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- Chaos Digest Mercredi 20 Janvier 1993 Volume 1 : Numero
- 4
-
- Editeur: Jean-Bernard Condat (jbcondat@attmail.com)
- Archiviste: Yves-Marie Crabbe
- Co-Redacteurs: Arnaud Bigare, Stephane Briere
-
- TABLE DES MATIERES, #1.04 (20 Janv 1993)
- File 1--Connectivite Internet en Europe de l'Est
-
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-
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- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 10:43:25 EDT
- From: budd@cspgas11.bitnet (Ricahrd Budd )
- Subject: File 1--Connectivite Internet en Europe de l'Est
-
- +++++++
- draft version 5
- September 1992
-
-
- An overview of East and Central European networking activities
-
- Milan Sterba
-
- <Milan.Sterba@vse.cs>
-
-
-
-
-
- 1. Introduction
-
- This paper is based on work of the RIPE Connectivity Working
- Group. It summarises the main issues of international connectivity of
- East and Central European countries (ECE). It is based on reports and
- information gathered by network representatives of these countries,
- who have been present at the meetings or contacted on other occasions.
-
- Thanks are due to all those who helped us to gather the
- information. Some countries however, are not represented in this
- report, due to lack of information. Please contact the author if you
- have amendments or suggestions.
-
- This report contains lists of people who are responsible for
- international networking in each of their countries and a map of the
- current situation in IP networking in the those countries. The map
- doesn't show all existing international lines of those countries but
- it seeks to be complete for IP lines and other leased lines without
- usage restrictions for the academic and research communities.
-
- This report has been written by Milan Sterba
- <Milan.Sterba@vse.cs> and it does not necessarily reflect the
- opinions of the authors of the national reports nor those of the RIPE
- community.
-
-
- 2. Present situation - External networking
-
- This chapter gives as detailed as possible description of the
- various network activities in the East and Central European countries.
- The sections for particular countries will be subject to regular
- amendments or changes.
-
- Considerable progress has been made during the last year in IP
- connectivity of ECE countries. Czechoslovakia and Poland have today,
- several hundreds of connected hosts each and are the most advanced
- ECE countries with respect to IP connectivity.
-
- Bulgaria, Estonia and Hungary do also have IP connectivity today
- and have several tens of connected hosts each. By the end of 1992 IP
- connectivity will probably also reach Latvia an dLithuania through
- NORDUnet and maybe also Romania and one of the CIS republics.
-
- In all the connected countries the initial capacity of
- international lines has rapidly become insufficient and it has been
- sought to upgrade existing lines and set up reasonable backup
- solutions. Inter- networking is rapidly spreading and good IP
- connectivity is considered as the first priority by the national
- academic network organisations.
-
- All the countries considered have at the present time some (often
- more than one) connection to international networks. Certain countries
- have only a dial-up e-mail connectivity, others have low or
- medium speed leased lines. The present state of international leased
- lines to ECE countries is represented on the map in Appendix A.
-
- RIPE broadly contributes to this rapid evolution by technical
- advice and by coordination efforts.
-
- 2.1 Albania
-
- Curently an electronic mail connection exists between the
- University of Tirana and the Internet. The gateway and relay function
- resides at CNUCE, Pisa, Italy.
-
- Contact Persons:
-
- Maksim Raco <maksi@dinf.uniti.al> - University of Tirana
- Francesco Gennai <francesco.gennai@cnuce.cnr.it> - CNUCE, Pisa, Italy
-
- 2.2 Estonia
-
- Estonia works in close co-operation with NORDUnet in setting up
- external IP links. Currently a 64 kbits/s IP satellite link is
- operational between Tallin and Helsinki (Finland), and between Tartu
- and Helsinki. These will eventually connect the planned Baltic
- backbone network (BaltNet) to the rest of the Internet.
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Ants Work <ants@ioc.ew.su> - Institute of Cybernetics, Tallin
-
- 2.3 Latvia
-
- A dial-up EUnet connection exists between Riga and Helsinki
- (Finland). A 64 kbit/s IP satellite link between Riga and Helsinki
- (Finland) is planned for later this year. This link will eventually
- connect to the planned Baltic backbone network (BaltNet).
