- Info
Traffic increase drives upgrade to UbuntuNet and GÉANT interconnection
In January 2008 connectivity between the Research and Education Communities in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa was established with a 1 Gbps between the UbuntuNet Alliance and GÉANT.
Just under three years later, greater collaboration between the two regions has driven the need for a significant increase to the interconnection.
Currently, the UbuntuNet link to GÉANT provides connectivity for two Sub-Saharan African NRENs, TENET (South Africa) and KENET (Kenya). In the coming months, however, an increase in IP traffic will be seen as KENET upgrades its capacity, and new connections are established by TERNET (Tanzania) and RwEdNet (Rwanda). MoRENet (Mozambique) also plans to connect to Europe via the UbuntuNet Alliance.
Gigabit connectivity for South African campuses
In South Africa, 50 campuses in Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria will also gain gigabit connections to the South African high-speed network over the next six months, in addition to the 15 campuses currently connected at gigabit speeds. The release of pent-up demand will cause dramatic growth in Research and Education traffic between Europe and South Africa.
Also in South Africa, the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory produces significant data streams which require high-speed transfer to the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) in the Netherlands. In September this year, data streams to JIVE were maintained at close to 1 Gbps for a period of several hours. The requirement, however, is for a capacity in excess of 1 Gbps, with further increases predicted in the future.
10 Gbps links between GÉANT and Africa
Following recent discussions between the GÉANT and UbuntuNet Alliance communities, the GÉANT NREN Policy Committee at its Vienna meeting on 24th November approved an increase in the IP interconnection to 10 Gbps as well as a 10 Gbps link for dedicated circuits which will for instance benefit e-VLBI requirements. When the two interconnections are established, Sub-Saharan Africa will become the first world region outside North America to gain dedicated circuit capacity with Europe.
For more information, see:
GÉANT global connectivity - Sub-Saharan Africa
UbuntuNet Alliance
