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From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Internet Connectivity in Eastern Europe Message-ID: <92.11.26.1@eecs.nwu.edu> Date: 26 Nov 92 19:30:00 GMT Reply-To: TELECOM Moderator <telecom@eecs.nwu.edu> Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 694

Richard Budd sent this along before the holiday and I thought you might enjoy seeing it.

PAT

Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 10:43:25 EDT From: Richard Budd <BUDD@CSPGAS11.BITNET> Subject: Internet Connectivity in Eastern Europe Organization: CSAV UTIA

This is the article from Milan Sterba for the RIPE Connectivty Group containing information about the state of international connectivity in the nations of East and Central Europe. I have edited the article to try to make it easier for American audiences to read without taking away the meaning Professor Sterba is trying to express. Any comments or corrections, please forward to me. Professor Sterba would also appreciate any updates or comments you may want to make. His address, repeated several times in the article, is <milan.sterba.vse.cs> on Internet. The article was not copyrighted, and can be reprinted. Out of courtesy to the author, please leave his name and address on the header.

Common abbreviations: ECE=East and Central Europe IP=Internet Protocol RIPE=Regional Internet Protocol Orgnization (I believe) EARN=European version of BITNET

Richard Budd U.S.A. <klub@maristb.bitnet> C.S.F.R <budd@cspgas11.bitnet>

draft version 5 September 1992

An overview of East and Central European networking activities

Milan Sterba

<Milan.Sterba@vse.cs>

1. Introduction

This paper is based on work of the RIPE Connectivity Working Group. It summarises the main issues of international connectivity of East and Central European countries (ECE). It is based on reports and information gathered by network representatives of these countries, who have been present at the meetings or contacted on other occasions.

Thanks are due to all those who helped us to gather the information. Some countries however, are not represented in this report, due to lack of information. Please contact the author if you have amendments or suggestions.

This report contains lists of people who are responsible for international networking in each of their countries and a map of the current situation in IP networking in the those countries. The map doesn't show all existing international lines of those countries but it seeks to be complete for IP lines and other leased lines without usage restrictions for the academic and research communities.

This report has been written by Milan Sterba <Milan.Sterba@vse.cs> and it does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the authors of the national reports nor those of the RIPE community.

2. Present situation

This chapter gives as detailed as possible description of the various network activities in the East and Central European countries. The sections for particular countries will be subject to regular amendments or changes.

Considerable progress has been made during the last year in IP connectivity of ECE countries. Czechoslovakia and Poland have today several hundreds of connected hosts each and are the most advanced ECE countries with respect to IP connectivity.

Bulgaria, Estonia and Hungary also have IP connectivity today and have several tens of connected hosts each. By the end of 1992 IP connectivity will probably also reach Latvia and Lithuania through NORDUnet and maybe also Romania and one of the CIS republics.

In all the connected countries the initial capacity of international lines has rapidly become insufficent and an upgrade of existing lines and set up of reasonable backup solutions is being sought. Internetworking is rapidly spreading and good IP connectivity is considered as the first priority by the national academic network organisations.

All the countries considered have at the present time some (often more than one) connection to international networks. Certain countries have only a dial-up e-mail connectivity, others have low or medium speed leased lines. The present state of international leased lines to ECE countries is represented on the map in Appendix A.

RIPE broadly contributes to this rapid evolution by technical advice and by coordination efforts.

2.1 Albania

Curently an electronic mail connection exists between the University of Tirana and the Internet. The gateway and relay function resides at CNUCE, Pisa, Italy.

Contact Persons:

Maksim Raco <maksi@dinf.uniti.al> - University of Tirana Francesco Gennai <francesco.gennai@cnuce.cnr.it> - CNUCE, Pisa, Italy

2.2 Estonia

Estonia works in close co-operation with NORDUnet in setting up external IP links. Currently a 64 kbits/s IP satellite link is operational between Tallin and Stockholm, and between Tartu and Stockholm. These lines connect the Baltic backbone network (BaltNet) to the rest of the Internet. Another 19.2 kbit/s IP line is operational between Tallin and Helsinki.

