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National phase of RNP2 to be concluded in September

The deployment of RNP2, the new national academic backbone, should be fully operational in September. The major part of RNP PoPs are already using equipment and infrastructure compatible with these advanced applications. Having been started in May, the operation involves technical staff at all RNP Points of Presence (PoPs) as well as the team at Operation Center and Embratel personnel. The work routinely involves equipment upgrade, installation and configuration of software and the activation of new telecommunications links.

At the end of August a few PoP coordinators already operating within the new framework were interviewed to see what their impressions were. Members of the technical and administrative staff responsible for the Paraná, São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Acre and Mato Grosso do Sul PoPs were asked to comment. They stated that RNP2 would now be capable not only of handling the backlog but would also have enough scope to handle the needs the new applications present in terms of bandwidth and quality of service.

All PoPs connected to ATM have been given connections that assure future bandwidth compliance at the rate that growing demand justifies such upgrading. This is so because links have been initially activated with only part of the total speed under consignment. The Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul PoPs are each using, for example, two 8 Mbps connections. The map shows that access to these PoPs may be increased to as many as 34 Mbps. This strategy has been used in all PoPs that use ATM.

The technical coordinator of PoP-RS, Leandro Marcio Bertholdo, estimates "access at 34 Mbps to be accomplished within two or three years' time." Other coordinators agreed that the configuration now in use guarantees smooth backbone performance for some time to come, even with all the backlog that had piled up due to previous use of outdated infrastructure. But none would commit to a forecast as they considered it premature to venture an evaluation of the impact the advanced ReMaV applications might have on RNP2 network traffic.

The technical coordinator of PoP-SP, Milton Kaoru Kashiwakura, revealed that a QoS (Quality of Service) project is already under way. "We are deploying Advanced ANSP to link eleven cities in the State of São Paulo to institutions that participate in ReMAVs in São Paulo, Campinas and São Carlos." In Rio de Janeiro and in Santa Catarina similar activities are taking place. The technical coordinator of PoP-RS, Leandro Marcio Bertholdo, however, is in favor of defining and establishing a global backbone . "It does not further the institutions linked to PoP in any way to have QoS if this cannot be guaranteed inside of RNP2," he explained. The coordinator of RNP operations, Alexandre Grojsgold, has clarified the topic by stating that this is exactly the point. As soon as RNP2 is totally deployed, work will begin to determine a global solution for QoS.

Coordinators voiced concern with regard to the situation at the exchange points of network traffic with national backbones. The quality of service at peering, as the exchange of traffic between backbones is called, directly affects global network performance for the end user. Alexandre Grojsgold reminded everyone that a 16 Mpbs link was activated at the Rio de Janeiro network traffic exchange point to add to the 34 Mpbs point in São Paulo, activated as of last year. He disclosed that a third point in Brasília will be operating in September and that quality of communications between users of the two largest backbones in Brazil will be guaranteed through this set up.

The RNP2 backbone is funded through resources from the Inter-ministerial Program to Deploy and Maintain the National Network for Education and Research, agreed to in October, 1999 by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) and by the Ministry of Education (MEC). One can stay tuned throughout the activation procedures at PoPs up to the final RNP2 operations at:

http://www.rnp.br/rnp2_en/topologia-200007.html

[RNP, 09.04.2000]