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UbuntuNet

Duncan Martin

Planning Workshop amongst IEEAF, RENU and UbuntuNet Kampala, 16 – 17 October 2007

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What is UbuntuNet?• Organisation

• Purpose

• Strategy

• Projects

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UbuntuNet: organisation• Born at WSIS in 2005

– Incorporated in 2006 in Amsterdam– Non-profit association

• Members are African NRENs– KENET, MAREN, MoRENet, RwEdNet, SUIN,

TENET– Soon also RENU, TERNET, ZAMNET, others

• Board of 9 directors– Chairperson: Prof Zimani D Kadzamira– Company Secretary: Margaret Ngwira

• Development plan– Establish services and concomitant revenue– Establish home base in Nairobi– Appoint CEO, technical officer, admin officer

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UbuntuNet: purpose• Develop and improve connectivity between

member NRENs and– other member NRENs– other RENs worldwide– the Internet generally.

• Provide related auxiliary services to member NRENs

• Develop the knowledge and skills of ICT practitioners in universities and research institutions in the region

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UbuntuNet: strategy• Focus on optical fibre

– Help manage the migration from VSAT• Develop UbuntuNet regional backbone

– Vision: REN backbone for Sub-Saharan Africa– Strategy: Develop sub-regional “clusters”– Reality: Not one cross-border link realised yet

• Worldwide REN connectivity– The vision: High-speed connectivity to the World– The reality: No submarine cables; no backhaul– BUT: what about the SEACOM? IEEAF?

• The Géant connection– Tunneled connections to Géant for all institutions– Connect via an UbuntuNet hub in Europe

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Projects: Cluster development

UbuntuNet East Cluster

UbuntuNet South Cluster Southern

TZ

LS

BWNA

ZM

MW

MZSA

SW

UG

Northern TZ

KE

SD

ET

EG

RW

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GéantGéantGeneral

Internet

UbuntuNet router

Projects: The Géant connection

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• Completed tasks– ASN, IPv4 and IPv6 address space from AfriNIC– CISCO 7606 router donated by CISCO– Installed in DANTE’s cage in Telecity, London– REN transit connection to Géant

• To be organised in next few weeks– 1 Gb/s connection to LINX– Settlement-free peering with all comers– Internet transit

• Soon– 1 Gb/s connection to Abilene

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Projects: Incorporating VSAT campuses

UbuntuNet router

UbuntuNet routers at VSAT teleports in

Europe

VSAT-dependent

campuses all over Africa

Backhauls to London

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Projects: Incorporate PHEA Bandwidth Consortium

• Existing consortium of universities that buy VSAT capacity– 6 in Nigeria; 3 in Ghana, Makerere, Nairobi, Dar– Consortium initially created by PHEA– Located in AVU, Nairobi– Needs new home

• Can UbuntuNet provide that new home?– IDRC and PHEA sounded out UbuntuNet– But UbuntuNet needs to establish capacity– Leadership from IDRC’s Steve Song

• Matter being finalised

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