Inside Estonia IP links are currently planned between the Institute of Cybernetics and the University of Technology in Tallin and the Tartu University.

Contact persons:

Ants Work <ants@ioc.ew.su> - Institute of Cybernetics, Tallinn

2.3 Latvia

An international 14.4 kbit/s IP line connects the Institute of Informatics and Computer Science of Latvian University in Riga to the Institute of Cybernetics in Tallin, Estonia. This line is part of the Baltic backbone network (BaltNet). Other networks active in Latvia have only dial-up connections (FidoNet to Tallin and Helsinki, RELCOM to Moscow).

Inside Latvia X25 services are available from the public X25 network Latpak and Sprint, UUCP services are available from JET and Versia, who are the Latvian partners of RELCOM-EUnet. FidoNet also is very active.

Contact persons:

Guntis Barzdins <gbarzdin@cs.lu.riga.lv> - BaltNet Ugis Berzins <ugis@fidogate.riga.lv> - BaltNet Sergei Rotanov <rotanov@lumii.lat.su> - Institute of Electronics Sergey Dmitrijev <dmit@lynx.riga.lv> - JET (RELCOM Riga)

(Note from RB: Egons Bush <egons@castle.riga.lv> and his father, Harlis <harry@castle.riga.lv> have been very much involved in bringing the Internet to Latvia. The elder Mr. Bush is advisor to the President of the Bank of Latvia and was instrumental in putting an IP node in that institution.)

2.4 Lithuania

A dial-up EUnet connection exists between Vilnius and Helsinki (Finland). A 9.6 kbit/s X.25 link, used for X.400 electronic mail and sponsored by Norwegian Telecom, exists between Vilnius and Oslo (Norway).

Contact persons:

Laimutis Telksnys <telksnys@ma-mii.lt.su> - Institute for Mathematics, Vilnius Algirdas Pakstas <Algirdas.Pakstas@idt.unit.no> - Institute for Mathematics, Vilnius

The Baltic states are coordinated within the BaltNet body which plans to build a backbone connecting Baltic states with NORDUnet. A LISTSERV mailing list exists for this purpose at (NORDBALT@searn.sunet.se).

2.5 Bulgaria

A switched international X.25 connection connects the Bulgarian EARN node in Sofia to Linz (Austria). A dial-up connection over public X.25 connects the Bulgarian EUnet via the backbone node in Varna to the Internet via the EUnet node in Heraklion (Greece). This connection will be converted to IP/X25 and will be the first IP connection in Bulagaria. Coordination between both projects, resulting in a shared fixed IP connection, is under study.

Several tens of EUnet sites are now connected over dial-up links to the national EUnet backbone. A public X25 service is available to a limited extent. EARN services have been opened recently at Sofia University but no gateway exists between the two services yet.

Contact persons:

Daniel Kalchev <daniel@danbo.bg> - EUnet backbone manager BG, contact for BG. top level domain Anton Velichkov <vam@bgearn.bitnet> - EARN president for Bulgaria Alexander Simeonov <sasho@bgearn.bitnet> - Center for Informatics, Sofia

2.6 Commonwealth of Independent States.

Dial-up connections between Helsinki, Finland and Amsterdam, Netherlands on the one hand, and Moscow on the other hand connect the RELCOM network in Russia and a few other former USSR republics to the Internet. Currently the services consist of electronic mail and Network News. A medium speed IP line to Amsterdam is planned in the near future. Recently another 14.4 kbit/s IP link has been put between Moscow and AlterNet (USA). On this link only SMTP traffic is allowed. A 4.8 kbit/s leased line between Moscow and DESY in Hamburg, Germany, supporting IP, delivers HEPnet services to two research institutes in Moscow. Low speed links between Moscow and ESOC (Germany) and CNES (France) serve the space physics community. All existing IP links to CIS have full connectivity only to the European part of Internet. The 9.6 kbit/s leased line from Moscow to Copenhagen, Denmark which used to connect the EARN node in Moscow to the EARN/BITNET network has been replaced by a dial-up link to Stockholm due to funding problems.

