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- 011.30 Brazil
- by Eduardo Tadao Takahashi
- <TADAO@ethos1.ansp.br>
- Rede Nacional de Pesquisa
-
-
- Brazil has just completed the installation of TCP/IP backbone.
- The backbone consists of (mostly) 9.6 kbps dedicated lines
- interconnecting 11 major cities in the country: Brasilia, Rio de
- Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Belem, Fortaleza, Salvador,
- Belo Horizonte, Recife, Curitiba, and Florianopolis. Links
- between Brasilia-Sao Paulo, Brasilia-Rio de Janeiro, and Sao
- Paulo-Rio de Janeiro are being upgraded to 64 kbps. Three
- dedicated connections to the US also operate at 64 kbps and a
- link to Argentina will soon be installed.
-
- Routing has been done utilizing UNIX workstations, soon to be
- replaced by dedicated, multi-protocol routers. An embryonic
- National Operations Center has started activities in Sao Paulo,
- while an Information Center is being set up in Rio de Janeiro.
-
- Another major activity carried out recently has had to do with
- computational and networking support for the Earth Summit (also
- known as UNCED'92 or RIO-92), the gigantic UN Conference held in
- Rio de Janeiro in June. Such support has included:
-
- - a dedicated, "closed" information system (implemented by DEC)
- for the OFFICIAL SPACE under the direct operation of the UN
- Conference organization staff.
-
- - a metropolitan network to support activities of the GLOBAL
- FORUM (the forum of NGOs), with gateways to international
- networks such as PEACENET and ECONET through the ALTERNEX node.
-
- - the installation of two special-purpose nodes, one in Belem and
- another in Natal. The Belem node centralizes communications in
- the Amazon Basin with neighboring countries, within the realm of
- activities of the Treaty of the Amazon signed in 1983. The Natal
- node centralizes communications among Brazilian institutions
- participating in the so-called DRYNET project, which aims to
- interconnect research institutions in arid and semi-arid regions
- in Brazil (the Caatinga), Argentina (Gran Chaco), and Chile
- (Norte Chico)
-
- Further information about the Conference and, in particular,
- about what has been planned for AGENDA-21 (as the main result of
- the Earth Summit), can be found in the list
- <ECO92-L@BRUFMG.BITNET>. A topic of specific interest to
- networkers is the set of directives issued by UNCED'92 for the
- implementation of the so-called AGIS, the Agenda-21 Information
- System, which is intended to be distributed among several
- countries while being remotely accessible in an uniform way via
- networks.
-
-