New E. Coast of Africa Fibre

1. New E. Coast of Africa Fibre Prepared by: LesCottrellSLAC, Umar KalimSEECS,NUST/SLAC Presented to the International Committee on Future Accelerators www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/scs/net/talk09/icfa-aug09.ppt

2. Lit Undersea Cable Capacity Growth Upturn in 2007 in All Regions Rapid GrowthForeseen to Meet Rising Demand Drive to 40G and/or 100G Links

4. Hibernia Offers Cross-Atlantic 40G August 13, 2009 SUMMIT, NJ and DUBLIN --Hibernia Atlantic, today announces the company is now the first to offer native, 40 Gbps wavelength (WL) capacity across the Atlantic Ocean, without the need for external equipment. By deploying the latest 40G network technology, Hibernia has increased the potential capacity of the Atlantic system to 10.16Tb/s.] Hibernia Atlantic’s first-to-market offering is in response to its North American customers’ demand for greater bandwidth capacity, stemming from the precipitous rise in deployment of next-generation services, such as streaming video, IP multimedia and web conferencing. Additionally, financial exchanges and media houses need secure and high-performance capacity to ensure they are meeting their industries’ critical network requirements. Continental 100G Links in US, in Europe by 2010-11; Transoceanic by ~2014

5. Summary • Current State • What is happening? • Impact • Next Steps

6. World Throughput Trends Derived throughput ~ 8 * 1460 /(RTT * sqrt(loss)) Mathis et. al Behind Europe 5 Yrs: Russia, Latin America, Mid East 6 Yrs: SE Asia 9 Yrs: South Asia 12 Yrs: Cent. Asia 16 Yrs: Africa Central Asia, and Africa are in Danger of Falling Even Farther behind In 10 years at the current rate Africa will be 1000 times worse than Europe 1993

7. PingER • Coverage extended to better understand Africa • 50 countries, > 160 sites • Funding from Pakistan & pro-bono

8. Plans for New Sub-SaharanUndersea Cables to Europe and India by 2011 • Ambitious plans are once again underway to better-connect the African continent • The potential increase in capacity compared to now is 1000X • The issue is whether there is a sustainable market • Before the recession hit, outlook was at least one of these new cable projects would succeed this time http://manypossibilities.net/african-underseacables

9. What is happening • Up until July 2009 only one (no competition) submarine fibre optic cable to sub-Saharan Africa (SAT3) costly (no competition) & only W. Coast • 2010 Football World Cup => scramble to provide fibre optic connections to S. Africa, both E & W Coast • Multiple providers = competition • E. Coast: Seacom & TEAMs landed Jul 2009, Seacom working

10. Impact: RTT etc. • As sites move their routing from GEOS to terestrial connections, we can expect: • Dramatically reduced Round Trip Time (RTT), e.g. from 700ms to 350ms – seen immediately • Reduced losses and jitter due to higher bandwidth capacity and reduced contention – when routes etc. stabilized Aug 1 ’09 23:00hr • Effects have been seen in leading Kenyan & Tanzanian hosts SLAC to Kenya site Avg RTT Loss 720ms 325ms

11. Africa is Huge • India 10% area, but > population, hard to get fibre everywhere

12. Next Steps: Going inland • Extend coverage from landing points to capitals and major cites • Need fibre connections inland Northern Central Southern

13. Next Steps: Beyond Fibre’s reach • In areas where fibre connections are not available (e.g. rural areas), the main contenders appear to be: • wireless, e.g. microwave, cellphone towers, WiMax etc., • Low Earth Orbiting Satellites (LEOS) for example Google signed up with Liberty Global and HSBC in a bid to launch 16 LEOS satellites, to bring high-speed internet access to Africa by end 2010, • and weather balloons, also see here for some discussion of the attractivenss of this technology.

14. Next Steps: Let’s get together • Get leaders such as universities, academic establishments (teach the teachers) to get togeher to form NRENs for country • Bargain for cheaper rates • BW most expensive worldwide ($4K/Mbps) • Then NRENS get together to create International eXchange Points (IXPs) • Avoid intercountry links using expensive intercontinental links via Europe and the US.

15. Routing • Used to typically go through a satellite provider such as Newskies • Now TZ & KE go via London and Teleglobe & terrestrial fibre S. Africa • IXPs starting up, e.g. • S. Africa direct to Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique • Burkina Faso direct to Mali, Senegal, Benin • Ubuntunet Alliance • Founders: Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda South Africa • Joined by DRC, SD, TZ, UG Burkina Faso

16. Impact for Science • African scientists isolated • Lack critical mass, need network to collaborate • Brain drain • Brain gain, tap diaspora • Massification – blend distance learning • Provide leadership, train trainers

17. More Information • Case Study: • https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/display/IEPM/New+E.+Coast+of+Africa+Fibre • Ubuntunet Alliance • http://www.ubuntunet.net/ • Weather balloons • http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=694&doc_id=178131& • http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/undersea-broadband-fiber-optic-cables-to-africa/ • Google LEOS’ • http://gigaom.com/2008/09/09/google-invests-in-satellite-based-internet-startup/ Many Thanks to Les Cottrell and NUST for Continuing this Excellent Work