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Sergei Rotanov <rotanov@lumii.lat.su> - Institute of Electronics
- Riga Sergeijs Dmitrijevs <dmit%lynx.riga.lv@relay.ussr.eu.net>
- - candidate for Latvian EUnet backbone (now RELCOM Riga)
-
- 2.4 Lithuania
-
- A dial-up EUnet connection exists between Vilnius and Helsinki
- (Finland). A 9.6 kbit/s X.25 link, used for X.400 electronic mail and
- sponsored by Norwegian Telecom, exists between Vilnius and Oslo
- (Norway).
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Laimutis Telksnys <telksnys@ma-mii.lt.su>
- - Institute for Mathematics, Vilnius
- Algirdas Pakstas <Algirdas.Pakstas@idt.unit.no>
- - Institute for Mathematics, Vilnius
-
- The Baltic states are coordinated within the BaltNet body which
- plans to build a backbone connecting Baltic states with NORDUnet.
- A LISTSERV mailing list exists for this purpose (NORDBALT@searn.sunet.se).
-
- 2.5 Bulgaria
-
- A switched international X.25 connection connects the Bulgarian
- EARN node in Sofia to Linz (Austria). A dial-up connection over
- public X.25 connects the Bulgarian EUnet via the backbone node in
- Varna to the Internet via the EUnet node in Heraklion (Greece).
- Co-ordination between both projects, resulting in a shared fixed IP
- connection, is under study.
-
- Several tens of EUnet sites are now connected over dial-up
- links to the national EUnet backbone. A public X25 service is available
- to a limited extent. EARN services have been opened recently
- at Sophia University but no gateway exists between the two services yet.
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Daniel Kalchev <daniel@danbo.bg> - EUnet backbone manager BG,
- contact for BG. top level domain
- Anton Velichkov <vam@bgearn.bitnet> - EARN president for Bulgaria
- Alexander Simeonov <sasho@bgearn.bitnet> - Center for Informatics, Sophia
-
-
- 2.6 Commonwealth of Independent States.
-
- Dial-up connections between Helsinki (Finland) and Amsterdam
- (Netherlands) on the one hand, and Moscow on the other hand connect
- the Relcom network in Russia and a few other former USSR republics to
- the Internet. Currently the services consist of electronic mail and
- Network News. A 9.6 kbit/s leased line from Moscow to Copenhagen
- (Denmark) connects the EARN node in Moscow to the EARN/BITNET
- network. A 4.8 kbit/s leased line between Moscow and DESY, Hamburg
- (Germany), supporting IP, delivers HEPnet services to two research
- institutes in Moscow. Low speed links between Moscow and ESOC
- (Germany) and CNES (France) serve the space physics community.
-
- A considerable effort undertaken by the RELKOM networking
- organization has brought e-mail connectivity to several thousands of
- sites all over the former Soviet Union. The growth of the network
- is several 100% a year. RELKOM operates now an IP backbone which
- goes from St. Petersburg to Novosibirsk. The whole network has
- some 60 regional centres, some of which connect more than 500
- sites. RELKOM's international traffic is split over two dial-up lines,
- one to the the Finish EUnet backbone and one the central EUnet node in
- Amsterdam. Both operate as gateways on application level. The rapidly
- growing volume of international mail traffic makes the need for a medium
- speed IP channel to Europe an urgency.
-
- The first EARN node started its operation in Moscow late in 1991,
- but the spreading of EARN services is still expected. Negotiations are
- still underway to set up an e-mail gateway between both networks.
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Dima Volodin <dvv@hq.demos.su> - EUnet backbone manager SU
- Misha Popov <popov@kiae.su> - EUnet - RELCOM
- Nickolay M.Saukh <nms@kiae.su> - EUnet - RELCOM
- Valery Bardin <fox@kiae.su> - EUnet - RELCOM
- Andrej Mendkovich <mend@suearn2.bitnet> - CIS EARN director
- Igor Sviridov <sia%lot.cs.kiev.ua@relay.ussr.eu.net>
- - EUnet - Ukraine contact.
