Subject: n-1-4-012.50 Internet Connectivity in Eastern Europe by Milan Sterba [ed. From a lengthier article by Milan Sterba prepared for the RIPE Connectivity Group] 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 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. 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. 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. Lithuania A dial-up EUnet connection exists between Vilnius and Helsinki. A 9.6 kbit/s X.25 link, used for X.400 electronic mail and sponsored by Norwegian Telecom, exists between Vilnius and Oslo. 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. 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. 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 several other places. 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. The rapidly growing volume of international mail traffic makes the need for a medium speed IP channel to Europe urgent. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.