A considerable effort undertaken by the RELCOM networking organization has brought e-mail connectivity to several thousands sites all over the former Soviet Union. The growth of the network was 400% a year. RELCOM has been operating some IP links in the Moscow and St. Petersburg areas and some other places (Novosibirsk, Barnaul in Altai). Other national IP connections are expected to connect Ukraine, Siberia, St. Petersburg, Far East and other regions in order to set up the kernel of a nationwide IP backbone. The whole network has some 60 regional centres, some of which connect more than 500 sites. RELCOM's international traffic is split over two dial-up lines, one to the Finish EUnet backbone and one the central EUnet node in Amsterdam. Both operate as gateways on application level. The rapidly growing volume of international mail traffic makes the need for a medium speed IP channel to Europe urgent. Part of the international traffic is carried by the filtered IP line to AlterNet.

The first EARN node started its operation in Moscow late in 1991, but proliferation of EARN services is still expected. An e-mail gateway now exists between RELCOM DEMOS and SUEARN. SUEARN also provides the international mail relay services for FREENET, a national research IP network which interconnects some 45 institutes of the Academy of Sciences mostly in the Moskow area with international connections to Jaroslavl and Baku.

The current situation has been badly affected by the split of RELCOM into two independent entities (RELCOM RelTeam Ldt. and RELCOM DEMOS). Each of them holds a part of CIS network users and part of international connectivity. While RELCOM RelTeam Ldt. has inherited RELCOM's membership in EUnet, RELCOM DEMOS seems to position itself as a partner of AlterNet in CIS. Negotiations are still underway to find a cooperative approach to national and international connectivity.

Contact persons:

Valery Bardin <fox@ussr.eu.net> - EUnet - RELCOM Misha Popov <popov@hq.demos.su> - EUnet - RELCOM Demos Andrej Mendkovich <mend@suearn2.bitnet> - CIS EARN director Nickolay M.Saukh <nms@ussr.eu.net> - EUnet - RELCOM Igor Sviridov <sia%lot.cs.kiev.ua@relay.ussr.eu.net> - EUnet - Ukraine contact. Oleg Tabarovsky <olg@ussr.eu.net> - EUnet - RELCOM Dima Volodin <dvv@hq.demos.su> - EUnet - RELCOM Demos

2.7 Czechoslovakia

A 64 kbit/s IP link between Prague and Linz (Austria) is operational today. The line is full IP carying general IP, EARN and Czech EUnet traffic. A second link, 14.4 kbit/s between Bratislava and Vienna is shared between EUnet traffic and general IP traffic and IXI.

(Note from RB, The IP link out of Prague was transferred from Linz to the University of Vienna in November, 1992.)

The upgrade of this link to 64 kbit/s is planned for the near future. Both links connect into the upcoming national academic backbone networks CESNET (Czech Educational and Scientific Network) and SANET (Slovak Academic Network). Both networks are interconnected with IP links with the aggregate capacity of 28.8 kbit/s (19.2 kbit/s IP link between Prague and Banska Bystrica and 9.6 kbit/s Prague-Bratislava).

Both CESNET and SANET are now setting up national backbone infrastructures connecting major academic towns in the country. 64 kbit/s lines are used wherever available and considered necessary, 19.2 kbit/s on all other links. The first protocol supported is IP. Connected to the backbones are appearing metropolitan networks in major cities.

The major coordinating bodies are CESNET and SANET where universities as well as Academy of Sciences, EARN and EUnet are represented. A good cooperation exists between both separately funded projects as well as between ACOnet, EARN, EUnet, WIN, INRIA France and others.