-
- 2.7 Czechoslovakia
-
- A 64 kbit/s IP link between Prague and Linz (Austria) is
- operational today. The line is shared between general IP, EARN and
- czech EUnet traffic. A second link, 14.4 kbit/s between Bratislava and
- Vienna is shared between EUnet traffic and general IP traffic and IXI.
- Both links connect into the upcoming national academic backbone
- networks CESNET (Czech Educational and Scientific Network) and SANET (Slovak
- Academic Network). Both networks are interconnected over a 19.2 kbit/s IP
- link between Prague and Banska Bystrica.
-
- Both CESNET and SANET are now setting up national backbone infrastruc-
- tures connecting major academic towns in the country. 64 kbit/s lines are used
- wherever available and considered necessary, 19.2 kbit/s on all other links.
- The first protocol supported is IP. Connected to the backbones are appearing
- metropolitan networks in major cities.
-
- The major coordinating bodies are CESNET and SANET where universities
- as well as Academy of Sciences, EARN and EUnet are represented. A good
- cooperation exists between both separately funded projects as well as good
- cooperation with ACOnet, EARN, EUnet, WIN, INRIA France and others.
-
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Jan Gruntorad <tkjg@csearn.bitnet> - EARN director for Czechoslovakia
- and CESNET coordinator
- Pavel Rosendorf <prf@csearn.bitnet> - contact for .CS top level domain
- Jiri Orsag <ors@vscht.cs> - CS NIC and EUnet Prague
- Peter Pronay <peter@mff.uniba.cs> - president of EUnet Czechoslovakia
- Gejza Buechler <gejza@mff.uniba.cs> - EUnet backbone manager CS
- Karol Fabian <Karol.Fabian@uakom.cs> - SANET
- Vladimir Kassa <kassa@iaccs.cs> - SANET
- Jaroslav Bobovsky <bobovsky@csearn.bitnet> - SANET
- Milan Sterba <Milan.Sterba@vse.cs> - author of this report, CESNET
- Ivo Smejkal <ivo@vse.cs> - CESNET - user services
-
- 2.7 Hungary
-
- Hungary is connected to EARN by a 9.6 kbit/s IP line between
- Budapest and Linz (Austria). For the time being the same line is
- used also for the Internet and EUnet connection. It is planned to
- upgrade this line to 64 kbit/s in 1992. The High Energy Physics
- community has access to HEPnet services via a 9.6 kbit/s leased line
- between Budapest and CERN, Geneva (Switzerland) which is now running
- IP.
-
- Hungary has a good operational public X25 network which is the
- base of Wide Area Networking between small and medium sized sites.
- Currently there are about 250 X.25 access points in the country. A
- high speed leased line backbone is foreseen for connecting large sites
- in the near future.
-
- In Hungary a national program under the title "R&D Information
- Infrastructure Program (IIF)" is responsible for the research net-
- working. The "HUNGARNET" co-ordinates the networking activities of
- different user groups, such as "HUNINET" (Universities and high
- schools), "AKANET" (academic research institutes), and the user
- group of public collections (libraries, museums), meanwhile part of
- the funding goes through IIF.
-
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Nandor Horvath <horvath@sztaki.hu> - EUnet backbone manager,
- domain contact for HU
- Laszlo Zombory <h340zom@ella.hu> - EARN president,
- chairman of HUNINET
- Laszlo Csaba <ib006csa@huearn.bitnet> - EARN director for Hungary
- Istvan Tetenyi <ib006tet@huearn.bitnet> - EARN deputy director
- Peter Bakonyi <h25bak@ella.hu> - President of IIF Exec Com.
- Geza Turchanyi <h2064tur@ella.hu> - HUNGARNET CRIP
- Piroska Giese <giese@rmk530.rmki.kfki.hu> - HEPnet
- Ferenc Telbisz <telbisz@iif.kfki.hu> - HEPnet
-
- 2.8 Poland
-
- The main external connection consists of a 64 kbit/s satellite
- link between Warsaw and Stockholm (Sweden). The link is an IP one and
- carries all Internet, EARN and EUnet traffic. A new 64 kbit/s IP link
- is being set between Warsaw and Vienna with the objective to set up an
- Ebone Bondary System in Warsaw. A 9.6 kbit/s IP connection is in place
- between Krakow and CERN, Geneva (Switzerland) for HEPnet services.
