Ubuntunet Alliance Keynote address at the C2C summit 2015

1. Connecting Africa Coast to Coast
Ubuntunet Alliance
For research Education Networking
Dare Salam, Tanzania, 28-29 July 2015
Pascal Hoba, PHD
CEO, Ubuntunet Alliance

2. OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION
INTRODUCTION
 Evolution of National and Regional Research
Education Networks in Africa
 What’s Ubuntunet Allaince & Services to its
members
 Metrics and impacts
Recommendations for: Nrens; Internet providers,
Regulators, policymakers
 WAY FORWARD: Africa Connect2

3. INTRODUCTION
Feb, 2005 AAU General
Conference
1 2 3 4 5
BACKGROUND Association of African
Universities’s
Mandate
RESEACH
ACTIVITIES
AND
PUBLICATIONS
IDRC & Carnegie
Launching of
Ubuntunet Alliance at
WISIS summit Nov
2005
Ubuntunet
Alliance
establised as
RREN
Critical role of TENET
& KENET

4. Evolution of African NRENs
Eastern and Southern
Africa & variety of NRENs
West and central Africa &
Emerging NRENs
Northern Africa &
EUROMED project

5. • The regional Research and
Education Network of ESA region
• NRENs from 15 countries
 Eb@le, DRC
 EthERNet, Ethiopia
 iRENALA, Madagascar
 KENET, Kenya
 MAREN, Malawi
 MoRENet, Mozambique
 XNet, Namibia
 RwEdNet, Rwanda
 SomaliREN, Somalia
 SudREN, Sudan
 TENET, South Africa
 TERNET, Tanzania
 RENU, Uganda
 ZAMREN, Zambia
 BERNET, Burundi
WHAT IS UBUNTUNET ALLIANCE ?

6. WHERE ARE WE NOW? - CURRENT NETWORK
• 10 POPs in total
 8 in Alliance region
 2 in Europe (London and Amsterdam)
• Backbone covering 7 countries in ESA region
• 2.18Gbps capacity between Africa PoPs and European PoPs
 2 links along the west coast
 2 links on the eastern coast
• Some NRENs connecting directly to our European PoPs
 KENET(Kenya) – (approx. 4 Gbps)
 TENET(South Africa) – 2 x 10Gbps
 MoRENet (Mozambique) – 1xSTM-1
 TERNET (Tanzania) – 1xSTM-1

7. WHERE ARE WE NOW? CURRENT NETWORK
• 6 NRENs connected to PoPs in Africa
 RENU (Uganda), connected to Kampala PoP – 622Mbps
 KENET (Kenya), connected to Nairobi PoP – 155Mbps
 ZAMREN(Zambia), connected through Lusaka PoP – 622 Mbps
 MoRENet (Mozambique), connected through Maputo PoP– 155 Mbps
 TENET(South Africa), connected through Mtunzini and Cape Town
PoPs – 155Mbps
 RwEdNet (Rwanda) connected through the Kigali PoP

8. WHERE ARE WE NOW? CURRENT NETWORK
• Peering with GÉANT in London and Amsterdam
 Transit to Research and Education community world-wide
 Peering at London Internet exchange (LINX)
 Peering at Amsterdam Internet Exchange and (AMS-IX)
 Peering at NAPAfrica (Johannesburg)
 Transit to Internet at LINX and AMS-IX

9. WHERE ARE WE NOW? CURRENT NETWORK

10. Background
 A partnership between Ubuntunet Alliance,
AfricaConnect, NSRC and INASp
 To train Network Engineers at campus and NREN
level
 Mode:
 Training workshops (NSRC, AfNOG, NREN
engineers)
 Secondment of expert personnel from advanced
NRENs and similar organizations to assist with
specific phases of NREN network development
 Attachment of Engineers from Alliance NRENs to
Advanced NRENs
CAPACITY BUILDING: BACKGROUND

11. CAPACITY BUILDING:AREAS COVERED
 Campus Network Design
 Switching and routing
 Network monitoring
 IPv4 and IPv6 addressing
 Network Security
 Advanced Routing for RENs workshop
 how to build a scalable routing infrastructure
internal routing, inter-domain peering and traffic etc
 Instruction methodologies on above subject areas,
including lesson planning and presentation strategies

12. Plans- mid term to long-term
 Training labs
 Both virtual and using real hardware
 Multi-platform ( Cisco, Juniper etc)
 To be hosted by NRENs with a training program
 Curriculum development
 Responsive to changing needs of NRENs and Universities
 Hands on
 collaboration with interested universities/tertiary institutions
CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRESS

13. Metrics and impacts
Actual connectivity status in the
region
Reduction of the price
Research collaboration
NRENs business model

14. recommendations
For NRENs
For Internet Providers
Regulators
For Policymakers at National level
For Policy makers at regional level
For African development agencies

15. THANK YOU
CEO@UBUNTUNET.NET