NATO Virtual Silk Highway Project

1
NATO Virtual Silk Highway Project

• Ramaz Kvatadze
• Georgian Research and Educational Networking
  Association (GRENA)
• Tbilisi, Georgia
• ramaz_at_grena.ge

2
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.

3
Silk Project Countries
4
Status Before Silk Project - End 2001

• 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.

5
Constraints on Silk Project

• 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 Mbpsmonths bandwidth should
  be devoted to 8 countries during 2002-05

6
Additional Resources

• 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.

7
Silk Project
8
Equipment at Each Site

• 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

9
Satellite Stations
HEPI TSU
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Current Status

• 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.

11
Management

• 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.

12
Personal Communications

• 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

13
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).

14
Current Projects

• Distance learning program.
• School Internet connectivity in several
  countries.
• Cisco Academy program.

15
IPv6 Activities

• 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.

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The Future

• 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.