bangladesh research & education network initiative research & education network initiative...

Bangladesh Research & Bangladesh Research & Education Network InitiativeEducation Network Initiative

Dr. Javed I. Khan, ProfessorDepartment of Computer ScienceKent State UniversityOhio, USA

Presentation to Internet2 Fall Member MeetingNew Orleans, October 2008

Netwokring and Media Communications Laboratory, Kent State University2MEDIANET MEDIANET

medianet.kent.edumedianet.kent.edu

Digital Divide & Network ResearchDigital Divide & Network Research

Connection a new million people is more important that doubling an already astronomical bandwidth than another factor of 2 (The later is child’s play compared to the former- by all senses-- as a science challenge, as a technology challenge and even for business)



BackgroundBackgroundBangladesh: Population 150 million, about 80 public and private universities and about 3000 colleges makes up the higher education system.

1995-1997 BERNET & BANSLINK two short- lived RENs existed those provided basic internet connectivity via a central network.

2005 A Fulbright sponsored concept paper presented to the government.

2006-08 various talks on the concept paper in countries universities and national conference.

2008 Summer: Technical project proposal prepared. UGC formally decides to implement the BDREN. World Bank to loan the required capital.



UniversitiesUniversities

11045424417Total

9Planned Public Universities [1]

437,4891013Open University (National, Regional & Local Centers) [2]

92,000147Kamil Maddrassas [2]

1548Other Collages Affiliated with Public Universities [1]

416,6461596National University Public & Private Colleges [1]

158407104Total Conventional R&D Universities

17Private Medical & Dental Colleges

14Public Medical & Dental Colleges [2]

46,08054Private & International Universities [1]

112,32719Public Universities [1]

StudentsInstitutionsTypes

Table-3 Various Types of HEIs in Bangladesh [7,17]

Students Distribution in HEIs

10%

4%

38%

8%

40%Public UniversitiesPriv.& Int. UniversitiesNational UniversityKamil MaddrassasOpen University



R&D InstitutionsR&D Institutions

92Total

6Other Institutes & Centers

8Collections-Museum

7Collections-Major Library (Non-University)

10ARI Admintrative Centers

3Research Academy

2Research Institute/Center-Weather

15Research Institute/Center-Medical

14Research Institute/Center-Engineering

5Research Institute/Center-Energy

7Research Institute/Center-Biology

15Research Institute/Center-Agriculture

NumberType of R&D Institutions

Table-4 Advanced Research Institutions (ARI)



BERNET InitiativesBERNET InitiativesBangladesh Education and Research Network (BERNET) proposed in 1997 and connected 2 with radio-links and 5 more universities with dialup links.

Fell apart soon!

BUET acquired its own VSAT and DU got BTTB as ISP.



ICT in UniversitiesICT in UniversitiesFaculty and graduate students have email from university. Undergraduates don’t have. They are yahoo customers.

Universities have web-face. Most private universities have course-management systems. (At least two local SW companies are developing local systems).

None of the public universities have DL. Private universities provides access to jstore, etc.

3-4 private universities have video conferencing facilities.

Current connectivity ranges from 0-4 mbps.



FiberFiberBangladesh National Railway- has approximately 1,800-km STM-4 (622 Mbps) optical fiber touching over 300 of the 454 rail stations reaching most corners of the country. Only 25-40% capacity is currently being used by Grameen Phone [13].

Telephone and Telegraph Board (BTTB) has 1365 km STM-14/4/1 (2.488 Gbps/622Mbps/155 Mbps) of Optical Fiber. BTTB is running 9 Internet PoPs. Service reaches all 64 districts and 164 Upazillas.

In capital Dhaka, BTTB is building an STM-16 all fiber ring [14].

A third nationwide 1200 km fiber system touching all the existing power stations and grid sub-stations is now being installed by the Power Grid Company (PGCB). PGCB expects to use only 5-10% capacity and sell 90%.



HundredHundred’’s of rivers s of rivers crisscrossing the crisscrossing the landscape. Fiber is landscape. Fiber is challenging.challenging.



International ConnectivityInternational Connectivity

SEAMEWE4 lighted on late 2006.

BTTB owns its 10 Gbps capacity (7.04%). BTTB estimates, until 2010 only 20% of its capacity will be used.

BDREN will use this cable to connect internationally potentially in cooperation with TEIN3 project.

BDRENBDREN



Fundamentally changes countries higher education landscape via ICT competency. Significantly levels off the internal and external digital divide.

Other Features:

Giga Bit Ethernet, Radio Link, CWDM & switched IP/MPLS

Technology:

4-5 years with five phases.Estimated Implementation Period 1 Gbps- 10 Gbps core.Backbone Speed:50-100 mbps/ university to REN .Planned REN Capacity:

0-2 mbps/ university on the average.Current capacity without REN:

All 26 public universities, all 16 public medical and dental collages, 53 private universities, 30 private medical and dental colleges and selected research institutions.

Participants:

Project at a Glance



Dhaka central backbone.

Flanked by 4 regional links.

To transform into a ring.

To peer with national ISPs at Dhaka.

To peer with international RENs via TEIN3.

TEIN3(SEMEWE4)

TopologyTopology



Backbone will have dark fiber, leased line and Radio.

Access links will have fiber and radio links.

We are negotiating donation of nationwide dark fiber by the government to BDREN.



Management StructureManagement Structure

*Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

*AccountsOfficer

Chief Operations Officer (COO)

*ContractOfficer

Training & EventOfficer

*UGC & Board

of Trustee

*Technical Advisory

Committee

SIG-1(Network)

SIG-2(Applications)

SIG-3(Others..)

BDREN

Its an investment by the Government of Bangladesh. It will borrow from World Bank.

To be implemented under the auspices of UGC by a body comprised of network faculty and engineers from the universities.

