Bridge Builders African Experiences With Information and Communication Technology (1996) / Chapter Skim
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CASE STUDIES ON ELECTRONIC NETWORKING
CASE STUDIES ON ELECTRONIC NETWORKING
Pages 121-214
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From page 121... ...
In the last year or two several African countries have gained full Internet connectivity. Others are creating local networks and adding users one by one until they build a user base large enough to sustain an Internet connection.
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22 BRIDGE BUILDERS their countries. These five projects are interconnected since the project managers were introduced to the technology by many of the same people and through many of the same megaprojects.
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He has worked in the information field for the last six years, focusing mainly on technology for accessing information, which includes electronic communication networks. Currently, he is the coordinatorfor the Capacity Building for Electronic Communications in Africa (CA BE CA)
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Some colleges lack the most essential resources, such as paper and ink. Others use computers and connect to the local electronic networking host.
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Policy, regulatory, management, and cultural problems were by far the most challenging even when compared to the technical bottlenecks faced in setting up electronic mail links to the research community. All the same, electronic networking in Ethiopia was started during one of the most rigid governments in Africa.3 PROJECT DESCRIPTION Networking activity in the country began under a project funded by International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
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From page 126... ...
for various categories of colleges and users under different situ ations; and set up an Internet link through development of the user base that justifies the cost of a TCP/IP connection. PROJECT EXPERIENCE AND IMPLEMENTATION The thirst activity of the project in Ethiopia was initiated in September 1991, when the Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission, which coordinates the national STI networks, participated in the first African workshop on low cost networking.
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From page 127... ...
In addition to developing a sound user base that would eventually justify the upgrade to a full Internet connection, one of the major activities of the project at the beginning involved experimenting with a mix of technologies to select the hardware that was most appropriate for working with poor telephone lines. We conducted the experiments using a mix of technologies to arrive at appropriate solutions.
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satellite operated by SatelLife, was licensed in April 1994 after 18 months of negotiation with the national telecommunications operator. The ground station was installed at a teaching hospital, one of the largest in the country.
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From page 129... ...
Prompted by this offering, a number of research institutions, including the Addis Ababa University and the Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission, are setting up a scientific bulletin board system. Local bulletin board systems connected to information reservoirs, such as databases and tools on CDROM, are found to be the most useful tools for STI networking under the local infrastructure.
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Leased Line Costs The national telecom operator provides leased lines at a very high tariff. Table 2 shows approximate monthly charges for international leased lines to the United States and South Africa.8 TABLE 2 Cost of Leased Line from Ethiopia to Selected Countries Type of circuit Country Cost/month 19.2 kbits analog USA $4,700 19.2 kbits analog South Africa $6,200 64 kbits digital USA $1 1,700 64 kbits digital South Africa $15,500 Source: Action plan document of a committee for Bringing Internet To Ethiopia (BITE)
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What are the major benefits that prompted researchers to look for electronic networking?
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The following vital figures shows the situation. Professor or researcher salary per month $ 162.00 1 page fax to UK 5 page fax to UK 3 minute telephone call to UK 5 minute telephone call to UK 7.20 16.10 8.20 13.70 Electronic networking brought a considerable amount of communications cost savings compared to fax, telex, telephone, and courier service.
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From page 133... ...
It improved family and informal ties between Ethiopians residing overseas and those at home." Improved Training Options Electronic networking facilitated the availability of more national and institutional trainers. It created the expansion of knowledge on the use and benefits of TABLE 4 Cost Comparison Between Fax Message and Electronic Mail Between Addis Ababa and London Medium Average kilobytes/per minute Cost/Kg Cost ratio to a fax Faxi2 40 0.18 1:1 Email using 14.4 modem 237 0.0093 1:19 Email using 28.8 modems 355 0.0062 1:29
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From page 134... ...
It involves configuring the hardware, setting up telephone lines, providing hands-on training on system usage, and training in basics of troubleshooting. Ongoing assistance The host provides continuous online assistance to improve users skills in dealing with different utilities and to work on improved and cost efficient techniques.
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. ~ ~ nlty: nere are two mayor goals ot electronic networking of the research commu wider coverage of users by reaching many scientists, researchers, students etc., and improving access to knowledge by bringing global information resources closer to the scientific community.
