ICTs in Africa

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Sectors

» Education

» E-Government

» E-Commerce

Connectivity Infrastructure

» VSAT

» Fiber

» Wireless

» Mobile

Computers

» Computers in Africa

Electricity

» Electricity in Africa

Operational NRENs by country

» Algeria: ARN
» Egypt: EUN
» Kenya: KENET
» Malawi: MAREN
» Morocco: MARWAN
» South Africa: TENET
» Tunisia: RNRST

NRENs under construction by country

» Burkina Faso: Réseau National d'Education Recherche (RENER)
» Cameroon: Reseau Interuniversitaire Du Cameroun (RIC)
» Ghana: Ghana Academic Research Network (GARNET)
» Mozambique: Mozambique Research and Education Network (MoRENet)
» Nigeria
» Congo
» Rwanda: Rwanda Education Network (Rwednet)
» Uganda: Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU)
» Congo

Important Organizations/ Associations

» Association of African Universities (AAU)

» UbuntuNet Alliance

» Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA)

» African Region Internet Registry (AfriNIC)

» IDRC

» African Internet Service Provider Associations (AfRISPA)

» The Africa Network Operators Group (AfNOG)

NRENS in Africa

Contents:

o What are NRENs
o Benefits of NRENs
o Status of NRENs in Africa
o Major publications and documents on NRENs in Africa
o Charting the progress of NREN development in Africa- past conferences, seminars and workshops
o NRENs and NREN resources from other regions of the world

WHAT ARE NRENS?
[This definition is adapted from a paper by Alex Twinomugisha entitled "Understanding NRENs and key considerations in establishing them"]

There exists some confusion as to whether NRENs are collaborative human networks or physical telecommunication networks. From a review of various NRENs in Europe, Australia and North America, it appears that the term NREN usually refers to the organization (the NREN organization) that designs, builds or leases, operates, maintains, supports and manages a physical telecommunications network for the benefit of the education and research community. The physical telecommunications network (the NREN physical network) connects education and research institutions directly to each other, to other NRENs and to the "commercial" or "commodity" Internet. The NREN physical network is, in reality, usually a "private network" or "closed network" dedicated to the education and research community. The connection to the commercial Internet is often achieved either through peering arrangements with commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) at national Internet Exchange Points (IXP) or through direct connection to a Tier 1 or large Tier 2 commercial Internet provider outside the NREN's country.

In some countries, the NREN physical network and the NREN organization have different names while in others, they are indistinguishable in name. Examples of the former include: the United States' Internet2 which is the NREN organization comprising of a consortium of educational, research, government and private entities while Abilene is the physical telecommunications network, the United Kingdom's (UK) UKERNA (United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association) is the organization while JANET (Joint Academic NETwork) is the physical network and in Canada, CANARIE is the organization while CA*Net 4 is the physical network.

Another view [Articulated by Steve Song of International Development Research Center (IDRC) and Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr of the Association of African Universities (AAU) at various conferences and workshops] is that NRENs are primarily human networks and their accompanying organizational structures for producing and sharing knowledge and for promoting a continuous research agenda. The physical telecommunications networks and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are enabling tools for the production, distribution, sharing, management and utilization of knowledge. The human networks are the users and beneficiaries of the physical network.

In order to keep things simple, the term NREN will be used to refer to the organization that manages the physical academic and research network.

BENEFITS OF NRENS
NRENs bestow many benefits upon the educational and research institutions, and society as a whole. For educational and research institutions, NRENs allow for the creation of economies of scale through the aggregation of capacity demands, thus lowering costs and allowing for collective funding of common infrastructure. More importantly, NRENs connect researchers to one another and to the commercial Internet, allow for sharing of expensive research facilities (such as supercomputers), testing of advanced network systems, and for the continuous collaborative exchange of knowledge over a dedicated network. They are also sources of innovation and new technologies which are transferred to, and benefit, the private sector. According to a report on academic and research networking in the European Union, these networks are an "asset for economic growth and prosperity" for any nation.

STATUS OF NRENS IN AFRICA

As of the beginning of 2007, there were 7 operational NRENs in Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia) with only two being in sub-Saharan Africa (Malawi and South Africa). All these African NRENs save for Malawi are reliant on fiber optic networks and all of them are said to lease their connectivity infrastructure from existing providers. Malawi's NRENs is totally reliant on VSAT although there are concerted efforts to utilize existing and planned fiber networks in the country.

The low numbers of operational NRENs point to a connectivity crisis in the African education and research sector. Universities, research institutions and other educational institutions in sub-Saharan Africa lag far behind their counterparts in the rest of the world, in terms of: access to the Internet; access to advanced research facilities; access to academic and research resources such as journals and digital libraries; ability to communicate and collaborate with their peers at the national, regional, continental and global level; ability to share in the global creation and exchange of knowledge. Indeed, a recent survey of African Universities' connectivity status, shows that the average African university has almost equal the Internet connectivity capacity or bandwidth as the average American or European household, but with an associated cost at least 50 times that of the same American and European household. Access, capacity and availability are often worse for other educational institutions. If African academic and research institutions are to fulfill their role as creators and bearers of knowledge, fostering innovation and research, and transferring that knowledge and innovation through skills and new tools and technologies to the public and private sectors, for the social and economic benefit of all, then the current situation has to change.

However, there are very encouraging signs that the situation in sub-Saharan Africa as regards NRENs is changing for the better. With the support of a number of donors, international organizations, African governments and African educational and research institutions themselves, the academic and research community in Africa has been galvanized towards action. Many countries are on the path to creating their own NRENs, mainly as a vehicle for harnessing collective effort to lower the costs of connectivity, while increasing access and capacity. Though there are clearly positive efforts underway, it remains worrying that so many initiatives to create NRENs are taking longer than anticipated to manifest positive results. There is a need to understand why this is so. At the same time, these efforts need ongoing support if the physical telecommunications and human networks are be created and are to foster advanced research, and allow the community to participate as equals in their own right, in the global creation and exchange of knowledge.

Another very important development in the development of NRENs in Africa has been the establishment of a pan-African NREN organization, the UbuntuNet Alliance. UbuntuNet aims to become the Research and Education (REN) backbone of Africa. Recently UbuntuNet secured an agreement to connect sub-Saharan NRENs to the global education and research community via Europe's GEANT2. This marks a very important milestone in the development of NRENs in Africa. Already, North Africa's NRENs are connected to GEANT through the EUMEDCONNECT project and South Africa's TENET also has it own direct connection to GEANT.

MAJOR PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES ON NRENS IN AFRICA

Charting the progress of NREN development in Africa- past conferences, seminars and workshops

NRENS AND NREN RESOURCES FROM OTHER REGIONS OF THE WORLD

EUROPE

LATIN AMERICA

ASIA-PACIFIC