From redid.org.do!pimienta!daniel Sat Nov 30 19:30:49 1991 Message-Id: From: daniel@redid.org.do (Daniel Pimienta) To: randy@psg.com Date: Sat Nov 30 19:30:49 1991 Subject: Latin American and Caribbean Survey, October 1991 Status: RO Latin American and Caribbean Survey, October 1991 By Daniel Pimienta, Union Latina, pimienta!daniel@redid.org.do This is a brief perspective of the region network developments since the origins, and some forecasted trends. I FIRST STAGE DEVELOPMENT: BEFORE 1988 Three distinct directions: 1) Bottom-up: some BITNET nodes based on mainframes or minis in Mexico, Chile and Brazil. 2) Bottom-up: some USENET distributed nodes based on PCs, principally in Argentina. 3) Top-down: a project in Venezuela, under the National Science and Technology Research Council leadership, targeting a global national solution. II SECOND STAGE DEVELOPMENT: FROM 1988 UNTIL 1991 -consolidation of existing networks in the first countries. -significant relative growth of USENET solutions, both in terms of user's figures, and of start-up solution for new countries. -introduction of International Organizations in the playground as contributors to the current or projected developments: (UNDP, BID, EEC, UNESCO, OAS, PAHO, UNION LATINA,...). CURRENT SITUATION (END OF 1991) PER PERCENTAGE OF USERS USING THE NETWORK: MORE THAN 40%: COSTA RICA, MEXICO, PUERTO RICO MORE THAN 25%: ARGENTINA, CHILE MORE THAN 10%: BRASIL, VENEZUELA LESS THAN 10%: ALL REMAINING COUNTRIES. -Most countries will have at least a few network users. -An estimation of 20,000 network users for the whole region, which represents some 10% coverage of the total estimated potential user population; -More than 80% of the international outgoing links of the Region goes to the USA. -USENET user's figure growths faster than BITNET's. INTERNET nodes start to appear. -Some regional or sub regional projects are under planning or implementation stage (REDALC, HURACAN, CUNET, SCARNET). EMERGING OF NEW TRENDS -Growing consciousness of the need for integration between the countries: the First Interamerican Networking Workshop held in Rio de Janeiro in October 1991 allowed a high percentage ofthe region networkers representatives (more than 100 people from national, regional or international initiatives) to meet and start the first exchanges toward regional integration. A Regional Committee was elected. -Creation of national associations involving all the players (universities, NGO's linked to research, Science and Technology Councils, States Departments linked to research). REDMEX of Mexico is the first "success story" and Red Cientifica Peruana is the first attempt to start from scratch with that model. -Start of the integration of industrial research domains within the networks. -Negotiation with Telecommunication Authorities as a way to get tariff advantages and participate to the development of national X25 networks (Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Venezuela). -Regionalization of the international link topology as a step toward a regional backbone. III NEXT STAGE FORECAST 1992-1995 It is expected to reach a level of users connected of the order of magnitude of 100,000 and to see the maturation of the identified trends: -Generalization of the associative model for user administration. -Rationalization of the international links and the gateway accesses. -Generalization of the special tariff pattern for national X25 usage. -Emergence of new original tariffs schemes were billing additional services allow some level of autofinancing. -Consolidation of the organizational entity representing the networkers of the Region (something "a la RARE" especially adapted to the Regional particularities). -Generalization of the TCP-IP protocol, at least for the international links. -More involvement of Science and Technology Councils and, as a consequence, a more controlled/planned network growth at national and regional levels. -Emergence of a regional backbone, probably based on satellite technology, with substancial international fundings. EMERGING OF NEW TRENDS -Important shift toward the end-user (workstations, interfaces, applications and support). -Integration of the transport network with information networks and scientifical data bases (the Region have already good provision of them, as a result of national and international politics). -Skill merging between the "telematics" and the "documentalists", as a result of market need and specific education plans. -First large scale implementation based on the OSI model application layers (X400, X500, FTAM...). ---- Latin America survey update, March 1992 The most important regional news since the first edition was the launch of the Peruvian network (RCP: Red Cientifica Peruana). The RCP serves users from all type of research centers from universities to NGO's (Non Governmental Organizations). The development is the result of a coordinated effort involving national and international Organizations under the "passionate" lead of Jose Soriano (Union Latina's REDALC Sub Director at that time). Venezuela is approaching the point of the return of years of people and technical investments. In Ecuador, where coexist at least three projects, the ECUANEX network formal launch was announced, last February, in a project counting with