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A LAN is a building block for Internet connectivity. Capacity building in universities requires setting up of a university-wide network for inter-connecting many LANs, serving individual departments, libraries, and administrative offices, and offering the connections to the Internet through gateways.
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The community of Macintosh users should not be neglected. Lesson 7 Do not focus only on global information sources.
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The international link itself is also inadequate. Except in South Africa, the other eleven African countries with Internet connectivity have a maximum speed of (usually)
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Ability to work over poor telephone lines and software that enables off-line working make Fidonet attractive to NGOs and African institutions with small budgets.
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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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He also works for the CABECA project and through that project has installed electronic mail nodes in Morocco, Chad, and Mali. He has plansfor working in Mauritania, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Togo, and Benin.
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, at which there was an introduction to electronic networking. He spent considerable time talking to me about Fidonet technology and the NGOnet project.
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It offers users an affordable option even if they lack institutional affiliations, financial resources, or are located in a country where the nearest electronic communications link requires an expensive dialup call over international phone lines. Because Fidonet technology emerged in an environment where individuals operated each system independently and covered their own costs for phone calls and equipment, it had to be very flexible, decentralized' and designed to operate inexpensively with standard modems and microcomputers connected over ordinary phone lines.
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It lacks the capability for online information retrieval, database searches, remote-login, and remote-execution that other systems offer. However, while the expansion of more advanced computer networking technologies is often constrained by prohibitively high costs and inadequate telecommunications infrastructure, Fidonet technology is not.
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GnFido serves as a gateway for small Fidonet hosts not only from Africa, but also from Asia and Latin America. Through this system we have been able to use email, download conferences, and use the GreenNet fax service, which costs very little compared to the national PTT charges.
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From page 146... ...
, which tries to give access to countries where there is no connectivity at all or where the existing infrastructure is too expensive for the NGO community to afford. An agreement between the ENDA Executive Secretary and Nancy Hafl`in, who is the head of PADIS and the CABECA project, allowed me to work full time in electronic networking.
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. Methodology for Sensitizing In each country visited under the CABECA project, we organized a half-day workshop to sensitize NGOs and individuals to electronic networking.
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Here we must not forget the context in which we work in many African countries: there are poor phone lines and electrical shortages and outages. In some of these countries, you can get a dial-tone only after working hours.
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You must be prepared to work long hours, spend your own money, visit users who have problems that have nothing to do with the electronic communications system, and fix hardware and software problems. If you give people your home phone number, then you will be disturbed for anything.
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Rigby did much to extend networking technologies, principles, and training throughout Africa. Many local systems operators credit their current enthusiasm and success to Mr.
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Thanks to Doug Rigby for the role he played in electronic communications in Africa. He is the one who introduced the technology to me and to many African system operators.
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Health workers can become isolated from one another because of the high cost of telephone calls, fax services, and travel. Even with today's improved networks, communication in remote and rural areas is still difficult or impossible, and always extremely expensive.
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Finally, for its Internet users, HealthNet offers pointers to useful health mailing lists, Worldwide Web homepages, Gopher and FTP sites on the Internet. HealthNet is currently operational in the following African countries: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
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alternative to commercial UNIX system software. SatelLife is working to bring together many different networking technologies (including full Internet, satellite packet radio, and Fidonet)
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BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT This paper tells the story of the establishment of the MUKLA Electronic Network in Uganda. There is much in the establishment and growth of an electronic network that can be learned from our experiences.
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The long-term goals ofthe ESANET project are given in Box 1 below; the specific objectives of ESANET were to: experiment with alternative techniques for data communications between the five nodes in five countries; evaluate the technical, economic, sociological, and management aspects of the communication network experiments; disseminate information to the research community within the region about the development and the results of the project with a view to increasing
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From page 159... ...
The introduction of electronic networking to the wider community in Uganda began in May 1991 as a natural spin-off from the ESANET project. MUKLA was mandated to provide email services to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
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MANGO, the NGO network in Zimbabwe, was an established Fidonet bulletin board by the time the ESANET project began and so only needed to integrate the ESANET activity early in 1991. UNZA was also fully operational early in 1991 but routed its regional and international traffic through Rhodes University in South Africa.
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(See Box 2.) The harder electronic networking seemed the more determined I was to prove that it worked.
