DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT The networking situation in South East Europe

1
DRAFT DRAFT DRAFTThe networking situationin
South East Europe

• David Williams
• CERN, also President TERENA
• ICFA-SCIC meeting, CERN
• 12 July 2002

2
Health warning

• This presentation is a DRAFT
• It contains personal judgments, which are hard to
  substantiate, in several places
• Please do not circulate it widely
• It will need lots of checking and revision before
  it is suitable for wider circulation
• Other people know far more than I do about many
  of the countries and issues that are mentioned.
  I would be grateful to receive good updates of
  those areas (especially as corrections or as new
  PowerPoint slides) mailtoDavid.Williams_at_cern.ch

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An excellent resource!

• After doing quite a lot of work to prepare these
  slides I came across a very interesting site,
  entitled Scientific Collaboration and Networking
  in South-Eastern Europe www.rdg.ac.uk/ems97pc/se
  europe.html which I encourage readers to explore.
• The author is Dr. Patrick Carmichael, University
  of Reading

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General background
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Politics

• This is not a history lesson, and indeed deciding
  which countries are in or out of the Balkans
  is probably a big issue for some people. Even
  calling the area the Balkans is no longer PC,
  with the term South East Europe (SEE) being much
  preferred.
• Suffice it to say that the area has a
  centuries-long background as the area where
  Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy met and
  interacted.
• For the last 15 years there have been truly
  terrible conflicts in several of the countries.
• While there is significant political progress in
  some countries, ethnic conflicts, or even
  inter-clan fights for power, are still part of
  the daily reality in others.

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Which countries?

• The following countries are at the heart of the
  Balkans, and info on EU relations with them can
  be accessed via these URLs
• Albania europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/
  albania/index.htm
• Bosnia Herzegovina europa.eu.int/comm/external_r
  elations/see/bosnie_herze/index.htm
• Croatia europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/
  croatia/index.htm
• Federal Republic of Yugoslavia europa.eu.int/comm/
  external_relations/see/fry/index.htm
• Kosovo europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/f
  ry/kosovo/index.htm
• Republic of Montenegro europa.eu.int/comm/external
  _relations/see/fry/montenegro/index.htm
• Republic of Serbia europa.eu.int/comm/external_rel
  ations/see/fry/serbia/index.htm
• The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
  europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/fyrom/in
  dex.htm

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Neighbours

• In regional discussions it is not unusual to see
  the involvement of-
• Bulgaria
• Romania
• Hungary
• Greece
• and even Turkey

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Computer networks

• Much international aid is devoted to rebuilding
  the infrastructure in the tentatively pacified
  countries.
• People normally mean roads and electric power
  when they talk of infrastructure
• But people in this audience understand the
  importance of computer networking as a
  fundamental part of modern society required
  both for participating in the worldwide research
  community and in modern commerce.
• Obviously (to me) a fundamental aspect of
  building a democratic society.

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UNESCO-ROSTE

• UNESCO (godfather of CERN) has an office in
  Venice, their Regional Bureau for Science in
  Europe (ROSTE) unesco.dyndns.org
• H. Schopper is the head of their Scientific
  Council
• They have been active on the topic of Rebuilding
  Scientific Cooperation in South East Europe
  since early 2000 (maybe even earlier)
• They held a workshop in Venice on 24-27 March
  2001, and the Proceedings can be consulted at
  unesco.dyndns.org/article/articleview/82/1/113/
• They also held a Ministerial Conference in Paris
  on 24 October 2001. See unesco.dyndns.org/article
  /articleview/77/1/119/ and also
  unesco.dyndns.org/filemanager/filedownload/phpYm7b
  kV/DECLENG.pdf
• There were plans to hold a Donors Conference
  soon, and this is perhaps the High-Level
  Conference on Strengthening Cooperation in
  South-East Europe, which will be held in Paris on
  4-5 April 2002??

