RESEARCH & EDUCATION NETWORKS -A CASE STUDY IN GHANA SCHOOL ON RADIO USE FOR INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY 3 rd - 21 st February 2003, Trieste (Italy) Kwaku F. Awuye-Kpobi Balme Library, University of Ghana

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 MAP OF GHANA

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 OBJECTIVES To bring all the research and educational institutions under one technological umbrella. To link all libraries in Educational & Research for them to take advantage of e-journals.

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 To harness the potential of resource- sharing among the universities and research centers

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 Locations covered Within Accra Ghana Atomic Energy Commission Center for Scientific & Industrial research University of Ghana Medical School

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 Outside Accra Winneba (70Km from Accra) Kumasi (270KM from Accra) Cape-Coast (180Km from Accra) Tamale (800Km from Accra)

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 IMPLEMENTATION Acquisition of a VSAT (stationed Univ.. of Ghana) Extension of this link to the University Library Extension by Radio to some departments

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 Made use of an existing Cylink Radio transmitting at 128kbps to link the Central Administration Blocks A mast was built at the Central Administration being the highest point on campus. 2 Principal Base stations were setup at the Central Administration

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 One belonged to a private company which transmits data to & from the REN to their base station in Accra for onward transmission to Kumasi and Cape-Coast So all the private company is supposed to be doing is tunneling data from University of Ghana to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology and University of Cape- Coast at 64kbps

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 The other base station which is managed by the university ICT staff is being use to serve the other institutions within Accra. Winneba is which about 70Km from Accra uses a special radio which makes use of the University of Ghana PABX system to dial-in A VSAT was procured for UDS at Tamale

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 Making use of an existing Cylink Radio transmitting at 128kbps to link the Central Administration Blocks A mast was built at the Central Administration being the highest point on campus to host both the VHF and an Omni- directional antenna

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003PROBLEMS Power Expertise Mistrust between the private company and the University Funds Flat rate for participating institutions

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 Threats of pulling out & pulling out Accusations of University of Ghana hijacking the project to the detriment of the other institutions Confusion about payments and services.

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 SOLUTIONS The 128kbps Cylink was changed to an 11Mb/s Radio but due to LOS, it has not performed as expected Linux boxes were installed in KNUST & UCC. These boxes which masqueraded IPS also have firewalls configured on them to make sure we have packets only from our designated networks

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 A Stand-by power generating set was acquired for the VSAT but the intermediary nodes were left out and so the problem was not fully solved. GNCIC made connectivity to the other institutions possible

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 THE WAY FORWARD The radio link connecting the Central Administration is being replaced with fibre optic cable to improve connectivity to the other institutions. Trying to maximize the full capabilities of Open Source computing. E.g. Exploring Bandwidth management capabilities of Linux to manage the bandwidth allocation to individual institutions.

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 It is also possible for individual institutions to acquire separate but smaller VSAT than what the project currently have and sharing the current bandwidth among them directly from source.

February 13,2003AWUYE-KPOBI, 2003 THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION