Transcript The Goal of the Silk Project.

NATO Virtual Silk Highway Project
Ramaz Kvatadze
Georgian Research and Educational
Networking Association (GRENA)
Tbilisi, Georgia
[email protected]
The Goal of the Silk Project
To bring cost effective Internet connectivity to
research and education community of 3
countries in Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia) and 5 countries in Central Asia
(Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan).
To increase significantly exchange of
information between academic and
educational institutions in these regions.
Silk Project Countries
Status Before Silk Project - End 2001
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National Research and Education Networks
(NRENs) existed only in few countries.
Available bandwidth for Internet
connectivity of NRENs were from 64 Kbps
to 512 Kbps.
Poor data network infrastructure of NRENs.
Constraints on Silk Project
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Not more than $2.5M was available from
NATO Computer Networking Panel Budget
in 2001-04.
Feasibility study demonstrated:
- Only satellite technology was feasible
- A minimum of 500 Mbps*months
bandwidth should be devoted to 8
countries during 2002-05
Additional Resources
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Cisco Systems - equipment & maintenance
donation - $500K.
DESY Hamburg - central hub housing,
network operation and GEANT access $400K.
EC SPONGE project - project management
and measurements - $230K.
Internet Society - workshops - $120K.
National Start-up Resource Centre - books,
wireless LAN equipment - $115K.
OSI support to some NRENs.
Silk Project
Equipment at Each Site
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Kalitel-supplied satellite stations for
central hub and remote sites
- 5.6 m dish for central hub
- 2.4 or 3.8 m dishes for remote sites depending on geography
Cisco Systems -supplied at each site
- Router and a switch
- A large content engine as a Web cache
- 2 IP phones
Satellite Stations
HEPI TSU
Current Status
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Stations are operational in all 8 countries
since 2003.
Each country is receiving guaranteed
bandwidth about 2/0.5 Mbps, advantage not used bandwidth is used by other
countries.
Additional station will be installed in Kabul,
Afghanistan in October 2004.
Management
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Silk Board (SB)
- Managers (Project, Technical, Service, NOC)
- NATO Programme Director and Panel Chair
- One representative from each Silk country
- Regional consultants
- Cisco Systems
Silk Executive Committee agreed in SB
Managers (Project, Technical, Service, NOC),
Programme Director, one representative from
each region (Caucasus & Central Asia),
regional consultants, Cisco Systems.
Personal Communications
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2 Cisco phones per site
- University College London (UCL) operates
voice server
- DESY operates voice server
Used regularly for Executive Committee
meetings
Videoconferencing H.323 usage
- Included Heads of State and NATO
Secretary General
- Distance lectures including World Bank
Technical Workshops
ISOC provided support for organization of
technical workshops. Four workshops were
held during 2004 on Silk infrastructure
(Tashkent), network security (Yerevan), IPv6
(Hamburg) and Distance Learning (Baku).
Current Projects
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Distance learning program.
School Internet connectivity in several
countries.
Cisco Academy program.
IPv6 Activities
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Countries expressed interest in getting
experience – but not at cost of IPv4
service.
Easy to arrange with dual-stack router and
tunnelled IPv6. Native IPv6 needs special
hardware for DVB.
ESA/IABG provided boards and 3 MHz
channel for two months to test IPv6/DVB.
The Future
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NATO has agreed to provide a further $1M
for continuing until mid-2007
- Expect to reduce funding from NATO
- Co-funding from countries
- Talking to EC, OSI, World Bank, Aga
Khan Foundation and others
Looking both at other satellites and at fibre
connectivity.