Enhancing R&E Connectivity to and within South Asia Country Report: Sri Lanka Nimal Ratnayake Technical Manager/LEARN

R&E Networking in Sri Lanka ● Lanka Education and Research Network (LEARN):  Focus: Higher Education / Research  All 16 state funded universities (26 campuses)  University Grants Commission (UGC)  5 Research institutions ● SchoolNet:  Focus: Secondary Education  1000 schools, 90 computer resource centers  17 national colleges of education  Ministry of education  National institute of Education etc

LEARN ● Started in early 1990s ● We interconnect  All 15 state funded universities (26 campuses)  University Grants Commission (UGC)  5 Research institutions ● Provide Internet access  Purchase commodity Internet bandwidth in bulk ● 100% self funded  Members charged for the services provided  Not directly dependent on govt. funding ● Full member of APAN ● No direct connections to academic Internet

Past ● Started in the early 1990s  Before Sri Lanka got Internet connectivity  UUCP based facility (LEARNMail) ● Phase 1: 1994 – 1998  1994: 3 universities (CMB, MRT, OU)  Initial funding provided by the UGC  Internet connectivity in 1995/1996  By 1998 most universities connected ● Phase 2: 1999 – 2004  Upgraded link bandwidths to 2Mbps [Suntel]  Funding provided by Sida/SAREC (Sweden)  Internet Access Bandwidth: ~3Mbps  Video conferencing between 4 sites

Past (2) ● Phase 3: 2005 – 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

Present ● Phase 4: 2007 –  15 links to be upgraded to 10Mbps over fiber  6 links already completed  Remaining links by June 2007  Funded partially by the IRQUE project (WB loan)  Possibility to upgrade to 100Mbps  Internet access BW 155Mbps (shared between LEARN and SchoolNet)

Services ● Video Conferencing/Remote teaching/ Meetings  Among institutions  International  Conference bridge to be purchased soon ● Voice  SIP based infrastructure  Gateways to PBXs  sip.edu implementation ● MIT Open Courseware Mirror ● Other mirrors ● Technical Training/Workshops ● SPAM Filtering/Virus Scan

Achievements ● Interconnect all state funded universities  Overcome skepticism about benefits ● Benefits  Lower prices for local links  Lower prices for Internet access  Access to any unused bandwidth of Internet access during off-peek hours  Value addition (e.g. spam filtering)  Sharing of expertise / Technical workshops ● Driving force for Telecom operators  Our requirements push them to upgrade their networks and practices

Collective purchasing power vs. artificial prices ● Artificial prices of telecom services ● Internet Access  LEARN paid $15,000/month for 7Mbps  SchoolNet offered $80,000/month for 155Mbps, but their budget is only $60,000/month  LEARN and SchoolNet share 155Mbps  LEARN gets 45Mbps for $20,000/month ● Local links  UoC paid $120/month for 2Mbps  UWU paid $1300/month for 2Mbps  Upgrade all LEARN links to 10/100 Mbps via optical fiber: $950/month for each 10Mbps link

Challenges ● Insufficient bandwidth of links  Some links still congested (even at 10Mbps)  Universities now really need high speed (eLearning, Video Conferencing, Voice)  Need to upgrade at least some links to 100 Mbps ● Limitations in national telecom infrastucture  Specially in the areas outside the capital ● Lack of connectivity to other NRENs  We are a full member of APAN  Yet to get connected to APAN or other academic network  TEIN3 (June 2008) is a possibillity, with government/external funding

Congested links < 2Mbps links (before upgrade) 10Mbps links > (after upgrade)

Challenges (ctd) ● Silo syndrome  Different projects funded by different donors  Build separate networks instead of strengthening existing ones  Co-ordination among donors is essential ● High prices of Internet bandwidth  International connectivity almost a monopoly  Much higher than in US or Europe  High profit margin of telecom operators  Getting connected to APAN/TEIN will enable us to purchase Internet access at much lower prices

SchoolNet ● 912 nodes up to March 31  Ministry of Education: 8Mbps  National Institute of Education: 4Mbps  National Colleges of Education: 512Kbps/2Mbps  Provincial IT Centers: 512Kbps  Computer Resource Centers: Kbps  Schools: 64Kbps/128Kbps (about 850) ● local link bandwdth upgrade is being done  Schools from 64K to 128K  Doubling of bandwidth for some other places ● 50% links are wired, rest wireless ● Target: 5000 schools by 2010  more nodes before end of 2007

APAN-South Asia Net Group ● group.htm ● Formed in Sep 2003  Several “official” meetings at each APAN meeting until about 2005  Informal meetings afterwards ● Jan 2006 – Tokyo meeting (informal)  Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka  Decided to work on a South Asia Net proposal  Each country was to contribute towards a single proposal ● Progress slow

Other possibilities ● Pursuing in SAARC forums  Better participation at meetings  Possible government support  In line with clause 14 of the declaration made after the 14 th summit (April 2007) ● Co-ordination with the South Asian University effort  UGC of Sri Lanka supportive  Next meeting in June ● ? External political pressure  To work together instead of individually