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:::::::::::: The ESANET project, with its idea of electronic networking at the Institute of Computer Science, took second place to the higher profile and better funded UNESCO Intergovernmental Informatics Project (IIP)
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As of January 1995, MUKLA had an installed user base of over 300 sites. The majority of these are around Kampala but there are about 15 sites in Entebbe (35 Km from Kampala)
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It is noteworthy that both these companies implemented international access using very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite technology in preference to the overpriced and unreliable digital leased lines from the Uganda Posts and Telecommunication Corporation (UP&TC)
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Others There are many other individuals and independent groups that MUKLA knows are interested in electronic networking. We have yet to tap this group.
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Results The ESANET project introduced the idea of electronic mail communication to researchers and other users at Makerere University campus though the focus of the project was then on experimenting with various computer-based communication technologies and working out the technical bugs involved with poor telephone lines, erratic management of the telephone long-distance dialing system, and hardware and software equipment. As of September 1993, most of these problems had been ironed out.
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From page 167... ...
They recognize the importance of national and regional networks for all aspects of development and for human resource and manpower interactions. The final meeting of the ESANET project paid tribute to the invaluable contribution that IDRC had made through this project in furthering the case of electronic communication within academic, health, and other related communities.
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From page 168... ...
Software We used the following software packages in most of the our node operations: FrontDoor 2.1+ mailer Gecho conference mail processor Msgtrack mail tracker, ReDir mail redirection GUS, Echovol for conference tracking, AC for accounting and billing Connectivity We observed that GnFido, Rhodes University, or WorkNet polling into ESANET nodes was cheaper and easier than direct polling between ESANET nodes. This has been the case for regional as well as international traffic.
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From page 169... ...
The packet satellite upload program (PG) Modems and modem testing/evaluation Mailer interfaces Beyond the ESANET Project: Future Developments at MUKLA While the interest in using electronic mail among researchers is strong, the technical capacity to meet this demand remains severely constrained due to lack of adequate funding.
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From page 170... ...
We will also seek support to update the hardware at the existing nodes and to create a pool of modems to serve as seed investments in new areas where electronic communication is to be introduced. Specific goals should be towards: upgrading the hardware and software at the MUKLA node to full Internet status via leased line; developing appropriate educational materials and formats for workshops and short-courses; providing technical assistance and training; and facilitating communication via email amongst users within the country and region.
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From page 171... ...
National capacities would be strengthened, as would capacities within governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, in information handling and communication, particularly within the East African region. Improved Services MUKLA would offer its clientele the full benefit of a wide range of Internet services.
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The East African Internet Association (EAIA) effort could be one way to foster further regional interconnectivity.
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Promotion and Education The most common mistake we can make in large scale electronic messaging installations is believing that somehow the system will "introduce itself." Not so! You can only successfully train the converted.
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APPENDIX INTERNET/EMAIL PROVIDERS IN UGANDA 1. MUKLA Institute of Computer School Makerere University, PO.
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CASE STUDIES ON ELECTRONIC NETWORKING Usage charges Students A monthly individual/small NGO A monthly corporate rate Big corporate/International 175 $ 10 $30 $50 $100 2. StarLight Communications (Up Ltd (STARCOM)
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176 5. InfomaNet 4th Floor Impala House, P.O.
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From page 177... ...
Most of these research centers have access to direct exchange telephones that work most of the time but are of relatively poor quality, just as in some other African countries. Also, as in otherAfrican countries, the telephone penetration into the population in Malawi is very low.
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. experiment with modems' microcomputers and the telephone network for data communications within the University of Malawi; design and build electronic interface devices for connecting direct telephone lines and switchboard (PABX)
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In May 1994, the UNIMA network started receiving funding from the Capacity Building for Electronic Communications inAfrica (CABECA) project also funded by IDRC but managed under the Pan African Development Information System (PADIS J in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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This modem was eventually replaced by a US Robotics modem. Figure 1 shows the general Malawi Fidonet network and its linkage to other networks in the world.
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From page 181... ...
This allowed us to operate two telephone lines, using intermail as the communications program on the node. With this setup the node is now able to handle two data connections simultaneously, one on a direct exchange telephone line and another on a PABX telephone extension that caters to the local Chancellor College campus computers.
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By processing the log files, the monthly international mail volume can be determined. This is shown in Figure 2.
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1993 150 180 March 1994 FIGURE 3 Cost per kilobyte of international telephone calls for email transfers using a 2400 baud modem.
