Ref: 030103
1. Introduction
Almost all citizens have been touched by the information society, which is affecting various fields such as employment, education and professional training, family life, ways of life and costumer's habits, culture and leisure, health and politics, hence nearly all fields of our daily lives.
The formation of the information society is a spontaneous process which is controlled basically by demand and market mechanism. It requires money, time and effort, and there are returns only after the users have exploited the advantages of the new system.
In the educational process the memorising of knowledge is of decreasing importance, and methods of seeking information are gaining ground. Students may search for data and programs from electronic databases. Instead of passive learning, active learning comes to the fore. With the development of multimedia, instructional tools readable from CD-ROM are appearing in addition to the school textbooks. Audio-visual learning is diminishing the amount of learning by reading. Virtual, interactive visual aids are becoming available.
New forms of teaching mean that learning is being customised to the individual. Students may not always be required to be present in the classroom. Subject-matter for any given topic may be sought when required and learning takes place at the student's own pace. During the learning process students need not follow a single linear logic, they are free to proceed in the order determined by their own curiosity. These methods effectively promote the development of creativity in contrast to passive receptive learning.
The form of education does not remain traditional. In addition to and after primary-, secondary-, and further education, on-going learning takes place depending on individual demands. As a result of the possibilities provided by the computerised world networks, scientific research - firstly in the natural and technological sciences, but also in the philosophical sciences - is becoming more and more a matter of interactive team work, it accelerates and increasingly becomes independent of the spatial conditions: the local personnel; laboratory, observatory, and computing facilities; and libraries and archives. E-mail has already become the scientists' most important means of communication: actual international meetings being arranged here or there generally mean only the starting- and ending points of ongoing series of electronic conferences taking place on the network.
The medium of disclosure of the results of scientific research - in other words scientific publication - is increasingly the network. From theoretical physics to classical studies, the number of scientific journals existing only in electronic form is growing in the most diverse disciplines, while texts, data, illustrations, and so on intended for preliminary scientific information can be stored in the pre-publication phase on the local network of any given institution so that anybody may access them through the global networks.
2. City, University and CIC
Debrecen with 260.000 inhabitants is the second largest city in our country. It is economical, intellectual and artistic center of Eastern Hungary. The cultural and scientific life of Debrecen is dominated by the institutions of higher education.
The Lajos Kossuth University of Debrecen has Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Sciences and College of Technology. The Faculty of Economical Sciences and Faculty of Low has been established recently. The number of students is about 9000. The number of teachers, researchers and administrative and technical staff is roughly 1700.
In 1991 the University took steps towards establishing a new level of cooperation between the Institutions of Higher Education of city (University Medical School of Debrecen, Agricultural University of Debrecen, Lajos Kossuth University of Debrecen, Debrecen University of Reformed Theology) and one research institute (Institute of Nuclear Research). The Association of the above institutions is Universitas leading to the re-establishment of University of Debrecen by the European model in the future.
The Center for Informatics and Computing (CIC) has been founded 30 years ago. That time we worked on Polish made computers, ODRA 1013, ODRA 1204. The next stations in our history were in 1974 when we got the Russian made R30 and in 1984 when an East-German made R55-M computer was set up. Since the foundation we have got important role in both research work of our university departments and in education. We have built up good connections with other universities and institutes of the region. Having worked on several research projects our staff gained remarkable experience in teaching and developing applications.
The formal University Church is shared by the Computing Center and some parts of the University Library.
At the beginning of 90 years the architectural development (new computers, network, software) caused structural and role changes in our center.
We are running the following servers:
· SUN SparcCenter 2000 (2 processors, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB
HDD)
· VAX 6000/510 (128 MB RAM, 12 GB HDD)
· MicroVAX 3500 ( 16 MB RAM, 1 G HDD)
· 2 MicroVAX II (16 MB RAM, 400 MB HDD)
· DECSystem 5000/133 (32 MB RAM, 1.7 GB HDD)
· KLTESRV Novell server (40 MB RAM, 2 GB HDD)
· AlphaServer 1000 (256 MB RAM, 12 GB HDD)
In according with functions and services we have four sections in
the center:
· Network Management (6 persons)
· Operating Systems (5 persons)
· Operational Section (9 persons)
· Software Development (6 persons)
3. Network infrastructure of UDNET and KLTENET
The Universitas built his own local area network in 1993. The goal was to make connection among institute's LANs with high speed MAN technology named UDNET. This project was managed by Lajos Kossuth University's Center for Informatics and Computing (CIC). It was necessary to make development criteria and strategies for the whole city network for few years. In the plan we estimated the number of nodes to be connected to the LANs, the capacity and bandwidth utilization of each node, the application programs for users, the necessary network resources for good response times, potentially high bandwidth consumer connections. The planned network had to be expandable in topology and in data transfer speed also. In that time multimedia applications were new promising applications and this fact was reasonable to take in consideration in the network planning phase.
One of the main question was introduction of a single network protocol or utilization of more than one protocols. Network manageability was a strict development condition. For getting information about the network behavior was necessary to decide about how complex need to be the management system of the UDNET. Network reliability and security were other important network development criteria.
