backbones in Tallinn and Tartu are based on V.35 synchronous links (2 Mbps and 128 Kbps) There is also low number of users using radiolinks but this isn't used much. Network hardware Most of users connected to internet are using simple PC routers but in the time there is proffessional equipment coming in use (CISCO 2000 to 4000 series). Transit lines are using only CISCOs. Still there are More PC routers but number of CISCOs is rising fast. For sharing access there are many large servers in use in Universities and provider organizations. 5 bigger UUCP access centres are in use too. Terminal- and communication servers are planned to use in regional communication centres. Information servers and archieves WWW and GOPHER and FTP There are about 10 bigger WWW and 10 Gopher servers established or in work for now. About 6 bigger FTP servers are opened for users continously. Some smaller servers are in use as well. EENet's WWW server is located: http://www.eenet.ee Works running currently Estonia is going for changing network structure by replacing leased lines and modems with fiber-optic links. Just now there are some works going on in Tartu to dig down first first fiber-optic cables in Tartu University to connect all university buildings together with fiber-optic link. (Supported by University of Mynster, Germany). Tallinn Technical University has own fiberoptics backbone running already (supported by University of Darmstadt, Germany). EENet is planning to set up new dial-up servers, that should come in use in the beginning of 1995 both in Tallinn and Tartu. Some regional communication centres will be launched in 1995. Estonia is also taking part of two major projects supported by EC. TELESERV is a project trying to wide access to internet. ESATT is a project to figure out current state of networking in CET and having recomendations to CEC for supporting some developing projects created here. In the sphere of education there will be implemented the project for distance-learning, Institute of Baltic Studies (IBC) where hopefully also Latvia and Lithuania are going to join. Network providers At the moment there are several organizations in Estonia providing the network sevices. ** EENet because there are not separate network providers EENet network specialists are building and managing network in Tartu. They have good cooperation with KBFI people as well. ** EsData Joint company - Institute of Cybernetics Finnish Tele Estonian Telefon Estonian Telekom They provide point-point channels (DXX-technology) and TCP/IP and UUCP services (tcp/ip network called ESTNET) 11 academic users. Main academic users are Institute of Cybernetics and Tallinn Pedagogical University - full Internet access. Others use e-mail service. ** Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics - KBFI First 64 kbps (satellite) link to Internet in April 1992. Infrastructure is built using customers support Close cooperation with Department of Communication. Main academic users who have full Internet access are: Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn Technical University, Institute of Economics, National Library of Estonia, Tallinn Technology High School (43. Sec. School). 90 sites are using UUCP-service (e-mail only). up to 60 academic users, more than 30 of them are (secondary) schools. ** Bongo Ltd. Cooperation with Relcom (Moscow and St. Petersbourg) and EUNet (Helsinki). Links to Helsinki (19.2 kbps), Riga (16.8 kbps) and Moscow (16.8 kbps) E-mail service based on UUCP technology. Access to Telerate databases is based on tcp/ip. About 100 clients. ** Eesti Telefon Joint company - Estonian Telekom Finnish TELE Swedish Telia They are developing tcp/ip backbone connecting most of long distance switchboards/exchanges in Estonia. This project foresees 2 Mbps and 64 Kbps links. Providing virtual 64 Kbps channels is foreseen as well.