Contact persons:

Jaroslav Bobovsky <bobovsky@csearn.bitnet> - SANET Gejza Buechler <gejza@mff.uniba.cs> - EUnet backbone manager CS Karol Fabian <Karol.Fabian@uakom.cs> - SANET Jan Gruntorad <tkjg@csearn.bitnet> - EARN director for Czechoslovakia and CESNET coordinator Vladimir Kassa <kassa@iaccs.cs> - SANET Jiri Orsag <ors@vscht.cs> - CS NIC and EUnet Prague Peter Pronay <peter@mff.uniba.cs> - president of EUnet Czechoslovakia Pavel Rosendorf <prf@csearn.bitnet> - contact for .CS top level domain Ivo Smejkal <ivo@vse.cs> - CESNET - user services Milan Sterba <Milan.Sterba@vse.cs> - author of this report, CESNET

2.7 Hungary

Hungary is connected to EARN by a 9.6 kbit/s IP line between Budapest and Linz (Austria). For the time being the same line is used also for the Internet and EUnet connection. It is planned to upgrade this line to 64 kbit/s in 1992. The High Energy Physics community has access to HEPnet services via a 9.6 kbit/s leased line between Budapest and CERN, Geneva (Switzerland) which is now running IP.

(Note from RB, I believe the Internet connection out of Budapest has also been transferred from Linz to Vienna. Also many Internet addresses in Budapest originate within the <uni-wien.ac.at> domain.)

Hungary has a good operational public X25 network which is the base of Wide Area Networking between small and medium sized sites. Currently there are about 250 X.25 access points in the country. A high speed national IP backbone (called HBONE) will come into production in 1993 to provide a country wide IP connectivity and access to EBONE services.

In Hungary a national program under the title "R&D Information Infrastructure Program (IIF)" is responsible for the research net- working. The "HUNGARNET" co-ordinates the networking activities of different user groups, such as "HUNINET" (Universities and high schools), "AKANET" (academic research institutes), and the user group of public collections (libraries, museums), meanwhile part of the funding goes through IIF.

Contact persons:

Peter Bakonyi <h25bak@ella.hu> - President of IIF Exec Com. Laszlo Csaba <ib006csa@huearn.bitnet> - EARN director for Hungary Piroska Giese <giese@rmk530.rmki.kfki.hu> - HEPnet Nandor Horvath <horvath@sztaki.hu> - EUnet backbone manager, domain contact for HU Balazs Martos <martos@sztaki.hu> - HBONE project manager Ferenc Telbisz <telbisz@iif.kfki.hu> - HEPnet Istvan Tetenyi <ib006tet@huearn.bitnet> - EARN deputy director Geza Turchanyi <h2064tur@ella.hu> - HUNGARNET CRIP Laszlo Zombory <h340zom@ella.hu> - EARN president, chairman of HUNINET

2.8 Poland

The main external connection consists of a 64 kbit/s satellite link between Warsaw and Stockholm, Sweden. The link is an IP one and carries all Internet, EARN and EUnet traffic. A new 64 kbit/s IP link is being set up between Warsaw and Vienna with the objective to establish an Ebone Bondary System in Warsaw. A 9.6 kbit/s IP connection is in place between Krakow and CERN in Geneva, Switzerland for HEPnet services.

Public X.25 services have only started in 1992. Thus connections at national level can only be implemented on switched or leased lines. The country already has an infrastructure of leased lines, shared between EARN and IP traffic operting at speeds between 9.6-64 kbit/s.

The Polish network is coordinated by an organization called NASK (National Academic and Research Network) which also includes the Polish part of EARN. Realistic plans exist to substantially extend IP connectivity over the territory in 1992 using 64 kbit/s lines on their national backbones wherever possible and economically viable. A National Network Operation and Monitoring Center has been set up in early 1992 which operates the whole national and international infrastructure. A system of network user training and support has also been put in place.