3.1. Physical level links
The topography of the network was defined by the relative placing of the buildings. Outside, among the buildings we utilize eight fibers optical cables, inside of buildings six fibers type cables are placed. The interior links at each institute use multimode fibers. Because of higher distances the MAN's links are monomode optical cables with 20 fibers. The topology of the Lajos Kossuth University's network (KLTENET) is star/tree like the other institute's LANs. The root of the KLTENET is placed in the CIC. The length of the optical cable inside of buildings is 400 meters, the optical cable length among buildings at KLTE is more than 2500 meters. Among buildings an optical medium makes 10Base-F connections. The remaining fibers are for future developments. On the end of active fibers are modular expandable and SNMP manageable backbone devices.
The OSI 1 and OSI 2 level devices are Cabletron, CISCO and Proteon repeaters, hubs, bridges and switches. First segments were 10Base2 Ethernet segments but in last time we build only structured cabling conform CAT5 standard. In the big buildings are placed more than one backbone devices utilizing FOIRL backbone connections. The 10Base2 segment constructions and homologation are in the CIC's sphere of action. In case of eventual segment fault the CIC effectuate the necessary fault isolation with cable tester instrument and repairs the physical connection.
All users on MAN makes access to the Internet services by a leased line between Debrecen and Budapest. This leased line is a part of the Hungarian national academic research IP based backbone network (HBONE). In 1993 the bandwidth was 9.6 kbps which was increased in 1995 and 1996 to 64 kbps and 512 kbps respectively. This connection has a 9.6 kbps X.25 backup link to Budapest. Both lines are connected to the second AGS+/4 router in the CIC.
3.2. Backbone devices
At the KLTENET in each building a router interface is connected to the switch or bridge device. The routers are CISCO products and are AGS+/4, 4500 and 4700 types. The bridges are exclusively Cabletron MMAC8s modular devices with EMME, CXRMIM, FOMIM modules which makes logical connections among different collision domains. In the CIC and other places where the bandwidth utilization is highest there are CISCO 3100 10Base-T/100Base-T switches for traffic isolation and security. The servers in the CIC are connected to different router interfaces from the segments with desktop nodes. Because of password security the system administrators have their nodes connected to the same segment with the server they supervise. The root of the KLTENET is the AGS+/4 router with twelve AUI and one FDDI interfaces. The topology of KLTENET is represented in fig.1.
3.3. Network protocols
On the KLTENET can be distinguished four categories of nodes: Personal Computers, Novell Netware fileservers, VAX/VMS servers and UNIX servers. This categories determine the routed protocols: IPX, DECnet, IP. The IPX packets are encapsulated in Ethernet II type frames. In some situations there are Netware servers with two DNI cards which separates one segment size intranets from the rest of the network. At the beginning were used very frequently nongraphic type e-mail clients based on DECnet, but in the latest time the DECnet protocol transports the smallest amount of information on our network. In 1993 we used store-and-forward NJE (Network Job Entry) protocol over DECnet for EARN/BITNET connection. After EARN has been wound up we stopped to route DECnet protocol to Budapest.
Fig. 1. Topology of KLTENET (May 1997)
Fig. 2. Topology of UDNET (August 1996)
On the KLTENET the most intensive used protocol is IP. Majority of applications runs over IP network protocol. Because all routers on FDDI ring and inside of institute's networks are CISCO products it is possible to use EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) as routing protocol. UDNET has single connection to the Internet by a leased line at CIC, so we have no registered autonomous system. UDNET uses 50 C class IP networks from which 18 C class IP networks runs in KLTENET. We use static routing to the Budapest and our IP networks are included in AS1955. The topology of UDNET until August 1996 is shown in fig. 2.
3.4. Network management
The backbone device management of KLTENET is based on SNMP, RMON and DLM (Distributed Local Management) services. The used management software: Remote LANVIEW and SPECTRUM made by Cabletron. The Remote LANVIEW manages Cabletron hubs, repeaters and bridges. The SPECTRUM v4.0 is used for managing all CISCO and Proteon switches and routers. Both parts of the software, SpectroSERVER and SpectroGRAPH runs on the same SUN SS10 (144 MB RAM, 3 GB HDD) hardware platform.
For each node connected to the KLTENET we maintain important information like physical address, IP address, Internet name, etc. This information are stored at the registration in one database with own graphic client interface developed in Delphi. The number of registered Internet nodes on KLTENET is more than 1100. The growth of IP nodes is in correlation with the European exponential tendency. The domain name server at CIC provide secondary DNS service to all other domains in UDNET.
3.5. B-ISDN extension of UDNET
In the last year other new institutes were necessary to be connected to the optical backbone of the UDNET. There were some places where the number of fibers was not enough for making separate voice and data connections among institutes. The bandwidth of FDDI in some situations produced bottleneck, why the Fast Ethernet technology was not also satisfactory for new connections. The phone networks of each institutes are enough up-to-date to satisfy user demands but the direct interconnection among PBXs was not realized until last year. It was an objective claim to utilize the remaining `'black'' fibers for making a private PBX network among academic institutes in Debrecen. The first extension step with ATM technology of UDNET was finished in September 1996. The broadband integrated network of the UDNET is represented on fig. 3.