UNDP and APC supports. CONUEP played a key role on behalf universities. An association was formalized (INTERCOM) where more than 20 NGO's and universities join. For more information write directly to Sally Burch, INTERCOM@ECUANEX.EC. There is also a private initiative leaded by Banco del Pacifico to organize and offer to the research community a BITNET node. A national project (REYCIT), where CONACYT is the counterpart, completed a feasibility study funded by BID and the Central Bank of Ecuador. The last one is described in detail hereafter by one of the involved consultant. Please note that all the abbreviations are explained hereafter. CUNET (Caribbean Universities Network) is an effort to help Caribbean islands (so far mainly the English speaking one's) start their network growth. The project is leaded by CRACIN (Red Academica Cientifica y de Investigacion Nacional de Puerto Rico) Director's Roberto Loran and receives support from OAS (Organization of American States). The current status is to connect by reverse charged (to OAS) daily dial-up connections PC based UUCP nodes. CUNET's administration reports a fast traffic growth at various nodes. Dominican Republic network, REDID (Red de Intercambio para el desarrollo), following the same "REDALC methodology" used in Peru, is entering the last step before launch and the effort presents some original characteristics (full and free support from national private Telecommunication companies, first full scale use of the state of the art PC based user interface MULBRI) which makes the experiment specially interesting. The Latin American group formed during the Rio de Janeiro workshop met in Buenos Aires in January, then in Mexico in February, and is planning to meet again in Puerto Rico in April. No public feed-back have been made available yet. ----- A CARIBBEAN BASIN REPORT, June 1992 By Daniel Pimienta, REDALC Project Director pimienta!daniel@redid.org.do The Caribbean Basin has not been left apart of the ongoing network growth within the region. If the user population, except for Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, is still low, infrastructures are in place which make expect further developments in the coming months. Costa Rica has been for several years a BITNET key location and, furthermore, hosts the central UUCP node of a pilot project named HURACAN which offers accesses to various researchers belonging to different Central American countries via their interconnected national X25 networks. This project is a result of a cooperative effort started by Canadian Agencies and completed by the UNDP. Bitnet Contact: Guy de Teramond, gdeter@ucrvm2.bitnet Huracan technical contact, Ted Hope hope@huracan.cr Huracan management contact, Edgardo Richards, richards@huracan.cr Puerto Rico is presenting, as a result of years of investments and technical follow-up, a state-of-the-art network linking all the campuses together and with the Internet by high speed lines. It allows students to operate telnet functions at fraction of seconds in several terminal areas spread over the country. CRACIN (Corporation for the National Academic Scientific and Research Network) can now concentrate in user support and make available some time to help its neighbor. Puerto Rico is heading a sub-regional project, named CUNET for Caribbean Universities Network, which has put seeds virtually in all English speaking islands of the Caribbean. CUNET has a star organized design where UUCP nodes get, by switched connection, into the Puerto Rico network which gates the traffic toward the Internet. The user number is reported to have a steady growth in various countries (for instance Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica). The project is sponsored by OAS which pays for the expert travelling and the dial-up connections to Puerto Rico. CRACIN and CUNET contact: Roberto Loran, R_Loran@racin.clu.net Cuba is experimenting a spectacular growth of the network. The island have a traditional strong science and technology sector and is in good position to present user applications and scientific data bases. INFO93, a congress planned for May 93 in La Habana will focus on networking. Cuba contact: Jesus Martinez, jemar@ceniai.cu Surprisingly, the French West Indies have stayed aside from the area move. There is a RIO (Orstom network) node, but a 1988 plan to make the University (UAG) joins EARN-France have not yet been implemented. However, moves are underway to make it a playing actor in network related training. Dominican Republic's REDID was born last may (see hereafter). Also, one of the 25 Dominican universities (PUCMM) is maintaining a PC station connected to the CUNET project and has been planning a BITNET node for some time. Haiti, was targeted to be part of the REDID creation process. The political turmoils jeopardized the process. Other alternatives, such as training a group of researchers outside the countries, are currently under study to start an action. University of Nicaragua is maintaining a UUCP node. Contact: Teresa Ortega, teresa@uni.ni RAW ESTIMATION OF USER FIGURES: SERVED POTENTIAL Costa Rica: 900 2500 Cuba: 800 9500 Cunet: 100 2000 Huracan: 400 4500 Dominican Republic: 50 1000 Nicaragua: 100 1000 Puerto Rico: 2400 3000 ________________________________________ TOTAL 4750 23500 .