Contact persons:

Daniel J.Bem <bem@plwrtu11.bitnet> - Polish academic network(NASK) Jerzy Gorazinski <Gorazi@plearn.bitnet> - Polish State Committee for Scientific Research Krzystof Heller<uiheller@plkrcy11.bitnet> - contact for PL domain Tomasz Hofmokl <fdl50@plearn.bitnet> - EARN director for Poland Rafal Pietrak <rafal@fuw.edu.pl> - IP within NASK Jerzy Zenkiewicz <jezenk@pltumk.bitnet> - Polish academic network(NASK) Andrzej Zienkiewicz <osk03@plearn.bitnet> - Polish academic network(NASK)

2.9 Romania

International connectivity is now provided by a switched X25 link to EARN in Austria. A 9.6 kbit/s leased line is planned before the end of 1992 between Bucharest and Linz, Austria. This line will be able to carry both IP and EARN/NJE/BSC traffic.

Romania has poor internal networking infrastructure. A government project of building a public X25 network is under commercial negotiations and should start to offer some services in 1993.

In Romania the emerging networking activities seem to be coordinated by the National Council for Informatics and the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest.

Contact persons:

Florin Paunescu <florin@imag.fr> - National Council for Informatics Paul Dan Cristea <pdcristea@pi-bucuresti.th-darmstadt.de> - Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest

2.10 Slovenia

Slovenia is connected over a 64 kbit/s IXI access point in Ljubljana to the IXI backbone. Over this connection an IP link via NIKHEF, Amsterdam (Netherlands) provides Internet connectivity. A PSDN X25 connection connects the main EUnet node in Ljubljana to EUnet. Another IXI access point, also located in Ljubljana, connects Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina to IXI over the JUPAK PPSDN.

Currently Slovenia have achieved a well spread-out branching of their national networks due to the existence of a wide spread public X.25 network. There exists as well a developed X.400 service.

In Slovenia the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia (ARNES) is coordinating network activities. In Croatia the coordinating organization is CARNet and both organizations cooperate.

Contact persons:

Leon Mlakar <leon@ninurta.fer.si> - EUnet backbone manager YU Borka Jerman-Blazic <jerman-blazic@ijs.si> Marko Bonac <marko.bonac@ijs.si> - ARNES Executive Director Denis Trcek <denis.trcek@ijs.si> - ARNES

2.11 Serbia and Montenegro

Serbia has had a 9.6 kbit/s leased line between Beograd and Linz to carry EARN traffic. Currently this line is cut after a decision by the Austrian government to cooperate with the UN embargo on Yugoslavia.

Contact persons:

Jagos Puric <xpmfd01@yubgss21.bitnet> - EARN director for YU

(Note from RB: Because of those same UN sanctions and the US Government's support of those sanctions, it is illegal under federal law to have commercial contacts with Yugoslavia.)

2.12 Macedonia

The University of Skopje, Macedonia recently was made the lead organization for the country by the Ministry for Science and Technology for inaugurating networking activities in the country. They joined CEED and are planning soon an IP connection.

Currently Macedonia has achieved a good degree of capillarity of their national network (DECNET) due to the existence of the public X.25 network, which is a part of JUPAK PPSDN.

Contact persons:

Marjan Gusev <pmfmarj%nubsk@uni-lj.ac.mail.yu> or <gusev@lut.ac.uk> - Faculty for Natural Sciences, Gazibaba, Skopje Aspazija Hadzisce <rkntriasp%nubsk@uni-lj.ac.mail.yu> - Ministery for Science and Technology, Skopje

3. Evolution

All the ECE countries are very interested in European as well as world wide IP connectivity. In Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland there has been rapid growth of connected IP networks and hosts in the academic community. Their existing international leased lines infrastructure is now shared by EARN, EUnet and raw IP services. Linz University and ACONET in Austria have become important concentrating points for networking in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary as well as Poland and Romania.

