India and NREN - A Curtain Raiser..

I follow the development of NRENs around the World with my research interst. I was invovled in the ERNET and C-DAC activities in India, in the pre-Gbps era of NREN development. Lately as a consultant to Internet2, I have been closely following the activities in USA. Apart from the NREN inside the country, it is veyr important for then Research and Education domain to be connected internationally with other coutnries and other NRENs. I thought it will be a good idea to put some thoughts on that, with the current and recent past developments in the context of NREN and India.

An explanation of NREN and few links can be found at


http://jibanananda.blogspot.com/2006/11/nrens-and-world.html


In Indian context, it is a long story. In gernal the internet conenctivity is good at India, and better in Cities now. One gets broadband connectivity from BSNL and some other carriers. But what is of interest, is to connect to each and every corner of the country with high speed connection and particularly to enable the connectivitiy for research and education institutions, is happening slowly.

However, the national knowledge commission has given its rfecommendations :-
http://knowledgecommission.gov.in/downloads/recommendations/KnowledgeNetworkLetterPM.pdf
Which is also part of the bigger report - in details : - http://knowledgecommission.gov.in/report2006/default.asp

Now it remains an organisation to be formed to lead the initiatives. Here in US the related people are putting their efforts to connect and bring India to the global map well enough. In fact recently we conducted a good workshop from itnernet2 towards the development of networks in the region.

http://events.internet2.edu/2007/southasia/

The reports are here :- http://events.internet2.edu/2007/southasia/Thursday%20Session%20Agenda.html

http://events.internet2.edu/2007/southasia/Wednesday%20Session%20Agenda.html

Les Cottrell has put up the following site to gather information on the current status and plans for Research & Educational Networks in South Asia. https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/display/IEPM/South+Asia+Case+Study. It contains a brief discussion of the A&R networking for each country and will contain more case study information as we generate it. We would welcome any further information concerning the situations in the various countries or URLs that provide more information. Please send such information to the list and we will add it to the site and can summarize it at the workshop.
Check out this also :-

http://international.internet2.edu/intl_connect/emergingnetworks_sig.html

The international workshop at Mumbai, India in 2006 was part of the effort to develop the landscape of the NREN and the international connectivity.
http://www.garudaindia.in/chep06_workshop.asp#


This paper aptly describes the state in India, which has not changed much laterly, thought the efforts are still on http://www.garudaindia.in/pdf/papers_presentations/India-High%20Performance%20Computing%20Networks%20&%20NRENS.pdf

-- To be continued...