Ref: 022806
The immense scientific, academic and cultural potentials of St.Petersburg -- combined with its advantageous geographical position -- distinguish the city as a strategic point in academic networking in the NW region and the whole of Russia. Academic networking in St.Petersburg originated over a decade ago with fiber-optical trunk lines connecting a number of Academy of Science institutions. The new era in networking development started with the advent of Internet in Russia. A number of projects are underway in the region in allied effort to bring academic networking to a new, advanced level. The paper reports on general activities in the area and focuses on the development of the new-generation Regional Associated Computer Network for Education, Research and Culture in the North-West of Russia (ROKSON NW).
BACKGROUND It is hardly necessary to stress the importance of Internet connectivity for integration of Russian universities into the world-wide academic media, which is the vital prerequisite for all ongoing or planned Distance Learning projects on every level -- regional, national and international.
Co-operative efforts to develop an advanced regional computer network serving the needs of the wide academic and research community of St.Petersburg and its environs started in 1993. At the time a number of organisations have initiated collaboration in the framework of the Russian Space Science Internet (RSSI) project with support offered by NASA, DOE (USA) and Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR). The central site of the RSSI in St.Petersburg was established at the A.F.Ioffe Physics-Technical Institute (PTI) bringing Internet connectivity over a leased telephone line via the Moscow Institute of Space research (ISR) that already had a satellite channel to Europe.
A new impulse in networking collaboration was introduced when Federal Technical University of St.Petersburg (FTUSP) has perceived the great potentials in extending co-operation with its traditional partner LENENERGO -- the leading regional power supply enterprise. The company -- with its vast corporate communications infrastructure built over fiber-optic (F/O), microwave and copper wire lines across the city and environs and a F/O link to Finland -- soon became the strategic provider of wide-band channels for the academic metropolitan backbone and a fast access to Ebone via FUNet and NORDUNet. Development plans reported at ICDED'94 [2] were fulfilled and transcended. LENENERGO together with the Presidium of Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the State Committee for Higher Education of Russian Federation (SCHE RF) and Ministry of Science and Technology of Russia (MinSci RF) have all signed the General Agreement on Co-operation in Developing the Regional Academic Computer Network. The Agreement laid the foundation for alliance in future diverse metropolitan and regional computer network projects and initiatives.
The first sites that were linked into a metropolitan academic network, are located on the premises of the St.Petersburg State University (SPbSU) that is resides on its two main campus areas: one on Neva embankment in the central part of St.Petersburg, the other in Peterhof environs. So the problem of connecting both campus networks and linking them to the Internet arose. The connection was completed by fall 1994 in the framework of RFBR project. According to the project a 64 Kbps digital microwave channel was deployed. The channel linked Peterhof Campus with the site at the LENENERGO headquarters in the Field of Mars in the centre of St.Petersburg. The City Campus of SPbSU has been plugged into RELCOM computer network with rented access to the Internet. Linking of the two main computer and communications centres brought forth mutual connectivity of LANs and allowed SPbSU faculties to gain access to the Internet.>
Other important networking projects in the area were underway in parallel contributing to development of academic networking infrastructure in St.Petersburg.
In 1994 FTUSP in co-operation with LENENERGO has started a project to establish a fiber-optic high-bitrate 100 Mbps channel between FTUSP and the Field of Mars site. The channel was later implemented and other organisations will soon be linked to it.
The same year SCHE RF research program “Universities of Russia” announced a special telecommunication direction (Direction V) and St.Petersburg Institute for Fine Mechanics and Optics (SPIFMO) has been assigned the Co-ordinator of the Direction. Direction V was aimed at the development of the nation-wide Russian Universities Computer Network (RUNNet); the network would connect Russian universities via satellite channels. In the framework of the program SPIFMO installed a teleport that connected St.Petersburg with universities of other Russian cities via satellite channels. Also a fiber-optic cable was laid down; the cable linked SPIFMO with the Field of Mars site at LENENERGO premises.
Thus, in 1994, due to the combined initiatives the primary components of the future academic computer network in St.Petersburg were fleshed out and the task to associate these components into a united metropolitan computer telecommunication infrastructure became vital. Representatives of SPbSU, FTUSP, SPIFMO, PTI, B.P.Konstantinov Nuclear Physics Institute (PINP), St.Petersburg Institute of Informatics and Automation RAS (SPIARAS) and St.Petersburg Department of Mathematical Institute (PDMI) actively participated in launching the project; the latter was named ROKSON NW [1].