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I hope that user perception of "user pays" electronic communications will be better understood following the survey and analysis of the results. I have shown in Figures 2 and 3 that even though the monthly bill and the monthly volume of mail sent and received internationally are increasing rapidly from month to month, the cost of sending mail per kilobyte has steadily approached a constant value.
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The international mail route changed in November 1993 from via Zambia to via South Africa. We observed that fewer calls fail on the new route.
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A number of users on UNIMA were already on email in Malawi but they used to make international calls to access email facilities abroad' such as CompuServe or CGNET. Since the UNIMA Fidonet network was established, many of these users have switched to using the UNIMA network and are finding it cheaper and more convenient since it only involves a local telephone call.
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c ~ Growing the Internet With more than one hundred points on the UNIMA Fidonet network and over six hundred users, it is time for the establishment of a full Internet link in Malawi. The user base is there to support the network and our experience has shown that the users would also be able to pay the fees that such an installation would demand.
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From page 188... ...
Most of the objectives of the project have been accomplished. The project has shown that using the installed network for electronic communications is cheaper and more convenient than existing methods, such as fax and voice telephone.
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From page 189... ...
To further assure equitable access to computer technology, APC initiated a Women's Networking Support Program, which focuses on increasing access to networking technologies and information sources for women and women's NGOs. The APC Networks are distinguished by the depth and quality of their information resources, by the global reach of their communication services, and by the diversity of their membership.
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and via Gopher P a user-friendly, text-based, menu-driven information search tool. Several APC networks offer SLIP and PPP access which allows the use of a graphic interface to Internet services.
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This case study describes the work that led to installing a full Internet link in Zambia and the attempts to make the provision of Internet services a sustainable enterprise, independent of external donor funding. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT On 22 November 1994, Zambia became the fifth country in Africa (and the very first sub-Saharan country outside of South Africa)
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From page 192... ...
The systems that run on this computer (personnel, payroll, admissions, examination systems, and so on) have all been written and are maintained by the University Computer Centre, a department of about 50 staff.
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From page 193... ...
The first recorded user of the system was the School of Medicine's Medical Library. The rapid growth and development of what was then known as UNZANET was assisted by an arrangement with Rhodes University of Grahamstown, South Africa which, in November 1991, began providing a link with Internet via thricedaily, computer-to-computer telephone calls.
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From page 194... ...
In Zambia, following the use at the University itself, there was widespread growth in the use of email among NGOs, health institutions, and aid or development agencies. Encouragement for the first two came about through external support, while the majority of aid and development agencies were able to fund the necessary infrastructure Modems, computers and telephone lines)
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From page 195... ...
The Computer Centre of the University, with its responsibilities to the University administration, was not in a position to sell and maintain a commercial service to customers from outside of the University, nor to pay the salaries of the high quality staff that such a service would require. By the end of 1993, users were transmitting large volumes of international messages to and from the Internet, and there was a strong desire among users of UNZANET to expand the horizons of the system.
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From page 196... ...
The Budget The project budget was estimated at $150,000 and covered the cost of: the leased data circuit to the chosen (cheapest) point of Internet access subscription paid to the service provider at that point; extra hardware required to provide the Internet link and to provide a ser vice to ZAMNET's customers; hardware required to provide a training facility for ZAMNET's custom ers; consultancy fees for technical Internet experts to assist in the configura tion of the service; and salaries for one administrator and two technical staff (to be met from customer fees from the beginning)
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From page 197... ...
To do this, we would need to: establish a reliable link between the UNIX network at the University Com puter Centre and an Internet service provider; procure, install, and configure all necessary hardware to provide an Internet service; provide an access point for customers to dial into the Internet with suffi cient capacity to avoid congestion; provide a software package for customers to use to access the Internet through ZAMNET; connect the existing Fidonet service to the new Internet service, thus removing the dependence on the Fidonet-Internet gateway at Rhodes Uni versity; develop locally based information services for local and international ac cess; provide a training facility and develop training courses for customers; and produce or obtain user documentation for the system.
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Establishing the Link to the Internet The establishment of the data communications link between Lusaka and Cape Town, critical to our service, proved very slow and time consuming. The Internet Company of South Africa or TICSA (now Internet Africa)
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From page 199... ...
Although capable of connecting at 19,200 baud, it appears that the signal loss over the circuit as a whole will prevent us from achieving such speeds. When the data circuit does fail, the technical staff at the two PTTs (ZAMTEL in Zambia and TELKOM in South Africa)
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From page 200... ...