The financial resources dedicated to networking in these countries are limited. The sharing of the existing national and international leased lines between EARN, EUnet and other IP traffic as well as between academic and starting commercial traffic is thus a very important issue. Lightweight but robust IP gateway solutions (over dial-up lines, leased serial lines or X25 networks) are of great concern in this respect and are continuously studied and further developed (e.g. COPERNICUS).

By the end of this year the Budapest-ACONET link at least will be operating at 64 kbit/s. It is probable that new IP lines will be operational at this time (Bratislava-Vienna, Moscow-Amsterdam).

At the same time the national infrastructure of the countries will continue to evolve. We can expect an increase in national coverage in countries with working public X25 networks and in Czechoslovakia and Poland as well as strong increase in IP connectivity within the CIS.

4. International Initiatives

Several international support initiatives have been launched in the past by different bodies to improve international network connectivity of the Central and Eastern European countries. The following list presents some of them :

The Ebone 92 consortium has shown itself very supportive during 1992 by allowing traffic of ECE countries to pass freely over the Ebone and letting so the ECE countries traffic cross Europe. This situation changes in 1993 when Ebone will adopt a more formal financial model.

RIPE and the RIPE NCC have widely contributed to the rapid integration of new ECE networks into the global Internet. RIPE has acted to initiate a common coordination effort of academic networking organizations in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. The first meeting to coordinate its initiatives was held in February, 1992 in Prague with successful cooperation since then, continued at the 3rd Joint European Networking Conference in Innsbruck, where RARE has proposed to be the coordinator of ECE integration into European Academic networking, formalized in Prague in August, 1992. CEEC@RARE.NL is now the discussion group and has the mailing list on common ECE networking issues.

Also both EARN and EUnet have widely contributed to the successful start of international networking in ECE countries, by placing the first network nodes in these countries, supporting the activity of these nodes both financially and through extensive know-how transfer.

Despite this expressed willingness to cooperate (RARE, RIPE, EARN, EUnet etc.) some support efforts are still not coordinated, which sometimes leads to the waste of limited resources. An EC SHARE project dedicated to extend the former COSINE IXI project to Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania has started this year. Medium speed 64 kbit/s lines have been ordered between Amsterdam-Prague-Budapest-Bern and between Aarhus-Warsaw-Bern. These lines, initially financed by the EC, should provide connectivity from ECE countries to the planned European Multiprotocol Backbone (EMPB). It should also provide access points to X.25 as well as IP services. Unfortunately the coordination with RIPE and Ebone as well as with the academic networking organizations in the countries involved has to date experienced poor results in eliminating redundancy in the use of scarce infrastructural resources in ECE countries.

Austria is the major relay point between ECE countries and Western Europe (and beyond). The Austrian government is very supportive and either covers fully or contributes in a significant manner to the costs of international connections to these countries. In February 1992 ACONET has made an even greater proposal, offering these countries (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland) double connectivity to both Vienna and Linz. Each of these countries should have one link to both places, thus permitting line backup. The Vienna-CERN line has been upgraded in October 1992 to 256 kbit/s and the Linz-CERN line (64 kbit/s) is being replaced by a Linz-Amsterdam line (128 kbit/s) in order to accomodate traffic increase from these countries and offer a real backed-up connectivity to Ebone. The ACONET proposal for Ebone 93 to place an EBS to Austria seems well justified from the point of view of the connectivity of ECE countries.

CERN plays also an important role in the IP connectivity of the new countries. It houses actually a 9.6 kbit/s line from Krakow and another HEPnet 9.6 kbit/s line from Budapest. Due to lack of resources CERN prefers not to house a lot of low rate lines from every country but rather to house a higher rate line concentrating traffic from several countries. This is in fact in perfect conformance with the ACONET proposal.

The German DFN network has launched several regional initiatives to connect sites in geographical proximity of Germany (e.g. Dreilaendereck project connecting Liberec in Czechoslovakia, Wroclaw in Poland and Zittau in Germany using leased links based on X25 with further connectivity to DFN). DFN also provides X400/SMTP gateway for Slovenia.

