Harewos.Telecom

TGN - Intra Asia Launched

2009-08-18T16:15:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since the last PTC meeting, where some Tata people said that the TGN-IA will be launched in a matter of weeks. Yes, sure, what's the problem? we can convert every time measure in "weeks" :-D ... More importantly, it has indeed been launched: "... announced that they have completed the installation, testing and commissioning of the TGN-Intra Asia (TGN-IA) Cable System. Arriving at the conclusion of a comprehensive test program, which verified compliance with all transmission requirements, the companies have completed the final step in achieving regional and global connectivity in Southeast Asia for the TGN".

Subtel/Commsday:

The fully operational 6700KM TGN-IA system links Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Vietnam and the Philippines, providing route diversity throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

He also added: “Very recently almost all of the region’s key cable systems experienced simultaneous cuts, severely impacting network traffic across Asia. Most were damaged somewhere between Hong Kong and Taiwan. TGN-IA was fortunately not disturbed as a result of Tata Communications’ specific decision to route the cable system as diversely as possible, so helping to improve regional business stability and ensuring our customers remain well served.”

The system, which was strategically designed and routed to avoid earthquake and hazardous areas in the Asia-Pacific region, has an initial design capacity of 3.8 Tbps on a city centre to city centre basis and provides record breaking latency between South East and Northern Asia. When combined with the Tata Global Network TIC and Pacific cable systems, the Intra Asia cable system will complete Tata Communications’ multi-Terabit capability from India to Asia and onward to the United States, and is a strong complement to existing regional systems. The System integrates seamlessly with the Tata Global Network and is a key piece in enabling Tata Communications’ global connectivity.

Tata Communications and its supplier, Tyco Telecommunications, have announced the completion of their 6,700km TGN-IA (TGN-Intra Asia) cable system connecting Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Tokyo and Guam. The companies say they have completed the installation, testing and com- missioning of the systems following a comprehensive test program, which verified compliance with all transmission requirements.

The TGN-IA system has been operational in Singapore, Philippines and Hong Kong for the past few months and served as a critical link in the past week in light of the massive outages to other cable systems in the region.

Excelcomindo - Infrastructure + Some Numbers

2009-08-16T16:19:00.000-07:00

The number of XL's BTSs and its distribution can be seen below (as of end 2008).

Highlight:

Sampai 31 Desember 2008, kami telah memasang sekitar 11.600 kilometer kabel darat dan bawah laut; Jaringan serat optik darat XL sudah dipasang sepanjang lebih kurang 9.200 kilometer, termasuk jaringan transmisi pendukung yang membentang sepanjang jalur kereta api utara dari Banten ke Surabaya di Jawa Timur, juga enam jaringan pendukung (ring) serat optik yang terhubung dengan jaringan transmisi utama (backbone)
Untuk kabel bawah laut, sampai 31 Desember 2008 XL telah memasang dan mengoperasikan lebih kurang 2.400 kilometer kabel berkapasitas besar. Di Indonesia sendiri, kami telah memasang jaringan bawah laut antara Sumatera, Jawa, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, dan Kalimantan. Saat ini, pembangunan jaringan yang menghubungkan Kalianda (Lampung) ke Anyer, dan Jawa ke Kalimantan sedang berjalan. Dengan selesainya pembangunan ini, Sumatera dan Jawa akan terhubung dalam konfigurasi cincin, dan antara Jawa dan Kalimantan akan memiliki koneksi langsung

18,128 BTS 2G + 3G (June 2009)
30,000 SMS/sec
136 th. BB subscribers (08/2009) - 10% Jawa Barat, Jabodetabek majority; activation approx. 17 th cust/month; target 20 th. activation/month
Utilisasi 3G di Jabar baru 50 persen
ARPU Semester I/2009 --> IDR 32,000; Besar ARPU pelanggan prabayar sebesar Rp30.000 sementara pascabayar sebesar Rp 156.000. Adapun tingkat perpindahan pelanggan operator tersebut rata-rata 10%-15% per bulan

Telegeography's Sample : IP VPN Prices

2009-08-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

This time, Buenos Aires is highlighted. The prices in southern America usually belong to the "upperbounds", or at least positioned near these bounds :-D .. Not agree?

