1. 1 www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/scs/net/talk09/icfa-aug09.ppt New E. Coast of Africa Fibre Prepared by: Les Cottrell SLAC, Umar Kalim SEECS,NUST/SLAC Presented to the International Committee on Future Accelerators

2. Lit Undersea Cable Capacity Growth Upturn in 2007 in All Regions Rapid Growth Foreseen to Meet Rising Demand Drive to 40G and/or 100G Links

4. Hibernia Offers Cross-Atlantic 40G August 13, 2009 SUMMIT, NJ and DUBLIN - - Hibernia Atlantic, today announces the company is now the first to offer native, 40 Gbps wavelength (WL) capacity across the Atlantic Ocean, without the need for external equipment. By deploying the latest 40G network technology, Hibernia has increased the potential capacity of the Atlantic system to 10.16Tb/s.] Hibernia Atlantic’s first-to-market offering is in response to its North American customers’ demand for greater bandwidth capacity, stemming from the precipitous rise in deployment of next-generation services, such as streaming video, IP multimedia and web conferencing. Additionally, financial exchanges and media houses need secure and high- performance capacity to ensure they are meeting their industries’ critical network requirements. Continental 100G Links in US, in Europe by 2010-11; Transoceanic by ~2014

5. 5 Summary Current State What is happening? Impact Next Steps

6. 6 World Throughput Trends Behind Europe 5 Yrs: Russia, Latin America, Mid East 6 Yrs: SE Asia 9 Yrs: South Asia 12 Yrs: Cent. Asia 16 Yrs: Africa Central Asia, and Africa are in Danger of Falling Even Farther behind In 10 years at the current rate Africa will be 1000 times worse than Europe Derived throughput ~ 8 * 1460 /(RTT * sqrt(loss)) Mathis et. al 1993

7. PingER Coverage extended to better understand Africa –50 countries, > 160 sites Funding from Pakistan & pro- bono

8. Plans for New Sub-Saharan Undersea Cables to Europe and India by 2011 Seacom (7/09) EASSy (6/10) TEAMs (9/09) WACS (Q2/11) MaIN One (Q4/10) GLO1 (11/09) ACE (2011?) $ 650M$ 265M$ 82M$ 2B ?$ 865 M$ 150 M??? 13.7 kkm10 kkm4.5 kkm13 kkm14 kkm9.5 kkm12 kkm 1.28 Tbps1.4 Tbps0.12 – 1.2 Tbps3.84 Tbps2.5 Tbps?0.64 Tbps??? June 2009Q1/Q2 2010Sept. 20092010Q4 2010Q2 20092011  Ambitious plans are once again underway to better-connect the African continent  The potential increase in capacity compared to now is 1000X  The issue is whether there is a sustainable market  Before the recession hit, outlook was at least one of these new cable projects would succeed this time http://manypossibilities.net/african-underseacables

9. What is happening Up until July 2009 only one (no competition) submarine fibre optic cable to sub-Saharan Africa (SAT3) costly (no competition) & only W. Coast 2010 Football World Cup => scramble to provide fibre optic connections to S. Africa, both E & W Coast Multiple providers = competition E. Coast: Seacom & TEAMs landed Jul 2009, Seacom working

10. Impact: RTT etc. As sites move their routing from GEOS to terestrial connections, we can expect: –Dramatically reduced Round Trip Time (RTT), e.g. from 700ms to 350ms – seen immediately –Reduced losses and jitter due to higher bandwidth capacity and reduced contention – when routes etc. stabilized Aug 1 ’09 23:00hr SLAC to Kenya site 325ms 720ms Avg RTT Loss Effects have been seen in leading Kenyan & Tanzanian hosts

11. Africa is Huge India 10% area, but > population, hard to get fibre everywhere 11

12. Next Steps: Going inland Extend coverage from landing points to capitals and major cites Need fibre connections inland Central Northern Southern

13. Next Steps: Beyond Fibre’s reach In areas where fibre connections are not available (e.g. rural areas), the main contenders appear to be: –wireless, e.g. microwave, cellphone towers, WiMax etc., –Low Earth Orbiting Satellites (LEOS) for example Google signed up with Liberty Global and HSBC in a bid to launch 16 LEOS satellites, to bring high-speed internet access to Africa by end 2010, Google signed up with Liberty Global and HSBC in a bid to launch 16 LEOS –and weather balloons, also see here for some discussion of the attractivenss of this technology.weather balloonshere

14. Next Steps: Let’s get together Get leaders such as universities, academic establishments (teach the teachers) to get togeher to form NRENs for country Bargain for cheaper rates BW most expensive worldwide ($4K/Mbps) Then NRENS get together to create International eXchange Points (IXPs) –Avoid intercountry links using expensive intercontinental links via Europe and the US.

15. Routing Used to typically go through a satellite provider such as Newskies Now TZ & KE go via London and Teleglobe & terrestrial fibre IXPs starting up, e.g. S. Africa direct to Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique Burkina Faso direct to Mali, Senegal, Benin Ubuntunet Alliance Founders: Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda South Africa Joined by DRC, SD, TZ, UG S. Africa Burkina Faso

16. Impact for Science African scientists isolated Lack critical mass, need network to collaborate Brain drain Brain gain, tap diaspora Massification – blend distance learning Provide leadership, train trainers 16

17. More Information Case Study: –https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/display/IEPM/New+E.+Coast+ of+Africa+Fibrehttps://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/display/IEPM/New+E.+Coast+ of+Africa+Fibre Ubuntunet Alliance –http://www.ubuntunet.net/http://www.ubuntunet.net/ Weather balloons –http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=694&doc _id=178131&http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=694&doc _id=178131& –http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/undersea- broadband-fiber-optic-cables-to-africa/http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/undersea- broadband-fiber-optic-cables-to-africa/ Google LEOS’ –http://gigaom.com/2008/09/09/google-invests-in-satellite-based- internet-startup/http://gigaom.com/2008/09/09/google-invests-in-satellite-based- internet-startup/ Many Thanks to Les Cottrell and NUST for Continuing this Excellent Work

18. Current State: RTT & GEOS RTTs > 400 ms are probably via GEOStationary Satellite connections Central & E. Africa only have had GEOS connections Satellite connections are low bandwidth and costly in $/Mbps for sub-Sahara –E.g broadband costs 50 times that in US –>800% of monthly salary c.f. 20% in US

19. Current State: E. Africa worst in Africa Not only is Africa in a sorry state Internet wise But also within Africa E. and Central Africa are the worst off 19