Research and Education Network Nepal: Challenges&prospects

1
Current Status of Information and Communication
Technology in Nepal Prashant Manandhar Nepal
Research Education Network (NREN). Kathmandu,
Nepal

2
Overview of Nepal

• Area 147,797 Sq. Km
• Population in million 27.05
• Rural Population 75.5
• Key Economic Sectors
• Agriculture and Tourism
• Literacy in English 18
• Literacy rate 55
• Computer ownership per 100 inhabitants 4.5
• Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants 6.0
• Internet users per 100 inhabitants 3.0
• National bandwidth capacity within the
  country 10001000 Mbps
• National average bandwidth at NPIX 1825 Mpbs
• International bandwidth 10072 Mbps

3
Present Status of ICTInternet Status

• Start Leased Line Cable and Radio Modems ((19
  Kbps-64Kbps) for Data in early 1995.
• Start of ISDN and Wireless Internet Service
  2002
• Establishment of Nepal Internet Exchange (npIX)
  2002
• Start of Wireless broadband Service 2003
• Start of Cable Internet Service 2004
• Metro Ethernet to Home Internet 2005
• Fiber Optics laid in National East-West Highway
  2005 purposes for Data and Voice Telecom only,
  Gateway connection with BSNL, India, 2007. Next
  Phase to China.
• Total Number of Internet Users 550,000, Number
  of ISPs 26
• Number of Optical Fiber provider for cable TV- 5
• Number of Optical Fiber provider for Internet - 7
• Number of VSAT Network Service Providers 8

4
Present Status of ICTICT Infrastructure and
Services

• Telephone Service Providers 3(NTC, UTL,STM)
• PSTN Fixed Line Telephones 600000
• Mobile Phone Service Provider 3 (NTC, Spice
  Nepal, UTL)
• Mobile Phone Subscribers GSM CDMA 110000
• Data not upto-date, as all providers are rapidly
  expanding
• Number of Fax Mail Service Providers 6
• Number of Satellite Telephone Service Providers
  3
• Number of Radio Paging Service Providers 3
• Number of Local Data Network Service Providers
  2
• Radio broadcast stations SW 1,MW 6, FM 22,
  (Radios 2,800,000, costs lt 1).
• Television broadcast stations 5 (Televisions
  700,000)

5
Establishment of NREN

• Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN) has
  been established as a facilitator
• to support for advanced research and education
  network through the means of
• Information and Communication Technology and as a
  knowledge center to support
• good ICT initiatives and researcher in the
  country. This entity has been established
• as a non-profit network under the Prime College,
  affiliated to National Tribhuwan
• National University, collaboration with other
  Universities, Education Institutes,
• Research Institutions, National IX, National
  Telecom, Government and Non
• Government Organizations, Industry association,
  Interested Educationists and
• Individuals. www.nren.net.np

6
Current NREN Activity

• Research in various ICT fields as follow.
• Using SIP for the voice communication to
  different remote areas via the WI-FI devices and
  The monitoring and management system has been
  developed for each SIP locations. The open source
  application has been use for this system.
• Developed E-learning for higher education at the
  villages and remore areas in local language,
  Intranet Portal.
• Telemedicine for Health Post in the villages and
  Video Conference for Telemedicine will be
  implement soon within the villages and remote
  areas.
• Hot Spot systems and its applications
• Web GIS
• Mesh WI-FI implementation is under process.
• All members will be connecting through Optical
  Fibre very soon.
• ICT Troubleshooting knowledgebase information
  system in local Nepali language for communities
  on developing process.

7
Current IT infrastructure for NREN

• For Research and training Labs
• Routers Cisco 1750 2
• Routers Cisco 1700 Series 20
• CISCO Catalyst 2950 Switch (24-port Fast
  Ethernet) 8
• Servers
• Linux and FreeBSD Server Systems 2
• Windows 2003 Intranet Server 1
• Normal PCs and Workstations using Windows, Linux
  - 11
• Wireless Networking Experiment Center
• This lab is used for research, demonstration and
  testing of advanced
• networks and latest technologies by Local ISPs,
  NPIX and researchers.
• Research on Attenuation in Optical Fiber for Data
  and Voice Communications.
• But, not sufficient Tools and Measurement devices
  for Optical Fibers.