However from a hardware point of view we have discovered that a system with eight megabytes of RAM and a 400 megabyte hard disk is insufficient to tackle the range of tasks and to serve the number of users that we are asking of puku. A gigabyte hard drive and 32 megabytes of RAM is essential on such a pivotal system within an Internet service.
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From page 201... ...
With our whole system dependent on that one router we are somewhat reluctant to attempt this upgrade. Providing Customer Access To provide access to the Internet service to as many of ZAMNET's customers as possible simultaneously, 20 dial-up telephone lines configured as a hunting group were installed by the Zambian PTT, and a Livingston Portmaster 2e-30 with 30 configurable ports was purchased along with 20 Zyxel U- 1496 modems to connect these lines to ZAMNET.
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From page 202... ...
However, we discovered that the DOS software contained a hard-coded login script that did not match the prompts provided by our Portmaster; the Mac software would not run on the systems on which we attempted to install it; and the Windows software contained frustrating bugs in its Mail program. Software for DOS The package distributed to DOS users is a slightly modified version of the SLIP/MINUET package developed by the University of Minnesota.
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From page 203... ...
We encountered no problems with this link and the modification of the software to enable connections between the Fidonet host and our own mail server went equally well. The only disadvantage of the link at this stage is that it requires a modem and telephone line to be dedicated to the mail server for the UUCP connections (none of our users use UUCP directly)
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From page 204... ...
In April 1995 we got our own offices that include a training room with capacity for nine networked personal computers. The room was equipped in May with seven multimedia Compaq personal computers and we have set aside three mornings per week to provide training to ZAMNET customers.
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From page 205... ...
Determining a Pricing System No two Internet service providers use the same method to charge for their services. Our own method of arriving at our fees was to draw up the budget over the next few years; decide how much emphasis we wanted to put on the basic subscription, the cost of international electronic mail, and the cost of connect time; estimate the number of customers and projected growth rate in each category; and to fiddle with the parameters until we could be sure of breaking even within one year.
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From page 206... ...
Few of these had UNIX experience, and none had any practical experience with internetworking technology. While one member of staff was recruited from the Computer Centre and had been involved in the development of the system from the beginning, the only external recruit is very much learning as he goes along.
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From page 207... ...
from where telephone calls to Lusaka are expensive, and telephone line quality is often too weak to support interactive communication. University users who will remain on the Fidonet system until the installation of the campus network has been completed.
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From page 208... ...
Beyond learning that companies are commercial, no attempt has been made to determine the line of work in which a subscribing company is involved. Many of the private individuals joining ZAMNET as non-commercial subscribers are attached to development organizations or international NGOs and use their points professionally.
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From page 209... ...
With international telephone calls to North America and Europe billed at $7.00 per minute, the ability to make a cheap local telephone call and send an email message for about 20 cents per page is very attractive. To find that this message is delivered reliably and within minutes is an added bonus.
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From page 210... ...
Its mail server is overloaded and does not have the memory or disk capacity to cope with a significant increase in either the number of ZAMNET customers, or in the number of Internet users from outside of Zambia accessing its information services. Without a doubt the main area where ZAMNET might have been launched differently was in its technical capacity.
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From page 211... ...
The most promising option for increasing the capacity of this link appears to be a direct VSAT link from the ZAMNET offices in Lusaka to our Internet service provider in Cape Town, or failing that, an alternative link direct to the United States or United Kingdom. Although continued cooperation with counterparts in the region would be desirable, progress in
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From page 212... ...
Further expansion to serve 600 customers, while also accommodating increased activity among the existing users, is likely to put severe pressure on our dial-up. This expansion can only be accommodated through the purchase of a second modem server and a further batch of dial-up telephone lines.
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From page 213... ...
Work to configure such a Server is currently under way, although the impact of a full news feed on the limited bandwidth of the Internet connection has yet to be determined. It is likely that such a feed would be dependent on the implementation of the VSAT link.
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From page 214... ...
Within the next year ZAMNET plans to increase the number of access telephone lines to 40 and purchase an extra 20 V34 modems and a second Portmaster to serve these lines; employ two additional technical staff, a marketing manager, and another junior administrator; and provide local telephone access to customers based in the Copperbelt. We have proven that the provision of an Internet service is viable and can pay for itself.
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