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* * A bi-monthly electronic news bulletin
* * reporting on the activities of DANTE,
* the company that organises international
* network services for the European
THE WORKS OF D A N T E research community.
No.11, September 1995 Editor: Josefien Bersee
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EUROPANET TRANSITION NEAR
The migration to the new EuropaNET backbone network is well underway.
On 1 October 1995 the new contract with BT for the operation
of the European backbone will come into force and over the past three
months DANTE, EuropaNET customers and BT have been working together
to perform the huge operation of setting up the new service. The BT
infrastructure is now in place, nearly all the National Networks have
set up their access lines to the new backbone, and acceptance tests
have been carried out. The migration started with the transition of
CESnet and the Romanian connection to the new network during the
first half of September; the pace has rapidly increased during the
last few days and most of the traffic is now being carried on the new
network.
TRANSATLANTIC CAPACITY INCREASES
Two T-1 (1.5 Mbps) circuits have been ordered by DANTE for connection
to the BT Points of Presence (PoP) in London and Amsterdam. Four
additional T-1 circuits have been ordered for connection to the DANTE
PoP at SARA. This will give DANTE a total of 6 T-1s (9 Mbps) to the
US from the DANTE PoP in Amsterdam, bringing DANTE's total
transatlantic capacity to 12 Mbps. The existing E-1 (2 Mbps) from
Amsterdam and T-1 from Geneva will probably be cancelled once the new
links are in place. All the T-1s mentioned above are connected to the
ANS service in New York. Both of the BT-connected lines have been
delivered but are not yet tested at the IP level; the remaining
circuits are planned to start operating in the first week of October.
TEN-34 PROPOSAL
The TEN-34 proposal for the Interconnection of European Research and
University Computer Networks at 34-155 Mbps is currently being
finalised. At a meeting on 11 September 1995 steps were taken to
formalise the organisational and financial structure of the TEN-34
Consortium and an Executive Committee has been established to ensure
efficient management and decision-making in the coming months.
There are still a number of hurdles to jump. The main obstacle is the
unwillingness of many PNOs, especially the larger ones, to make high
speed lines available and to join in TEN-34. DANTE has been stressing
the point that in line with the requirements of the Call for
Proposals the prospective users should be able to decide what a
future high speed service will look like.
PHARE NETWORKING PROJECT
The PHARE project is finally moving. A number of contracts with the
Commission for connectivity have been signed now, in particular with
Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, and
Hungary. With respect to Albania progress has been made as well, as a
result of the visit to Albania of Istvan Tetenyi, who works for DANTE
as consultant on the PHARE project. His personal account of the visit
to Albania can be found below.
For five of the PHARE countries, the Baltic states, Albania and
Slovenia the European Commission, has made 80 KECU available for the
upgrading of the national computer network infrastructure - in
addition to funding for the international connectivity. Under this
arrangement a Call for Tender for the provision of hardware such as
pc's and workstations, modems and routers has been issued. The next
PHARE meeting with the representatives of the PHARE countries, EC,
and DANTE, will take place on 5-6 October in Bratislava, Slovakia.
A VISIT TO ALBANIA - by Istvan Tetenyi
The aim of my visit to Albania to prepare for an implementation plan
to connect Albania to the Internet. Albania followed its own path of
development for the last 45 years and the results are still very
visible in 1995. The democratic Albania inherited a very basic
infrastructure from its predecessor and people face severe problems
such as unreliable electricity and water supply. Albania has the
worst phone system in Europe and some phones are hacked. Fax machines
in offices are still rare. The number of LANs is less than twenty.
Albania is the only country in Europe that is not yet connected to
the Internet. People have heard about it and some professionals have
used it. Everybody I met was hoping for the quick arrival of Internet
services, in particular electronic mail.
Authorities in Albania have helped to set up an initial
organisational framework to address the administrative issues. DANTE
catalyses this work with its advice and classification of the working
model of the various European networking organisations. Consequently,
an organisational structure has been established which comprises a
Council of participating organisation's representatives, a Technical
and a User Committee. It is expected that in the next year a research
network organisation will be formed.
A non-official but very important forum is the 'Internet Group of
Albania'. The group was set-up by Diane Hambley in 1994. Interested
parties in Tirana are having weekly meetings to teach, explain, train
and help the future users. A vital forum of exchanging views and
disseminate information is already in place. Other international
agencies like UNDP (United Nations Development Program) and the Soros
Foundation are also focusing efforts in the establishment of an
Internet connection. Bill Eldridge with the financial support of the
above agencies initiated the ALBNET project to realise international
networking facilities.
The technical solution planned for Albania is based on one 64 kbps
satellite circuit, a dial-up router that is accessed via wireless
modems within the radius of 5-10 km. The infrastructure background
does not facilitate leased link circuits yet. The router accommodates
16 access lines from 16 different locations in Tirana.
There is a strong wish to harmonise the existing projects and join
the efforts of PHARE and UNDP together. Negotiations with UNDP
representatives are on their way. Hopefully some of the long lasting
effects of isolation will soon be alleviated by the introduction of
the Internet to Albania.
ADDITIONAL MANPOWER
DANTE welcomes Tomaz Kalin, well-known in this community as
Secretary-General of RARE/TERENA, in its team. Tomaz will be
responsible - on a part-time consultancy basis - for some of the
management of the projects DANTE is involved in Central and Eastern
Europe, such as PHARE and INSIGHT.
NAMEFLOW-PARADISE ANNUAL REPORT
NameFLOW-Paradise is the continuation of the international X.500
pilot project PARADISE. DANTE has organised and managed the
international coordination of the service since May 1994 and we are
pleased to announce that NameFLOW-Paradise has successfully moved
from project to service. The first Annual Report has now been
published. Paper copies are freely available (send a message with
'send NP AR' and your address in the body to dante@dante.org.uk); an
HTML version can be found at URL:
http://www.dante.net/np/report/ar/ar94.html.
NEW EUROPANET MAP/LEAFLET
Because of the launch of the new backbone a new A-2 topology map and
leaflet of EuropaNET - links planned or installed on 1 October 1995 -
has been produced. Send a message with 'send EuropaNET map' (and your
name and address in the body) to dante@dante.org.uk to receive a
copy.
DANTE IN PRINT
DANTE has existed for over two years now and during that period
things have been moving fast in European research networking. By
setting up its own publications series DANTE offers a broad overview
of technical, political and commercial developments in European
research networking (and DANTE's role in it). All papers presented
and published by and on behalf of DANTE as well as articles in
journals and magazines will be included in DANTE IN PRINT. Hard
copies, Postscript, and HTML versions are available, see URL:
http://www.dante.net/pubs/dip.html.
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