8
Network of Nepal TelecomOptical Fiber
Present Optical Fiber Backbone Network of Nepal
Telecom
9
Network of Nepal TelecomOptical Fiber
Present Optical Fiber Backbone Route Length
of East-West OF Network Approx. 900 Km (Single
Mode- 24 Core fibers, 3x40/33 mm HDPE ducts laid
in parallel). Backbone capacity STM-4 (252
E1). SDH Equipments (Siemens) 6xSTM-16,
19xSTM-4 54xSTM-1. Links 18 districts and 79
Exchanges Lamahi Kohalpur Lamki - Dhangadhi
- Mahendranagar section yet to be completed
(approx. 350 Km)
10
Network of Nepal TelecomOptical Fiber
NG-SDH Optical Fiber Network (Regional,
Sub-Regional and Arniko Highway project)
11
Network of Nepal TelecomOptical Fiber

• Arniko Highway NG-SDH Backbone Survey Design
  review work completed
• Expected project execution date- by end of 2007
• Funding- Arniko Highway NG-SDH project with
  grant from Government of China and other by NTs
  own fund
• Proposed Regional/Sub-Regional NG-SDH Optical
  Fiber Backbone
• Based on Next Generation(NG)/MSTP platform and
  with DWDM (1st time in NTs network)
• Broadband TDM IP Backbone with the same SDH
  equipment.
• All equipments are OMSN Nodes (voice, data and
  video on single platform, MSTP).
• Core Router/L3 switch at each station( with FE,
  GE, E1 STM-1 interface).
• DWDM equipments are used between Hetauda and
  Patan and other stations are also ready for DWDM
  connection( by color interface/transponder)
• All Regional Nodes are STM-64 (10G) type
  Sub-Regional nodes are STM-16 (2.5 G) type.
• Out of 10G bandwidth 2.5G allocated for Data
  services and SAN services.
• TDM and IP bandwidth can be adjusted dynamically.
• Application inter-exchange connectivity, TDM
  services, carry secured Broadband data/video
  services like ADSL, VPN, IP-TV, VoD, Triple-play
  other IP based services.

12
Network of Nepal TelecomOptical Fiber

• Features proposed Arniko Highway Optical Fiber
  Backbone
• Link Kathmandu with Khasa, China via Tatopani
  (approx. 115 Km)
• Sixteen (16) nodes between Kathmandu and
  Tatopani (5x STM-16 nodes, 4x STM-4 nodes and
  7xSTM-1 nodes) with PoS and FE interface.
• Type of OF cable 36 fiber, single mode (G.652,
  1310/1550 nm)
• Application Interconnectivity of exchanges in
  the route, Build information highway between
  Nepal China, Create an alternate international
  gateway route via Hong Kong( no dependency on
  present satellite link with limited resource),
  Enhancement of ICT development in Nepal, Greatly
  help ISD and internet traffic, can create
  information highway between India and China etc.
  Indias big operators like Bharati Reliance
  have already requested to get bandwidth in this
  route.

13
Network of Nepal TelecomOptical Fiber

• Project Status In process
• Expected project execution date by end of 2007
• Features of proposed NG-SDH network in Kathmandu
  valley
• 7x STM-64 NG-SDH nodes (with Router)
  up-gradation of other nodes
• Multiple ring concept
• Introduction of DWDM concept

14
Member NRENNepal Wireless Project

• 1997 started in one village (Himanchal Higher
  Secondary School, Nangi village).
• Introduced the Information technology to
  villagers, most of whom had never seen computers
  until a few years ago. Most of the villagers
  still have no idea as what the uses of the
  computers and Internet are.
• Nangi village is located in north west of Nepal
  on the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges of the
  Himalayas. Reaching Nangi usually requires two to
  three days of traveling from Nepals capital
  city, Kathmandu. From Kathmandu, it is a seven
  hour bus ride or 35 minute plane trip to Pokhara,
  the second largest city in Nepal. The elevation
  of Nangi village is about 2,260 m. (7,345 ft).
• Target group is the people living in the remote
  villages of Nepal, where villagers have no means
  of modern communication means. The total numbers
  of 19 Wi-Fi nodes in this villages and its
  growing. This project is implementing in next
  District called Makwanpur (central Region of
  Neal) and the total numbers of 10 Wi-Fi nodes.

15
Nepal Wireless Project
16
Thank you!nren_at_prime.edu.np,
prashant_at_prime.edu.np manandhar_prashant_at_yahoo.co
m