Internet Info 1997 December/Internet_Info_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_December_1997.iso/isoc/pub/isoc_news/1-1/n-1-1-011.30.Z/n-1-1-011.30

Text File | 1994-03-26 | 5KB | 78 lines

011.30 BRAZIL by Eduardo Tadao Takahashi
<[e-mail]>
Brazil was incredibly late to get plugged into the academic networking
world. The first networking efforts in the country started in the early
80's, led by LARC, a consortium formed by major universities and
research centers for the exclusive purpose of advancing such
activities. However, these efforts were severely undermined by many
problems, not the least of which was the restriction that the
telecommunications law in Brazil imposed until recently upon data communication
services: in a strict interpretation, they were a monopoly of the union. It was
only in 1988 that two BITNET connections to the US were established from
Brazil, one by FAPESP (Sao Paulo State Research Funding Agency) and
another by LNCC (National Laboratory for Scientific Computation), while a
favorable interpretation of the law allowed interested academic
institutions to get connected to either of the two pioneering gateways. Within two
years, most universities and research institutions managed to get
connected to what became a national network. A third connection to the US was
set up at about the same time by UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro), but it would be used mostly for UFRJ alone, offering BITNET and
HEPNET services to Brazilian researchers at negligible cost to end user
institutions.
While the academic community gathered around FAPESP and LNCC, a non-
governamental organization in Rio, IBASE, obtained support from UNDP to set up a
node of services at its site and through an UUCP connection to IGC in San
Francisco.
In 1989, the Brazilian Research Network (RNP) was formally launched by
the Ministry of Science and Technology, having as its main purpose:
. in the short-term, to integrate the then scattered networking
efforts of the academic community in Brazil;
. in the medium-term, to plan and direct the consolidation of an
academic network in the country, interconnecting regional networks and
individual institutions, and providing direct connections to major networks in
the US, Europe, and neighboring countries in Latin America.
. in the long-term, to help devise and implement a national
strategy for the deployment of informatics resources in education and
research, ranging from high-performance computing to K12 education.
The RNP initiative was organized as a project under the direct
coordination of the National Research Council (CNPq), which has financed most
activities since its inception.
As of 1991, RNP approaches the conclusion of its first main
objective, that is, the installation of a nationwide 9.6 - 64 Kbps backbone with
points- of-presence in twelve major cities in the country, supporting
multiple protocols and running TCP/IP as its lingua franca. As the
backbone starts to operate, most institutions are expected to deactivate
their current connections (which are too low speed and badly
engineered as a rule) and seek a link to the nearest
point-of-presence. In February, a National Operations Center (NOC) will start working at
FAPESP, taking responsibility for the management of the national backbone and
its connection to other networks abroad. At the same time, a National
Informations Center (NIC) will start to operate at LNCC, dedicated in the
beginning to the preparation and dissemination of training materials. The NIC
and the NOC are being organized with the partial support of IBM, ORACLE
and INTERLEAF, which are donating hardware, software, and services.
Complementing the efforts of RNP at the national level, several states in the
country (most notably Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, and Sao Paulo) have
been pursuing their statewide networks, which are integrated through the
national backbone. Thus, by the end of 1992, one expects to have in Brazil a
two-level network composed by some 100 nodes, mostly supporting INTERNET
services, while some remaining as BITNET/BITNET-II installations.
In 1992, RNP will start to deal with a number of issues,
including:
. faster connections, as the local public infra-structure gets
improved;
. integration with existing commercial services (eg, X.400
messaging) and with other national projects (eg, library access; copying
service; automation of the federal administration along GOSIP lines, etc.) ;
. experimentation with low-cost technologies such as packet
satellite communications;
. systematic experimentation with packages such as ISODE, PP, QUIPU,
etc., as a preliminary step to the launching of a concerted effort in
topics such as experimental X.500 services.
In future notes, we shall discuss these issues as seen from the
Brazilian perspective, which in a way is unique: not many national
networking initiatives have to simultaneously cope with first world
requirements and wishes and "fourth world" needs and priorities.
Eduardo Tadao Takahashi, Rede Nacional de Pesquisa - CNPq, Cidade
Universitaria, Campinas