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Internet Access for the Research Communities in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus.
The ancient Silk Road was not only a trade route but also an all-important road for the transfer of
information and knowledge between major regions of the world. The SILK/SPONGE Project is bringing cost-effective, global Internet
connectivity to the Caucasus and Central Asia through state-of-the-art satellite technology, thus creating a virtual Silk
information highway. Consequently, the project has been called the 'SILK Project'. The aim of the SILK Project is to increase
significantly the exchange of information with, and between, academic and educational institutions in these regions.
The Silk Project was launched under the auspices of the NATO Science Programme, through its Computer Networking Panel (the Panel).
There has been substantial co-funding from the European Union under its Research Networks programme (the SPONGE Project) to
manage the network, provide information services, and provide human communications facilities. The project is providing GEANT
connectivity to the Newly Independent States of the Southern Caucasus (comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), and
Central Asia (comprising Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). These countries are located
on the fringe of the European Internet arena and will not be in reach of affordable optical fibre connections within the next
few years. However, Internet connectivity via satellite is also an expensive, and therefore a scarce, resource for the science
and education community in these countries – so that a regional project was most cost effective.
With a limited NATO budget of 2.5 M€ over the period 2001-2005 for this project, a VSAT system has been installed with a
5.6 m hub at DESY (Hamburg), and 8 VSAT Stations (2.4 m or 3.8 m) – one in each of the above countries. In addition,
there has been a generous donation of a router, switch and 155 GB Content Engine at each site from Cisco, to connect
the Earth Stations with their NRENs. Moreover, DESY has funded the housing of the hub, the management of the network,
and is sponsoring the subsequent link into DFN/GEANT. Several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) propose making
additional investments in the SILK system.
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Most similar projects start with NRENs, and the international bandwidth is an after-thought. Moreover the control is
usually exercised on a strictly national basis. The SILK Network is an exception, and is more like GEANT in this respect;
it is principally an international network, with a central Network Operating Centre; the interface to the NRENs is at a clear
point of demarcation, where the SILK responsibilities end.
The SILK Network has been designed with good price-performance for the small number of Earth Stations envisaged.
SCPC (Single Channel Per Carrier) technology is used to transmit from the VSAT Stations to the central hub in Hamburg, and a
common return channel using DVB.
The ratio of the transmit and receive channels depends partly on the efficiency provided by the cache, partly on the type of traffic, and partly on the
degree of interaction required. The measurements and resultant optimisation is one of the SPONGE responsibilities. Currently it
is intended to increase the transmit capacity of each remote earth station to about 750 Kbps (from NATO resources), and have
the common receive capacity about 18 Mbps. The capacity of the system is 2-3 times these figures.
The first earth station was installed in August 2002, and the final ones went live at the beginning of August 2003. The system
is now complete, and was inaugurated officially by a videoconference over the Silk Network between the President of Georgia and
the Secretary General of NATO during the June meeting of the Silk Board in Tiblisi, Georgia.
Further information: P.Kirstein@cs.ucl.ac.uk.
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