Two Newbridge Mainstreet 36150 ATM switches are connected with ATM STM1 interfaces. The ATM switches have identical modules: ATM/STM1, FDDI, E1. On the STM1 link there are three PVC (Permanent Virtual Circuits) defined: one PVC for FDDI data connection and two PVCs for two E1 voice connections. The ATM devices realize remote FDDI bridging between the two switch FDDI interfaces. In this way need no ATM LAN emulation. The FDDI frame - ATM cell adaptation is provided conform ATM AAL5 prescription. For the two FDDI rings the ATM is total transparent. The voice channels provide constant bit rate links with AAL1 for PBXes. Because of long distance between Campus PBX and MFK switch it was necessary to use two E1 optical modems with CCITT G.803 interfaces. The second FDDI ring use single attached station (SAS) connections. The logical links of the FDDI ring and the PBX network are shown in fig. 4 and fig. 5. Both ATM switches and the PVCs are managed with Mainstreet 46020 management software.
Fig. 3. The B-ISDN extension of UDNET (May 1997)
Fig. 4. Topology of UDNET- data (May 1997)
Fig. 5. Topology of UDNET - voice (May 1997)
4. Basic services provided by CIC
4.1. Management of Servers
Two commonly used servers are available in CIC for members of the Universitas. One of them is a SUN SparcCenter 2000 (named: DRAGON). This is the biggest computer in East-Hungary, with more than 2500 registered users.
There are translators for Pascal, SPARCworks C++, SPARCworks FORTRAN, gnu c, c++, java. The SPSS for statistical calculation and ORACLE for database management are also available on this server both for teaching and research purposes.
Our Internet services on this server:
· E-mail
There are several clients installed: mail, mailx, elm, pine.
· FTP, anonymous FTP server, ftpmail ftp://dragon.klte.hu
We mirror the next often used software: Utilities for Windows NT, OS/2
Utilities, Utilities for Windows 3.1, Utilities for Windows95, Antivirus
programs, Utilities for MS-DOS, Oracle related files.
· News
· Gopher gopher://gopher.klte.hu
· WWW http://www.cic.klte.hu
In our web pages we provide information about the CIC, the available services, documentation which are necessary to use the network. We collected useful links of searching engines. There are some pages such as quest-book, advertisements connected to ORACLE database management system.
Students may create and place their own home-pages on the web. Several departments describe their own educational and research work with creating own home-page.
At the University Library, which is the second National Library in Hungary, the Voyager integrated library system is running. The OPAC records are accessible both on local and remote networks via WWW and telnet, so the system offers services to the whole academic community and to Internet users (http://www.lib.klte.hu).
The other main server, the VAX 6000/510 (named: TIGRIS) is used as the biggest mailserver in the Universitas, so every student and teacher can get a mailing account. We have more than 4500 registered users. As the CIC is the Regional Center of DEC Campus program we provide support of software buying and installing, license-administration and consulting for institutes of higher education in East-Hungary.
There are translators for PASCAL, FORTRAN, ADA, C, C++. For database management we use ORACLE7, and the 4GL application development tools.
4.2. Database management
The CIC focuses the activity on database systems as well. Such as database systems have become an essential part of a computer science education including aspects of database design, database languages and database system implementation. We use for it ORACLE, UNIFACE, GUPTA systems and tools of ORACLE CASE.
As the part of the unified Administrative Management System of the University a Novell based solution is applied for administrative mails. At the departments we have installed Pegasus Mail clients and created useful distribution lists. We provide support for users continuously.
We developed a Lotus-Notes based application for registry of the official mails of University Rector's Office.
We have a terminal room with 30 PC's connected to the Internet and several terminals of the servers. Students of the Universitas are working on these computers using the Internet services, practice different program languages and commands of operational systems. They write and print their documents. The room is open from 7 am to 21 PM on workdays.
4.3. Teaching activities
Courses for graduate and postgraduate students:
· Database management systems: SQL, ORACLE, UNIFACE, GUPTA
· Design of database systems: ORACLE CASE
· Operating systems: VMS, UNIX
· Practices in programming languages: Pascal, C, C++
· Hardware, network
Courses for University staff:
· MS-DOS, Windows, Word, Excel
· Use of Pegasus Mail
· Basic elements of VMS and UNIX
· How to use the network (KLTENET, Internet)
· How to write HTML documents
5. Conclusion
In the last years of this decade the nature and quality of tasks was changed radically. The role of our computer center is increasing continuously in the higher education in the city as we presented above. In order to make the information systems widely used by every member of information society in the future, there should be more focus at University Computer Center.
6. References:
1) Carl Malamud, `'Stacks: Interoperability in Today's Computer Networks'', Prentice-Hall, Inc
Copyright EUNIS 1997 Y.E.