Afrodite Sevasti

1
Municipality Fibre Networks in Greece and the
benefits for GRNET

• Afrodite Sevasti
• Greek Research and Technology Network
• CEF Workshop
• Prague, 25 May 2004

2
Introduction

• In Greece, due to various reasons and delays, the
  use of fibre by the academic research networks is
  still very limited
• One IRU contract for 8 Km of 3 fibre pairs in
  Athens
• Recent de-regulation of telecommunications (2000)
• Establishment of fibre infrastructures both from
  the public (National Railway Organization, Public
  Electricity Enterprise) and the private sector
• Isolated strands of fibre mainly along inter-city
  routes
• Fibre rings in Athens
• The Greek government has under implementation a
  plan for the creation of fibre networks by all
  major municipalities in Greece.
• Metropolitan Fibre Networks (MFNs)

3
MFNs framework

• The idea behind this initiative comes from
  similar activities in Europe
• The Swedish initiative for establishment of open
  access fiber infrastructures the STOKAB
  paradigm
• The Regional Broadband Program carried out by the
  Irish government
• Construction of carrier-neutral open access MANs
• Co-location space, ducts, a number of drop-point
  connections
• Related activities and the Greek market have been
  studied by the Greek Broadband Task Force
• The Program for the implementation of MFNs has
  been announced
• Funding
• European Regional Development Fund, DG REGIO
• Greek government
• Program Operator
• Information Society, Greek Ministry of Economy
  and Finance
• Request for Proposals 93

4
Request for Proposals 93

• Establishment and exploitation of optical fibre
  networks from public entities
• Funding of 36M
• Building metropolitan networks based on
• Population figures
• Number of points of public interest
• Municipalities with at least 20 public points of
  interest in a radius of 20km from the city center
  are eligible for funding
• Implementation starts at the end of 2004 and will
  be completed-the latest-by 2006

5
MFN deployment

• Deployment of telecommunications infrastructure
  for local access in decentralized rural areas in
  order to
• Stimulate competition
• Reduce barriers to entry
• Enable freedom of telecommunications
• Improve quality of life by using the
  infrastructure for e-health,e-education and
  e-commerce
• Advancement and support for enterprise activities
• Alignment to the principles of eEurope 2005, An
  information society for all, for safe content
  and application services based on broadband
  infrastructures

6
Goals

• Broadband access to all Public Administration
  entities, health institutions, universities,
  schools, libraries, museums by 2005
• Establishment of public, open, sustainable
  infrastructures
• Ability to support applications that require
  really broadband connectivity (teleconferencing,
  telemedicine, tele-education, e-commerce,
  e-government, content distribution)
• Access for less developed areas

7
Benefit for GRNET
GRNET today

• GRNET customers are eligible as drop points in
  MFNs
• The interconnection of MFNs by the GRNET backbone
  will be possible in a national level
• The GRNET customers access loops will reside in
  the MFNs
• The backbone will continue to be provided by
  GRNET
• Current status through lease of lambdas
• Long term goal for GRNET is to obtain IRUs for
  long-haul fibre infrastructure

Planned topology
8
Business model

• Local Administration Authorities (i.e.
  municipalities) build and own the infrastructure
• Rights of way are thus ensured
• Implementation of the infrastructure is
  supervised by the Technical Consultant
• A Legal Entity undertakes the responsibilities
  for lease of fibre, support and management of the
  infrastructure
• Telecommunication services providers are not
  allowed to undertake the management of these
  infrastructures
• Cost-based management and pricing

9
Implementation

• Borrows from the Irish MAN rings model
• Specifications of trench, ducts, sub-ducts,
  fibre, interconnection/drop points, passive
  equipment
• Number of fiber cable pairs per sub-duct is a
  design issue
• Minimal active optical devices for access of main
  public buildings
• Ring topology
• Resilience to failures
• The ring topology will be designed on per-case
  basis to cover as many sites of pubic interest as
  possible
• A hierarchy of concentration and access points is
  considered

10
Example study

• Municipality of Patras
• University of Patras
• Public Administration facilities
• 8 Schools
• Port authorities
• Municipality
• Prefecture
• 3 Hospitals
• 3 Educational research institutes

11
Business plan

• Exploitation of the infrastructure in order to
  provide competitive broadband services
• Management and deployment within the municipal
  area, while at the same time ensuring viability
• Possibility of long term lease of fibre pairs
  (IRUs) for private use in order to obtain
  cost-based revenues for the operation and
  maintenance of the infrastructure
• Only to a small percentage
• Memorandum of association of the legal entity for
  the exploitation of the infrastructure

12
Next steps

• GRNET future architecture will resemble those of
  CESNET, Pionier and other NREN owned-fibre
  networks
• Gradual migration to a leased-fibre network
• We are open to suggestions regarding the topology
  and architecture of the optical infrastructure
• We intend to exploit the technical know-how
  earned from pioneering NREN owned-fibre networks