012.10 Nordic National and International Networks by Bernhard Stockman <boss@sunic.sunet.se>
NORDUnet was created during 1988 to interconnect the national academic networks of the five Nordic countries. The network is star-shaped and centered around Stockholm, Sweden, based on bridging technology with dedicated routers for the supported layer three services (TCPIP, DECNET, NJE and X.25). For connectivity outside the Nordic area there is connections to Amsterdam and to the Cornell University in the USA. The bandwidth was initially 64 Kbps one most of the NORDUnet lines.
The topology has been kept since then but the bandwidth has been upgraded to between 128 and 256 Kbps on the NORDUnet internal and external lines.
Today we see a changes on both technical and organizational levels. National Nordic academic networks and the NORDUnet are changing towards different technologies and higher bandwidths. The reason is that today layer 3 routing technology is capable of providing most of the offered services which was not the case when these networks were originally designed.
The commercialization of IP services has been very significant in the Scandinavian countries. During the recent two years three commercial companies have been formed. The finish Datanet together with the two Swedish SWIPnet and TIPnet, has started to provide IP service on the Nordic market. These efforts have been possible due to close collaboration with Nordic carriers.
One consequence of this commercialization for the academic networks is an increased interest in the networking experience and knowhow within the academic community. What we now see in the Nordic area is the formations of collaborative agreements between the academic and the commercial networks. Telecom companies provide bandwidth and technology, the academic networks provide competence in running the networks.
This is a rather new situation, there are no well established practices around formation of such agreements and much time is accordingly spent on finding ways and methods for such collaborations.
From the academic networking point of view such collaboration could be very beneficial. Telecommunication tariffs in the Nordic countries, as within most of Europe, are a significant part of the networking budget. A collaboration with the carriers will give possibilities for higher line capacities then else would have been possible.
This does not just concern the NORDUnet but is a very visible trend within the Nordic national networks. For example, the Swedish University Network (SUNET) is now installing an upgrade from 64 Kbps to 1 Mbps on main connections as a consequence of collaboration with one of the Swedish telcos. Another initiative is the planning of a 34 Mbps network interconnecting Swedish super-computer centers. In Norway a 34 Mbps network is being installed as a joint effort between the Norwegian academic network and the telecom company.
This Nordic trend of commercialization has similarities with the situation in the USA and we will probably experience similar problems within the Nordic area. A promising Nordic initiative is the discussions around the creation of a "neutral traffic exchange point". The intention is to provide one single exchange point where commercial and academic networks may interconnect. Interest for similar solutions has been expressed from US and Pacific network representatives. Seen on a broader perspective, the formation of such interconnections at well chosen points in the world could be the cornerstones in a general purpose robust Internet core.