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Other players

• At the UNESCO Web site erc.unesco.org/SEEConferenc
  e/partners.htm there is a list of organisations
  working to improve the situation in the Balkans.
  This includes-
• The Stability Pact www.stabilitypact.org/
• The European Commission europa.eu.int/comm/externa
  l_relations/see/
• Council of Europe www.coe.int/portalT.asp
• UNDP www.undp.org/rbec/programmes/
• World Bank lnweb18.worldbank.org/eca/eca.nsf
• OSCE www.osce.org
• OECD www.oecd.org
• EBRD www.ebrd.org
• UNICEF  www.unicef.org

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Background oncomputer networking
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Information gathering

• As part of the preparation of the UNESCO studies
  CERN was involved in various information
  gathering exercises in 2001.
• Short visits, which aimed to gather information
  about both the general state of academia and
  about computer networking for the research and
  education communities, were made to BG, RO, BH,
• This work was coordinated by the late Frans Heyn,
  and we have been unable to fully publish it.

13
Some basic information

• For most of Western Europe, TERENA has recently
  started publishing its compendium
  www.terena.nl/compendium. Some of the Balkan
  countries are TERENA members, and information
  about their computer networks is available there.
• There is some additional information available in
  the CEEnet database www.ceenet.org/database/

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The three-level model

• It is vital to remember that computer networking
  for the research and education communities
  depends on three levels of infrastructure and
  service
• The campus
• The national connections
• The international connections
• Congestion at any one point will cause the
  overall service seen by the end-user to be poor

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eSEEurope

• There is a reference on the Stability pact Web
  site to the eSEEurope initiative (earlier
  eBalkans).
• There was a meeting if this body in Thessaloniki
  on 28-30 June 2001. A report is available at
  www.ekt.gr/news/events/ekt/2001-06-29/esee/Thelin-
  sweden-esee.doc
• There was a further meeting in Stockholm on 6
  December 2001, and the report is at
  cgi.eseeurope.org/documents/Report_Stockholm_Semin
  ar_6_Dec202001_eSEEurope.doc
• I have no detailed knowledge whether it will lead
  to anything. From a superficial reading this is
  mainly about policy, and not about providing
  services on the ground.

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Research networking and commercial ISPs

• Research networking has a complex (more-or-less
  symbiotic) relationship with the world of the
  commercial ISPs.
• Telecoms monopolies have traditionally hindered
  progress both for the commercial Internet, and
  for research networking, because they only
  provided bandwidth at very high prices.
• EU candidate countries are required to adopt the
  liberalised EU telecoms regime as part of the
  process of preparing to join.
• Sometimes the local politicians need to be
  reminded why that is good for the national
  economy!
• But sometimes they also need to be reminded why
  NRENs are good for them.

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SEEREN proposal

• A proposal was submitted to the EC, as an
  Accompanying Measure (i.e. 100 funded), at end-
  February 2002 for SEEREN. It is coordinated by
  Prof Maglaris (GRNET), and has ICTDA (Bulgaria),
  DANTE, HUNGARNET, RoEduNet and TERENA as
  partners. The request is for funding of 1.25
  Meuro over 12 months. It is my personal guess
  (and nothing more) that it is likely to be
  approved, hopefully close to the requested level
  of funding.
• The SEEREN project aims at easing the digital
  divide that still separates most of the South
  Eastern European countries from the developed
  world, by instigating the establishment of a
  proper research and educational networking
  environment in the region. To that end, the
  National Research Education Networks (NRENs) of
  Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Former
  Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Romania
  and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will be
  linked via medium speed interconnections amongst
  them and to the major GEANT Points of Presence in
  this area. This initiative will greatly benefit
  from the partnership with the NREN of Hungary, a
  major GEANT node and TERENA-DANTE experience. In
  this way, SEEREN will provide a platform for the
  cooperation of the scientific educational
  communities of EU Member States with Newly
  Associated Countries and 3rd Countries.

