1. NRENs and their Responsibilities UbuntuNet Leadership Seminar 28 April 2016, Dar es Salaam Duncan Martin, Consultant

2. Research and Education Networking Collaborations between universities and research institutions globally –Meets special communications and related needs of these institutions –Mostly organised through recognised national bodies called NRENs Regional RENs aggregate traffic to and from member NRENs –provide international connectivity with other RENs –UbuntuNet, Géant This all comprises “the Global REN” –Key role played by European Commission and Géant

3. Research and Education Networking Benefits –More bandwidth per dollar (aggregated buying power) –High speed connectivity with other RENs worldwide –Access to research data, high performance computers, science gateways, eduroam –Aggregating demand for and sharing costs of special additional services Downsides –Surrendering some institutional independence/discretion –Participating in the governance processes of your NREN

4. An NREN is both… An Organisationand a Network

5. 5 Some African NRENs DRC Kenya Malawi Somalia South Africa Tanzania Uganda Zambia Sudan Some other well-known NRENs GermanyIreland England Netherlands Madagascar China

6. Must every country have an official NREN? The “standard REN model” says YES! –Standard model developed in Europe and the USA –It’s not legislated or imposed by any authority NRENs can be hard to start and sustain –Some incumbent operators are still too powerful –Some countries have too few universities It’s important that all bona fide African universities are part of the Global REN! –UbuntuNet Alliance is exploring ways to achieve this

7. REN vs Commodity Traffic NREN RREN Link carries only REN  REN traffic Link carries REN  REN and REN  Commodity traffic Link carries Commodity  Commodity traffic

8. NREN RREN Basic REN Connectivity Services NRENs must provide –Connectivity between institutions via REN links –Global REN transit Connectivity via REN links to all RENs worldwide –Associated Help Desk and Fault Resolutions NRENs often also provide –Commodity connectivity (“full IP transit”)

9. Above-the-network services eduroam –Your home institution Internet login works abroad Videoconferencing Infrastructure as a Service –Cloud-based hosting, compute, storage, visualisation, point-to-point light paths Federated identities –You login to online services using your username and password from your home institution –NREN provides organisational home and management –Access may be via established Science Gateways

10. Some additional services that many NRENs provide Online real-time traffic graphs Secondary DNS Local mirror services –Akamai and other global Content Delivery Networks –Software distributions, scientific datasets Administration of national “academic domain” –.edu.bi,.or.ke;.ac.za … Local Internet Registry (under AfriNIC) Connectivity to schools –Via “schools networking organisations” –Opportunistically - university campuses as local hubs

11. Geant’s well-known map

12. The UbuntuNet Region 26 countries in the Region; of which… 15 have member NRENs of UbuntuNet; of which… 10 NRENs are operational; of which… 6 NRENs connect to UbuntuNet’s network.

13. UbuntuNet’s Reach Countries AUbuntuNet Region26 B Countries w operational NRENs 10 NRENs’ Reach (B ÷ A) 38% C Countries w NRENs connected to UbuntuNet 6 D UbuntuNet’s Reach (C ÷ A) 23% AAU Member Universities 141 98 69% 56 40%

14. Challenges ahead? Internet access will become ubiquitous and cheap –Difficult for NRENs to compete on price for bandwidth –Reduced need for NRENs and RRENs as traffic aggregators NRENs will focus on special services –High speed point-to-point circuits (light paths) –High speed links on demand –Identity federations –Compute, storage and other above-the-network services

15. Thanks for listening and… Have fun!