After 4 years it will transition into a non-profit consortium of the public and private universities.

Government will be accepting further investment responsibility for its future upgrades.



ServicesServices

*Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

*AccountsOfficer

Chief Operations Officer (COO)

*ContractOfficer

Training & EventOfficer

*UGC & Board

of Trustee

*Technical Advisory

Committee

SIG-1(Network)

SIG-2(Applications)

SIG-3(Others..)

BDREN

BDREN to provide both commodity & R&E connectivity to the universities.

Ubiquitous video conferencing.

Extensive training and organization of communities within the country.

A Digital Library consortium has been planned independently. BDREN will provide the access platform.

Supplemental grants will be available for campuses to modernize their campus IT infrastructure including campus network.



Few issues facedFew issues faced

Universities are paying very high price (2.5-4 times bandwidth cost even compared to India & Pakistan, approx. +380 -600 USD/mbps). It increases the cost of the REN. It also creates case for the NREN.

Financing needed to defy market force: All facilities are concentrated in Capital Dhaka. Reaching nationwide is disproportionately expensive and thus commercially challenging while those who are outside of Dhaka needs it more. BDREN as a strategic investment will reach nationwide.

Training & Manpower: Sharp brains however, does not have access to “last mile” of training. Limited experience in running advanced ISP networks. Can be trained easily. But still there might be retention problem. Will train and build “communities” and will connect to communities.



Few issues faced (contd..)Few issues faced (contd..)Campus Networks are also in poor shape. About 1/3rd of the public universities reported fiber backbone in campus. For them the problem was internet connectivity. So applications were intentionally marginal. But in general significant co-development of the campus network is needed. REN possibly cannot take charge of campus network building. Supplemental grants planned to be available for campuses.

There is much more “education” activity demand than on “traditional science research” demand. Innovative social project experimentation is an active area of research. REN itself will play role in expanding IT in countries regions. REN will be used in newer ways.

Sample of Research Sample of Research Collaboration Opportunities in Collaboration Opportunities in BangladeshBangladesh



MicroMicro--CreditCreditCommunity Engineering.

Hot bed of cutting edge economic research in poverty elimination. Grameen Programs has been replicated in more than 100 countries touching the life of 100 million people worldwide.

World Bank experts estimated that 500 million people benefited from these ideas from a total of three billion poor people.

Armchair “economist” vs. practical results.Thousands of field researchers across 100 countries will need to communicate for years to come.



Mobile Phone for Social Mobile Phone for Social ImprovementImprovement

If you want to see how radically technology can change quality of life come to Bangladesh.

Grameen Telecom facilitates a 'Village Phone' program, providing a mobile phone to villages without access to fixed land lines. This mobile phone is then cared for by a woman in the village, who charges for the use of the phone and pays a proportion back to Grameen Phone.

As of April 2008, Grameen Phone is the largest mobile phone company in Bangladesh, with 8.4 million subscribers. Grameen Phone Foundation.



Rice Research Rice Research Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) is an extensive chain of research facilities. It has so far developed 31 varieties that covers 52 percent of the rice area and 70 percent of the total rice production in Bangladesh.

Identified 175 insects and 31 diseases of rice. Developed varietal resistance, chemical and cultural control practices which are environmental friendly.

Developed irrigation water saving technologies. Appropriate compaction and sand-cement morter reduce water losses by about 40 percent. Supplemental irrigation at the critical crop growth stages increase yields up to 50 percent and reduces the negative effect of drought.

BRRI retunred 36 to 38 (Gill 1983, Dey and Evenson 1992, Mustafi 1997) dollars per dollar spent.

BRRI breeding lines have also been released in the world during 1975 including Myanmar, Vietnam, India, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra leone.

A major contributor to IRRI’s Rice Knowledge Bank. One of the first and most comprehensive digital rice-production library containing an ever-increasing wealth of information on training and rice production for grass root farmers.



Health: ICCDRBHealth: ICCDRBOriginally established as the Cholera Research Laboratory in 1960, today the Centre’s work encompasses a full spectrum of issues related to child health, infectious disease and vaccine sciences, reproductive health, nutrition, population sciences, health systems research, safe water, HIV/AIDS and poverty and health.

The Centre became an international institution 25 years ago and today remains the only international health research institution based in a developing country.



Education: Mega UniversitiesEducation: Mega Universities

A New brand of universities with 100,000+ enrollment

– Allama Iqbal. Open University. Islamabad. Pakistan.– Anadolu University. Turkey.– Bangladesh Open University.– Centre National d’Enseignement a Distance. France.– China TV University System. Probably the oldest mega-university, with more than 500,000

currently enrolled, and the only one that is almost entirely telecourse-based.– Indira Gandhi National Open University. India. With an enrollment of more than 750,000,

IGNOU recently underwent a dramatic expansion of distance offerings, largely by creating 40 FM radio stations for course delivery.

– Korea National Open University. South Korea. This country has recently unveiled a plan to roll out high-speed online connections to 10 million citizens by the end of 2002, 70% of its homes.

– The Open University. United Kingdom. Although it closed its United States Open University in June 2002, the Open University continues to partner with the University of Maryland and may add additional schools.



Other Potential Research Other Potential Research Collaboration AreasCollaboration Areas

Flood impact, management.Global warming & sea level change research.Disaster management (offered team for Katrina aftermath).



Acknowledgements– The initiative received technical support from numerous individuals and

organizations including and from various universities of Bangladesh, University Grants Commission, Government of Bangladesh (Ministry of Education & Ministry of Power), BTCL, PGCB, Lanka REN, OSC Net Ohio, Internet2, Internet2 NOC, Indiana University, APAN and Kent State University.

– A collaboration catalyzed by Internet2 Emerging REN & South Asia SIG community.

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