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SEEREN assessment of present status

• The current situation in terms of connectivity
  between the NRENs of the SE Europe region is
  extremely limited. If we exclude the current
  GEANT PoP connections, noticeable terrestrial
  links include the 2 Mbps severely congested line
  between Athens and Belgrade and the 5.2 Mbps line
  between Athens and Sofia. According to trace
  files of the management system, these lines are
  congested and need an upgrade. The regional
  network will incur additional loads to GEANT,
  since new NRENs will acquire access to the
  pan-European backbone. However, given the current
  status of new NRENs and their limited internal
  capacities, the expected additional load to GEANT
  will be quite low.
• This is indicated in the following table based on
  initial predictions concerning regional
  connectivity that will be developed through the
  SEEREN project. Notice, that the NRENs of Romania
  and Bulgaria are already GEANT members the
  former has a 34 Mbps connection to the Budapest
  GEANT PoP, while Bulgaria is currently being
  served via a 5.2 Mbps line to GRNET.

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Three slides from GRNET, concerning their
sponsorship of interconnection initiatives in the
Balkansfrom a presentation by Tryfon Chiotis
and Dimitra Kotsokali (15 February 2002, in
Athens)I believe that SEEREN proposal (above)
and the Balkan Regional Network (next) are the
same thing
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Balkan Regional Network
300.000 /year Both ends
200.000 /year One end
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Education Research Network SE Europe

• MoU October 2000 (Salonika, InfoSystem)
• Participants INIMA (AL), RoEduNet (RO), RNC
  (RO), UNICOM-B (BU), MARNET (FYROM), GRNET (GR)
• MoU February 2001 (Athens)
• Participants AMREJ (YO), GRNET (GR)
• MoU June 2001 (Athens)
• Participants ULAKBIM (TR), GRNET (GR)

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GRNET sponsored Balkan interconnection initiatives

• Connection of Sofia, Belgrad
• Organization of Workshops
• MoUs
• Human resources (visits, research work)
• Contribution to NRENs setup in terms of
  staffing, procedures, etc.

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SINSEE

• Scientific Information Network for SEE
• Several participants/sponsors
• MPI for Physics, Munich (Werner Heisenberg
  Institut)
• Cisco
• Telindus
• Serbian Ministry of Science, Tech and Devt
• UCC at Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad
• BMBF, DFN, German Commission for UNESCO
• There is a 4-page description at
  www.wigv.de/SINSEE_overview_0302.pdf

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Workshop on Regionalisationof NRENs in SEE

• Sofia 11/12 May 2002
• Sponsored by BMBF
• NORDUnet model?
• Cross-border links
• There is a 3 page communique at
  cern.ch/David.Williams/public/communique_work_sofi
  a_1205.doc

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UNESCO

• I have recently seen a satellite proposal, ESA
  and Alcatel?
• I think that its still confidential at the moment

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A quick overview (probably over-simplified) of
the various national situations

• At the meeting Olivier Martin made the good
  suggestion that for each country we should try to
  specify the extent to which the NREN carries
  commodity as well as research traffic. We take
  this as a goal for a future version.

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Romania (1/2)

• EU accession state - europa.eu.int/comm/enlargemen
  t/romania/
• Potentially interested in CERN membership
• Two academic networks?
• RoEduNet oriented to universities www.roedu.net
  runs the GEANT connection
• RNC oriented to RD activities www.rnc.ro is the
  TERENA and CEEnet member
• Some indications that they might soon be merged
• Status in March 2002(?) given on next slide from
  RoEduNet (I think) 34 Mbps internal links and
  155 Mbps GEANT connection.
• Overall networking struggling but improving?

