In the name of God the Most Compassionate and Merciful

1.Introduction 2. Project Overall Goal 3. Business Plan 4. Network Plan 5. Operation and Maintenance 7. Project Cost 8. Challenges and Opportunities 9. Proposed Network Design 09/08/20152 Contents

09/08/ Introduction

09/08/ About Sudan Area : 1 million square miles. Population: 36 Million

1993 Privatization of Telecommunication in Sudan 1994 Regulator 1995 Internet 1997 Mobile Communication 09/08/20155 Telecommunication Revolution in Sudan

Mobile Technologies: 2.5 G, 3G, and 3.5G Data Transmission Networks : X-25, ATM, Frame Relay, DSL, mDSL, EVDO 09/08/20156 Telecommunication Revolution in Sudan

09/08/20157 Optical Fibre in Sudan a total of km Covering all states except the south

09/08/20158 Higher Education 1902 The beginning of higher education in Sudan trace to the establishment of the Gordon Memorial College in 1902

09/08/ Geographical Distribution of Universities

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The ICT community at these universities and enthusiastic users exerted great pressure to acquire their own network. 09/08/ Introduction

In 2004 the Ministry of Higher Education responded to these needs by establishing The Sudanese Universities Virtual Library project (SUVL) and later being upgraded to Sudanese Universities Information Network (SUIN.) 09/08/ Introduction

09/08/ The Sudanese Universities Information Network

Main Goals The main goals of this project are to provide connectivity among the Sudanese educational institutions, increase sharing of knowledge, help universities build their information infrastructure, and extend the value of digital libraries. 09/08/201515

Main Goals The main goals of this project are to provide connectivity among the Sudanese educational institutions, increase sharing of knowledge, help universities build their information infrastructure, and extend the value of digital libraries. 09/08/201516

UofK is the oldest and largest public university in Sudan. It has 5 campuses located in different geographical locations in Khartoum. In 1999 the campuses were connected in a WAN based on different technologies (Optical fibre, frame relay and wireless Tech). The business plan for SUIN was based on the model of the University of Khartoum (UofK) network It has a similar users’ behaviour and service demand 09/08/ Business Plan

A five years plan for the whole project was outlined as follows: Phase I Implementation of the Sudanese Universities Information Network (SUIN) 2005 Phase II Implementation of the Sudanese Universities Virtual Library (SUVL) 2006 Phase III Network upgrade and optimization 2007 Phase IV Content development 2008 Phase V E- services provision /08/ Phased Plan

09/08/ Project Phase I

31 public universities were connected by 128 kbps data link using the Frame Relay technology to a central router at the University of Khartoum. 4 Mbps was provided for the Internet, using the DSL technology. Cisco routers and fast Ethernet were the technologies used. 09/08/ Network Plan: Phase I (2005)

The service was provided by Sudatel. Why starting with that very low connectivity ? Because of the low budget available at that time. 09/08/ Network Plan: Phase I (2005) Frame Relay 128 Kbps / month USD VSAT 512 Kbps/ month USD Optical Fibre 1 Mbps /month USD

09/08/ Network Plan: Phase I (network topology) DTU 2801 Cisco 3660

10 fold increase of the traffic especially for those universities for which SUIN were the only path to the Internet. Due to small bandwidth; universities looked for other solutions to get a better bandwidth for the Internet. Weak operation due to lack of proper contacts with the ICT people in the universities. 09/08/ Network Plan: Phase I (Obstacles)

09/08/ Project Phase II

Phase II The Sudanese Universities Virtual Library SUVL 09/08/201525

09/08/ Local contents ETDStaffInstitutes Lib catalog Digital Libs E-clases Reports and stats News SUVL Int. DBs Int Clases Lib Societies Int Libraries Int sites International Contents DBs

A web server and a firewall were connected to SUIN and four databases were implemented. Open source software is the used Figure (4) shows the network topology with details concerning the web server and firewall located in the University of Khartoum. 09/08/ Network Plan: Phase II (network topology)

09/08/ Network Plan: Phase II (network topology)

09/08/ Project Phase III

We got Fund for 2008 Optical Fiber for – 30 Public univ, – 10 private – 10 research centers 09/08/ Phase III: Network upgrade

Current situation Optical Fiber Wireless VSAT Frame Relay 09/08/ Phase III: Network upgrade

09/08/ Phase III: Optical Fiber

09/08/ Phase III: Network upgrade Frame Relay Wireless VSAT Optical Fibre

Consultancy Committee Technical Team ICT Committee Librarian and Information Committee 09/08/ Operation and Maintenance

09/08/ Operation and Maintenance Consultancy committee 2 Univeristies VC 2 CEO form universities networks 2 Directors from Ministry of Higher Education

09/08/ Operation and Maintenance Technical Team SUIN (CEO) UofK CEO SUST CEO SUIN (CTO) Three Technical assistant ( programmers) Two part-time network engineers

09/08/ Operation and Maintenance The ICT Committee The ICTC is comprised of 31 ICT specialists (Heads of university computer centers (CEOs)).

09/08/ Operation and Maintenance The Libraries and Information Committee (LIC) The LIC is comprised of 13 librarians and information specialists in SUIN member institutions.

09/08/ Capacity Building In 2005: One training workshop in Networking and Linux operation system (70 trainers) In 2007: 3 training workshops in Linux operating system ( 20 ICT specialists) In 2007; 2 Training workshops in quality assurance of Libraries and building e- catalogues( 30 Librarians)

09/08/ Project Cost The Project is Funded by Governmental bodies: 1. The Ministry of Higher Education 2. The Sudanese Information Technology Fund (SITF) The whole project is locally funded WITHOUT any support from the International Bodies. THEN we need to strengthen the relation with the supporting bodies

09/08/ Challenges Need for a decentralized design Need for a sustainable operation model. Completing the fiber networking with acceptable prices Keeping the parties supporting the project motivated Improve environment and salaries for ICT professionals Applications and contents Development ( webhosting, , elearning) Assisting in Campuses connectivity

09/08/ Opportunities The National Regulator is the driving force for the project The e-government project is a guarantee for continuation Fiber will soon extend to southern Sudan and will connect to Uganda Opportunity for STM1 provision Opportunity for Dark fibre (e-Government project)

All connections through optical fibre Decentralization of the network can be based either on: 1. Based on 4 universities where professional ICT people and proper server rooms exist. 2.E-Government Project 09/08/ Proposed Network Design

09/08/ Proposed Network Design 1 Proposed Network Design 1

09/08/ This design is centralized in 4 universities (4 NOCs) Static Router SNMP Activated in all Routers 4 VLAN ID for each site (Internet, Data, Voice, Backup) Proposed Network Design I

Research Institutions

WAN IP: /30 LAN IP: x/24 VLAN ID: BW: 2Mbps 09/08/ Internet IP: X.X.X.X/30 WAN IP: Y.Y.Y.Y/24 VLAN ID: BW: 5Mbps Proposed Network Design I

09/08/ Proposed Network Design II The e-government project Proposed Network Design II The e-government project

09/08/ The university node will be used as the gateway for the state and federal ministries and departments at state capital. The federal ministries at Khartoum are connected to the network by GE links by using one of the following devices ( depending on size of Ministry and its location) -Net engine (router) NE20] -Net engine (router) AR28 -Layer 3 switch S3900 Proposed Network Design II

VLANs Each university has its own VLAN Routing to take place at the nearest network engine or L3 switch SUIN will be connected to the NTC Data Center via network engine NE40 and GE link 09/08/ Proposed Network Design II

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Thanks

09/08/ Telecommunication in Sudan