Consolidation of academic networking activities on the higher, federal level started late in 1995 when the chief participants -- MinSci RF, SCHE RF, RAS, and RFBR -- have come to a collectively settled strategy in telecommunications development. As a result, the State Inter-Agency Programme “Development of the National computer telecommunication networks for science and academia in the 1995-96 period” was forged. According to the Programme the national academic networking infrastructure is based on the inter-regional backbone principle.
ROKSON NW PROJECT PARTICIPANTS AND GOALS
The above principle was to be implemented In the St.Petersburg region in the framework of the Regional Associated Computer Network for Education, Research and Culture (in transliterated abbreviation -- ROKSON NW) Project; the St.Petersburg State University (SPbSU) was nominated as the principal organisation in charge of the Project implementation. Collaborating parties are the leading universities, RAS institutes and cultural institutions, among them: FTUSP, SPIFMO, PTI, PINP, SPIARAS, State university of telecommunications (SPSUT), the State “Hermitage” museum, RAS Library, Russian National Library, and others -- in total over 150 organisations. The project solicited financial support from RFBR and from International Science Foundation (ISF). From 1995 the project is being supported by RFBR. According to the State Inter-Agency Programme, the ROKSON NW network was authorized to become the regional segment of the National network.
The chief objectives and range of activities of ROKSON NW are not limited to providing connectivity and developing the backbone, but extend further in the following directions:
· development and maintenance of information resources of St.Petersburg
academic and research organisations, museums and libraries;
· providing access to such resources through the regional computer
network;
· informational and methodical support of education;
· introduction of Distant Learning methods and techniques;
· academic network user training and support.
ROKSON NW NETWORK TOPOLOGY
The topology of the metropolitan ROKSON network is star-shaped with rays projecting from the building of LENENERGO headquarters at the Field of Mars in the centre of St.Petersburg. Points of presence (PoP) of several major telecommunication companies of St.Petersburg are resident in the building also. From here start digital channels to Moscow and to Finland.
The topology reflects both architecture and infrastructure of ROKSON NW network. They form a tree-like hierarchical pattern (layout) of the backbone stemming from the central point. Hub nodes are located at strategic points in several selected academic and research organisations across the city and its suburbs. The hub-nodes have fast links with the Central site where all routing is performed - both internal between hub-nodes and external to other networks and to the Internet.
Recently the Central ROKSON NW site is linked to Moscow Backbone network via a 128 Kbps channel provided by the Department of Mathematics of RAS. The Moscow Backbone has a terrestrial 128 Kbps channel from Moscow State University (MSU) to Paris and two satellite channels: one from Nuclear Physics Institute of MSU to HEPNET and the other from ISR to NASA Internet. In addition, the Central site uses a 64 Kbps EUNet/RELARN channel to NORDUNet through Finland. In the nearest future ROKSON NW will have access to a 256 Kbps channel to NORDUNet that has been put into operation in the course of RUNNet project.
The span of ROKSON NW hub-nodes across St.Petersburg steadily expands. The nodes at SPbSU Peterhof Campus, PTI, PINP, PDMI, SPIARAS and RAS Library are already operational. By the summer of 1996 the additional hub-nodes at FTUSP and at SPSUT are to be put into operation. A joint node of SPbSU and ROKSON NW in the former building of the SPbSU Department of Chemistry in the centre of Vassilievsky Ostrov is in the design stage. The nodes at Vassilievsky Ostrov will be interconnected into a highthroughput fiber-optic backbone network. At this stage of development are also used the refurbished old fiber-optic channels of the first-generation Academic Network that was deployed in the eighties. The set of the ROKSON NW hub-nodes will allow full-fledged access to the Internet for scores of scientific, research, educational and cultural organisations in St.Petersburg.
References
1. R.L.Aptekar, N.V.Borisov, N.V.Vasiliyev, et al. “Building up regional
computer network for education and research in the NW region of Russia --
ROKSON NW” Regional Informatics Conf. RI'94, St.Petersburg, May 1994, p
140.
2. A.Y.Glebovsky, V.S.Zaborovsky “Development of Internet information
services in St.Petersburg for educational, scientific and cultural
international exchange”, ICDED'94, , Moscow, July 1994. p. 407
Copyright EUNIS 1997 Y.E.