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GEANT 155Mbps
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Bulgaria

• EU accession state - europa.eu.int/comm/enlargemen
  t/bulgaria/
• CERN member
• Not a TERENA member
• GEANT link (In principle 34 Mbps access speed,
  but only 5.2 Mbps via Athens available today?)
  will presumably be upgraded as part of SEEREN, if
  that goes ahead.
• Academic network
• Was recently (in a government change?) disbanded
  and then recreated as ICT Development Agency
  (ICTDA), which is an SEEREN participant
• See www.undp.bg/ict4dev/
• Overall networking struggling but improving?

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Albania

• Very tough internal situation
• Not an EU accession state
• Not a CERN member
• Not a TERENA member
• No GEANT link, but would connect to SEEREN
• Academic network
• INIMA See www.soros.al/anet/
• Overall networking pretty tough conditions?

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Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Still considerable internal political problems
• Not an EU accession state, CERN member, or TERENA
  member
• No GEANT link but would connect to SEEREN
• Academic network
• BiHarnet See www.biharnet.ba, but hard to get
  connected
• From CEEnet database at end 1998-
• Five cities connected by leased lines (speed
  unknown) Three foreign links-- 2 Mbps leased
  line to Slovenia-- 128k satellite link to
  Austria-- 128k satellite link to Holland
• Overall networking very very hard?

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Croatia

• Not an EU accession state or CERN member
• TERENA and CEEnet member
• GEANT link 155 Mbps access to a PoP which is
  dual-connected at 622 Mbps to the GEANT core
• Academic network
• CARnet See www.carnet.hr/index_eng.html
• Overall networking rather reasonable?

33
Serbia/Yugoslavia

• Not an EU accession state
• Not a CERN or TERENA member
• GEANT link (2 Mbps via Athens), presumably will
  be upgraded as part of SEEREN
• Academic network
• AMREJ www.rcub.bg.ac.yu/AMREJ/index.htm but no
  English version?
• Overall networking heavily overloaded??

34
Kosovo

• Not an easy political situation (formally still
  part of FRY??)
• Not an EU accession state, CERN member, nor
  TERENA member
• No GEANT link
• Academic network
• Status unknown
• Overall networking presumably almost none?

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Macedonia (FYROM)

• Not an EU accession state nor CERN member
• Long-standing and active TERENA (Prof Margita
  Kon-Popovska) and CEEnet member (Prof Oliver
  Popov)
• No GEANT link but would connect to SEEREN
• Academic network
• MARNET no known URL, but see
  www.ceenet.org/Macedonia.html
• Present international connectivity probably 3
  Mbps (1 Mbps via Macedonian Telecom and 2 Mbps
  via Soros Open Society Institute)
• Cost of telecoms is very very high
  (monopoly-like)
• Overall networking extremely difficult

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Surrounding countriesGreece, Turkey, Hungary
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Greece

• Has played a major role in SEE network
  development
• People in SEEurope find the prices of the
  dominant regional carrier (OTE, Greek Telecom)
  to be very high presumably there is not much
  competition
• EU, CERN and TERENA member
• GEANT link GRNET has a 1.2 Gbps connection to
  the Athens PoP, which is dual connected to the
  core at 622 Mbps.
• Academic network
• GRNET See www.grnet.gr/index_en.html
• Good advanced work on optical networking
• Overall networking excellent

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Hungary

• Important partner in SEEREN
• EU accession state, CERN and TERENA member
• Important GEANT node HUNGARNET has a 2.5 Gbps
  access speed to the Budapest PoP, which is dual
  connected to the core at 2.5 Gbps, and connects
  at lower speed links to Croatia (622), and
  Romania and Slovenia.
• Academic network
• HUNGARNET See www.hungarnet.hu/indexeng.html
• Les Cottrells monitoring always shows rather
  heavy congestion on many routes but unclear to
  me where that comes from
• Overall networking reasonable?

39
Turkey

• EU candidate - europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/turk
  ey/
• CERN observer
• TERENA member
• No GEANT link
• Academic network
• ULAKBIM See www.ulakbim.gov.tr/english/
• High telecoms costs act as brake on faster
  progress?
• Overall networking overloaded?