-
- Public X25 services have only started in 1992. Thus connections
- at national level can only be implemented on switched or leased lines.
- The country already has an infrastructure of leased lines, shared between
- EARN and IP traffic operting at speeds between 9.6-64 kbit/s.
-
- The Polish network is coordinated by an organization called NASK
- (National Academic and Research Network) which also includes the
- Polish part of EARN. Realistic plans exist to substantially extend IP
- connectivity over the territory in 1992 using 64 kbit/s lines on their
- national backbones wherever possible and economically viable. A National
- Network Operation and Monitoring Center has been set up in early 1992
- which operates the whole national and international infrastructure. A
- system of network user training and support has also been put in place.
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Tomasz Hofmokl <fdl50@plearn.bitnet> - EARN director for Poland
- Rafal Pietrak <rafaup@plearn.bitnet> - Warsaw - Copenhagen
- connection
- Krzystof Heller<uiheller@plkrcy11.bitnet> - contact for PL domain
- Daniel J.Bem <bem@plwrtu11.bitnet> - Polish academic network (NASK)
- Jerzy Gorazinski <Gorazi@plearn.bitnet> - Polish State Committee for
- Scientific Research
- Jerzy Zenkiewicz <jezenk@pltumk.bitnet> - Polish academic network (NASK)
-
-
- 2.9 Romania
-
- Romania doesn't have any international connectivity yet. A 9.6
- kbit/s leased line will be put in before end 1992 between Bucarest
- and Linz (Austria). This line will be able to carry both IP and
- EARN/NJE/BSC traffic.
-
- Romania has no internal networking infrastructure at all. A
- government project of building a public X25 network is under
- commercial negotiations and should start to offer some services in
- early 1993.
-
- In Romania the emerging networking activities seem to be
- coordinated by the National Council for Informatics and the Institute
- of Informatics.
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Florin Paunescu <florin@imag.fr> - National Council for Informatics
- Paul Dan Cristea <pdcristea@pi-bucuresti.th-darmstadt.de>
- - Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest
-
- 2.10 Slovenia
-
- Slovenia is connected over a 64 kbit/s IXI access point in
- Ljubljana to the IXI backbone. Over this connection an IP link via
- NIKHEF, Amsterdam (Netherlands) provides Internet connectivity. A
- PSDN X25 connection connects the main EUnet node in Ljubljana to
- EUnet. Another IXI access point, also located in Ljubljana, connects
- Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina to IXI over the YUPAK PPSDN.
-
- Currently Slovenia have achieved a good degree of capillarity
- of their national networks due to the existence of a wide spread public
- X25 network.
-
- Yugoslavian academic networking activities have been coordinated
- by the National Academic Networking Organization YUNAC. Beside this
- both EARN and EUnet are present in Slovenia and Serbia. YUNAC is now
- applying for international membership in RARE and works to reorganize
- itself in a NORDUnet-like way. In Slovenia the Academic and Research
- Network of Slovenia (ARNES) is coordinating network activities.
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Leon Mlakar <leon@ninurta.fer.yu> - EUnet backbone manager YU
- Borka Jerman-Blazic <jerman-blazic@ijs.ac.mail.yu> - YUNAC
- Marko Bonac <marko.bonac@ijs.ac.mail.yu> - ARNES Executive Director
- Denis Trcek <denis.trcek@ijs.ac.mail.yu> - ARNES
-
- 2.11 Serbia and Montenegro
-
- Serbia has had a 9.6 kbit/s leased line between Beograd and Linz to
- carry EARN traffic. Currently this line is cut according to a decision
- of the Austrian government about the UN embargo of new Yugoslavia.
