DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL LEVEL NETWORKS IN SRI LANKA

Nimal RatnayakeSenior Lecturer/Peradeniya

Vice Chair/ISOC Sri Lanka Chapter

National Level Networks?

LEARN – Universities, Research Organizations, ATIs

LGN – Government Departments, Ministries, Divisional Secretariats, Provincial & Local Govt. entities

SchoolNet – Secondary schools NODES – Distance Education Banks – Branches, ATMs Other organizations

Who built these networks?

Many people My involvement highlighted below Lanka Education and Research Network

Management Committee Technical Manager CEO/CTO after LEARN became a company 1994 to 2012

Lanka Government Network CEO/CTO of LGII (ICTA Subsidiary) 2 years

LEARN - Before the Dawn

In the mid/late 80's, Lankan graduate students in the U.S./elsewhere used the Internet SLnet - distribution of SL news via e-mail soc.culture.sri-lanka (USENET newsgroup)

When they returned after their studies, they work towards bringing Internet to Sri Lanka Developed LANs in their respective universities Inter university connectivity was still missing

The Birth of LEARN

In 1989, a proposal was submitted to GoSL by Dr. Abhaya Induruwa of U of Moratuwa

for the establishment of the“Lanka Experimental Academic and Research Network” based on X.25 protocols

Decided to start with dial-up e-mail CINTEC provided first funding

Rs. 15,000 for a telephone line – a rare commodity

LEARNmail

Operational since April 1990 Used uucp protocol “lkmor” relay at Moratuwa International Connectivity initially through

servers in the U.S. located at UC Davis, Stanford and Purdue

In November 1991, 644 messages totaling 627kB were transferred over international link

50 sites in Sri Lanka by 1994

Inter-University Network

Set up in 1995 Original X.25 proposal modified to use IP

first IP-based WAN in the country funded by University Grants Commission (Rs.

1.8m) Used 64kb leased lines from SLT

why do subscribers need 64kb? Connected 3 sites

University of Moratuwa, University of Colombo, Open University

LEARN Phase 1 Network

International Connectivity

First on-line connection in Sri Lanka was provided by Compuserve in early 1995

Lanka Internet on-line on 11th May 1995 Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) (Nov 1995)

Electroteks (March 1996) and LankaCom (July 1996) followed

SLT had 64kb/s connection to Internet to JVNC network in the U.S.

LEARN Internet connectivity through SLT

Expansion of LEARN

More sites connected via 64kb links in 1996-98 U. Moratuwa, U. Colombo OU U. Kelaniya U. Ruhuna U. Peradeniya U. SJP NARESA ACCMT via UoM

LEARN Phase 2

Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) funded upgrade of LEARN

8 Sites connected at 2Mb/s 4 Sites connected at 128kb/s 2Mb/s link between Suntel and SLT Internet Access Bandwidth: ~3Mbps Video conferencing between 4 sites

Training

LEARN conducted a series of training programmes at universities Colombo, Moratuwa, Peradeniya, Rajarata, Ruhuna,

Kelaniya, SJP, etc. Evangelised the use of applications

such as e-mail and the world-wide web Created a team of networking experts Built a camaraderie among the networking

staff continues even today

LEARN Phase 3

Phase 3 : 2005 to 2006 IP-VPN over MPLS network [SLT] Servers hosted at SLTiDC Many sites had one/two 2Mbps links Others are 256kbps – 1 Mbps Jan 2005: Internet access BW 4.5Mbps Dec 2006: Internet access BW 45Mbps

(LEARN and SchoolNet) Routing voice calls between some sites

LEARN Phase 4

Phase 4 : 2007 - 2012 links upgraded to 10Mbps/34Mbps over

optical fiber from 2007 3 links at 34Mbps 20 links at 10Mbps Internet access BW 120Mbps (LEARN and

SchoolNet)

Status in 2012

~ 20 sites aroundColombo

Fiber connectivityfor most remotesite also

LEARN Became aRegistered InternetService Provider inSri Lanka in 2011

Achievements

Interconnect ALL public universities Ownership: LEARN project is “our project”

Benefits to members Lower prices for local/international bandwidth Value addition Sharing of expertise / Technical workshops

Champion of networking in Sri Lanka Ahead of telecom operators in technology IPv6, Multicasting

100% self sustaining

LEARN – Current status

Links to universities at 500Mbps to 10Mbps over optical fiber from 2007

Internet access BW 1.5Gbps Direct International Connectivity in the

works

TEIN3 Connectivity

Major milestone in LEARN's history Connected to TEIN3 at 45Mbps since April 1,

2010 Very high quality connectivity Bridged an international V.conf. at 4Mbps

per site

Facilities/Services

Voice routing between campus PBXs Multicasting IP version 6 HD Video conferencing facilities at all public

universities Remote teaching Meetings

Video conferencing bridge (MCU) Bridged SERENE V. Conf program at 4Mbps per

site

Organizational Changes

Previously a project undertaking of the UGC Technical operations by UoM, UoP Financial operations by UCSC

Registered as an Association in 2009 15 universities and the UGC are the

founding members All 16 institutions nominate a rep for the

BoD Own office from May 2010

International Visibility

Hosted the SERENE program/workshop http://serene.learn.ac.lk/ As a “provider” country BD, NP, BT, AF were “beneficiary” countries Shared our experience in building/running

LEARN APAN Community

First APAN member in South Asia (1996) APAN Secretariat since Oct 2011

Lanka Government Network (LGN)

National Network of the Government Presidents Office / Prime Ministers Office /

Parliament Ministries / Departments District and Divisional Secretariats Provincial Councils Other local government entities

700+ sites as of 2014 North and East connected in 2013 Link speeds 2Mbps to 256kbps

Are we where we should be after 20 years?

Limitations in service provider offerings No visibility of what happens to our traffic after it

enters the service provider network Troubleshooting nightmare Performance guarantees

Leased fiber? Available in other countries in the region (IN,

PK, BD..) Software Defined Networking (SDN)?

Slice the service provider network

Are we where we should be after 20 years? (2)

LEARN / LGN focus only on the connectivity to the side Problems in the institution networks Lack of trained staff Problems of retaining trained staff (both LEARN and

LGN)– Training needs to be a continuous process

– Adjustment of salay / benefits Do we need so many separate national networks in

the govt / education sector?– Learn from other countries?

– National Knowledge Network (NKN) in India

Are we where we should be after 20 years? (3)

Regulatory Framework Still focused on “voice” Approval to import networking equipment Legal issues over Voice Over IP? Voice of the Service providers gets heard What about the interests of the users?