The Italian government has financed in 1990 and 1992 successfull network workshops (NetSchool) to which about 50 network specialists from ECE countries have attended. A second extended edition of NetSchool has taken place in April 1992 with participation of network specialists from RIPE and attendees from ECE countries, some South American, Asian and African countries.

A similar event has been organized by NORDUnet for network users and operators from the Baltic states.

The French government has expressed its willingness to help the integration of new countries to the world of academic networking by launching in cooperation with INRIA a project called Copernicus, which aims to improve network connectivity of several Eastern European Countries. One of the first results of this project has been the cooperation on design and implementation of the academic IP backbone CESNET-SANET (Prague - Brno - Bratislava ... Banska Bystrica - Kosice) in Czechoslovakia. The project consists of transfer of network management and administration know-how, common development of tools and some software and hardware donations. Similar activity is starting now with Romania.

IBM is also present in these countries with its academic initiative, in which IBM mainframes have been offered to Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. IBM and EASInet act also as sponsors for the T1 US link usage for academic networks in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.

Strong support for the integration of ECE countires into the global network also comes from the United States. The National Science Foundation has always been very supportive to academic networks in ECE countries by promptly helping them to solve global connectivity problems. Many projects aiming at improving local, national, and international infrastructure, know-how transfer and mission-oriented network applications are now in progress.

(Note from RB: Steven Goldstein <goldstein@nsf.gov> Internet or <goldstei @nsf> BITNET, is the contact at NSF. He contributes to many of the East European discussion groups.)

The assistance of countries with developed networking shouldn't be uniquely oriented to basic network connectivity. A lot of work needs to be done in the ECE countries to offer and improve higher level network services like e-mail, teleconferencing, archive services, online databases and library catalogues etc., as well as in basic network concepts, user information services and advanced networking know-how transfer. That's why new EC projects proposals are now oriented not only on infrastructure but also on higher level services (e-mail, electronic directory, user information and training.) The lack of funds puts ECE countries at a disadvantage and the exchange rates with the West still make it difficult for ECE network experts to attend international networking exhibitions.

5. Technical issues

As already mentioned, distributing international network access over the local territory is a major problem for the countries considered. While it is relatively easy and cheap to set up a local TCP/IP network, it is more difficult to connect it to the national access point. Generic router solutions are rather expensive on one side and not completely free of administrative exportation problems for all countries involved.

The solution to these problems are software routers based on PC's or workstations and public domain or easily available software.

A low cost capillarity of networks being of great importance to ECE countries, good dial-up IP solutions of both industrial and public domains, which are under study and evaluation in EUnet, RIPE, Copernique, NetSchool and others, are of great interest as well as low cost IP solutions on synchronous lines (X25 or PPP) and low cost solutions for network monitoring and management.

The technical speed limitations for international leased lines seem now to become less restrictive than in the past. For Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, international links of up to 2 MBits/s are now feasible.

With basic connectivity problems for the most part overcome, network services are now becomming major issues in the most advanced ECE countries. PC's remain the most spread technical basis, thus network solutions based on platforms (routers, mail, news, archive and information servers and clients) based on either UNIX or MS DOS are of major concern today.

6. Organizational issues

The starting period in international networking is often characterized by a fuzziness in the organizational structure together with a lack of information about the people actually responsible and working in the area. The situation is nearly stabilized in Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, where national academic networking groups have been founded and are coordinated with EARN/EUnet activities. This coordinated effort tends to build nation wide multiprotocol academic network infrastructures. A similar effort is underway in Bulgaria (UNIKOM, EARN and EUnet Bulgaria). These countries seem also to have found a stabilized position in international network organizations (EARN, EUnet, RARE, RIPE). The situation is more complicated in other countries where international contacts are for various reasons much more scarce.

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