-
- Contact persons:
-
- Jagos Puric <xpmfd01@yubgss21.bitnet> - EARN director for YU
-
-
-
- 3. Evolution
-
- All the ECE countries are very interested in European as well as
- world wide IP connectivity. In Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland
- there has been rapid growth of connected IP networks and hosts in the
- academic community. Their existing international leased lines
- infrastructure is now shared by EARN, EUnet and raw IP services. Linz
- University (Austria) has becomme an important concentrating point
- for Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and in the future for Poland
- and Romania.
-
- The financial resources dedicated to networking in these
- countries are limited. The sharing of the existing national and
- international leased lines between EARN, EUnet and other IP traffic as
- well as between academic and starting commercial traffic is thus a very
- important issue. Lightweight but robust IP gateway solutions (over
- dial-up lines, leased serial lines or X25 networks) are of great concern
- in this respect and are continuously studied and further developped
- (e.g. COPERNICUS).
-
- By the end of this year the Budapest-Linz IP link at least will
- be operating at 64 kbit/s. It is probable that new IP lines will be
- operational at this time (Bucarest-Linz, Sophia-Linz, Varna-Amsterdam).
-
- In the same time the national infrastructure of the countries
- will also evolve. We can expect an increase in national coverage in
- countries with working public X25 networks and in Czechoslovakia and
- Poland.
-
-
- 4. International Initiatives
-
- Several international support initiatives have been launched in
- the past by different bodies to improve international network
- connectivity of the Central and Eastern European coun tries. The
- following list presents some of them :
-
- The Ebone 92 consortium has shown itself very supportive during
- 1992 by allowing traffic of ECE countries to pass freely over the Ebone
- and letting so the ECE countries traffic cross Europe.
-
- RIPE and the RIPE NCC have widely contributed to the rapid
- integration of new ECE networks into the global Internet. RIPE has acted
- as an initiator of a common coordination effort of academic networking
- organizations in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. A first
- co-ordination meeting has been held in Prague in february 1992 and a
- successfull cooperation has started since, continued on 3rd Joint
- European Networking Conference in Innsbruck, where RARE has proposed to
- be the coordinating place on ECE integration to european academic
- networking and another meeting in Prague in August. CEEC@RARE.NL is now
- the focussing mailing list on common ECE networking issues.
-
- Also both EARN and EUnet have widely contributed to the successfull
- start of international networking in ECE countries, by placing the first
- network nodes to these countries, supporting the activity of these nodes
- both financially and by extensive know-how transfer.
-
- Despite this large cooperation willingness (RARE, RIPE, EARN, EUnet
- etc.) an EC PHARE project dedicated to extend the not really
- successfull COSINE IXI project to Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
- Poland and Romania has started this year. This project places a 64
- kbit/s IXI link to each country starting from the IXI backbone. These
- national access points should provide OSI as well as IP services. The
- primary goal of the project (improve regional A&R computer
- communications) is very laudable. Unfortunately no coordination with
- RIPE has taken place and no serious technical information has been
- given. The project has not taken in account the plans of the national
- academic organizations in at least some of the countries involved, nor
- the european A&R networking reality.
-
- Austria is the major relay point between ECE countries and Western
- Europe (and further). The Austrian government is very supportive and
- either covers fully or participates in a significant manner to costs of
- international connections to these countries. In February 1992 ACONET
- has made an even larger proposal, offering these countries (Bulgaria,
- Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland) double connectivity to both
- Vienna and Linz. Each of these countries should have one link to
- both places, thus permitting line backup. The Linz-CERN line should
- be replaced by a Linz-Amsterdam line and both Austrian lines should
- be upgraded in order to accomodate traffic increase from these
- countries and offer a real backed-up connectivity to EBONE 92. With
- relation to the Ebone 92 initiative the idea of setting up an EBS
- for ECE countries in Austria is well justified.
-
- CERN plays also an important role in the IP connectivity of the
- new countries. It houses actually a 9.6 kbit/s line from Krakow and
- another HEPnet 9.6 kbit/s line from Budapest. Due to lack of
- resources CERN prefers not to house a lot of low rate lines from every
- country but rather to house a higher rate line concentrating traffic
- from several countries. This is in fact in perfect conformance with
- the ACONET proposal.
-
- The German DFN network has launched several regional initiatives
- to connect sites in geographical proximity of Germany (e.g.
- Dreilaendereck project connecting Liberec in Czechoslovakia, Wroclaw
- in Poland and Zittau in Germany using leased links based on X25 with
- further connectivity to DFN). There is also strong cooperation of the
- Slovanian academic network with DFN within the scope of the COSINE
- project.
-
- The Italian government has financed in 1990 and 1992 successfull
- network workshops (NetSchool) to which about 50 network specialists
- from ECE countries have attended. A second extended edition of
- NetSchool has taken place in April 1992 with participation of network
- specialists from RIPE and attendees from ECE countries, some South
- American, Asian and African countries.
-
- A similar event has been organized by NORDUnet for network users
- and operators from the Baltic states.
-
- The French government has expressed its willingness to help the
- integration of new countries to the world of academic networking by
- launching in co-operation with INRIA a project called Copernique,
- which aims to improve network connectivity of several Eastern
- European Countries. One of the first results of this project has been
- the cooperation on design and implementation of the academic IP
- backbone CESNET-SANET (Prague - Brno - Bratislava ... Banska Bystrica
- - Kosice) in Czechoslovakia. The project consists of network
- management and administration know-how transfer, common development of
- tools and some software and hardware donations. A similar activity is
- now starting with Romania.
-
- IBM is also present in these countries with its academic
- initiative in which IBM mainframes have been offered to
- Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. IBM and EASInet act also as
- sponsors for the T1 US link usage for academic networks in
- Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
-
- The assistance of countries with developed networking shouldn't
- be uniquely oriented to basic network connectivity. A lot of work is
- to be done in the ECE countries to offer and improve higher level
- network services like e-mail, teleconferencing, archive services,
- online databases and library catalogues etc., as well as in
- basic network concepts, user information services and advanced
- networking know-how transfer. That's why new EC projects proposals are
- now oriented not only on infrastructure but also on higher level
- services (e-mail, electronic directory, user information and training).
- Lack of funds is extremely disadvantegeous and the exchange rates make
- it very difficult for ECE network experts to attend international
- network events.
-
-
- 5. Technical issues
-
- As already mentioned, distributing international network access
- over the local territory is a major problem for the countries
- considered. While it is relatively easy and cheap to set up a local
- TCP/IP network it is more difficult to connect it to the national
- access point. Generic router solutions are rather expensive on one
- side and not completely free of administrative exportation problems
- for all countries involved.
-
- The solution to these problems are software routers based on PC's
- or workstations and public domain or easily available software.
-
- A low cost capillarity of networks being of great importance to
- ECE countries, good dial-up IP solutions both industrial and public
- domain, which are under study and evaluation in EUnet, RIPE,
- Copernique, NetSchool and others, are of great interest as well as low
- cost IP solutions on synchronous lines (X25 or PPP)
-
- The technical speed limitations for international leased lines seem
- now to become less restrictive than in the past. For Czechoslovakia,
- Hungary and Poland, international links up to 2 Mbit/s are now feasible.
-
- With the basic connectivity problems being progressively solved the
- network services and network management are now becomming major issues in
- the most advanced ECE countries. PC's remain the most spread technical basis,
- thus network solutions based on this platform (routers, mail, news, archive
- and information servers and clients) either Unix or MS DOS oriented are of
- major concern today.
-
- 6. Organizational issues
-
- The starting period in international networking is often
- characterized by a fuzziness in the organizational structure together
- with a lack of information about the people actually responsible and
- working in the area. The situation is nearly stabilized in
- Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, where national academic networking
- groups have been founded and are coordinated with EARN/EUnet
- activities, and a coordinated effort tends to build nation wide
- multiprotocol academic network infrastructures. A similar effort is
- underway in Bulgaria (UNIKOM, EARN and EUnet Bulgaria). These
- countries seem also to have found a stabilized position in international
- network organizations (EARN, EUnet, RARE, RIPE). The situation is more
- complicated in other countries where international contacts are for
- various reasons much more scarce.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of Chaos Digest #1.04
- ************************************
-