IP Virtual Private Networks (IP VPN), private lines (IPL), and dedicated internet access (DIA) have become crucial components of corporate wide area networks (WANs) and of telecommunications companies' product portfolios. However, WAN prices vary dramatically by service provider, by class of service, by location, and by technology.

For example, in Q1 2009 the monthly price of a best efforts E-3 (34 Mbps) IP VPN port in Buenos Aires ranged from USD 5,800 to USD 27,000. The price of an E-3 port with premium class of service was even greater, ranging from USD 6,350 to USD 35,650.

SCCN : Prices & Capacity

2009-08-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

Just know that Southern Cross (SCCN) has offered volume-based connection pricing :-D

the new Southern Cross price for 5 Gbps of restored capacity represents around US$0.28 per GigaByte downloaded from the US. This has reduced by 86%, from US$ 1.95 per GigaByte, in December 2003

How can we explain this "mathematically"? At these price figures it only makes sense if the 5 Gbps pipe is shared by several users, right? Then, how many users? How about the CIR?

Source Subtelforum

Quotes:

“another price reduction is available immediately and by March next year lit capacity will expand again, this time by more than 50%”
“The latest initiatives follow closely on the heels of the last price reduction and capacity upgrade that was completed in January of this year. Southern Cross is accelerating its capacity expansion and reducing prices in anticipation of continuing strong demand and in support of Government initiatives for high speed broadband in both Australia and New Zealand”
Prices for circuits to the US, from both Australia and New Zealand, have just been reduced by 15% bringing reductions over the last 18 months to more than 50%. “These reductions are made possible by our ongoing implementation of cost effective capacity expansions and that’s great for high speed broadband”
Southern Cross has also reduced both its Trans-Tasman and Hawaii-US prices. “Our prices for these smaller markets have just been reduced by 49% and it is our intention to keep prices for these markets aligned to ensure our Trans-Tasman pricing reflects very strong competition in the US-Hawaii Market”
“By March next year lit capacity will grow to 620 Gbps per cable, taking total lit capacity to 1.24 Tbps growing by more than 50%. “There can be no doubt that both Australia and New Zealand will continue to have sufficient Southern Cross Capacity to support Government initiatives for high speed broadband adoption in both Australia and New Zealand”
“The capacity expansion will be based on the installation of additional 10Gbps transmission equipment in each of the Southern Cross cable stations”
“Southern Cross recently concluded a successfully trial of 40 Gbps transmission equipment on its longest undersea segment between Auckland and Hawaii. While we are very encouraged by the additional capacity growth potential that can be implemented with confidence we are sticking with 10 Gbps equipment for now. This is to minimise the total cost of the current expansion while we clarify our investment plans to build a New Southern Cross Network”.

ROV Operation

2009-08-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to Stuart Wilson for confirming that the first videos I mentioned in this and this post are from GMSL.

The following YouTube animation video is also from GMSL, showing a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) in operation.

I noticed that my blog's visitors come from several well known worldclass "specialist" companies. So, if you have something to share, please provide the pointer or drop me a line :-D

Submarine Cable Protection

2009-08-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

The following YouTube video shows a way to protect submarine (telecommunication) cable. Anybody knows source of this video?

Cable Breaks - Again Around Taiwan

2009-08-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

Since several days, some media have reported this issue. Some media have pointed to the Typhoon Morakot as the possible cause. Others (as cited by Commsday) mentioned a possibly undetected underwater earthquake. In common, seems they agree that the sources of these multiple cuts shall be something related to the natural happening. Which cable is impacted?

SMW3
EAC S2A1 (detected on 06/August); D (08/August); C (9/August)
APCN2 S7 HK-TW? (09/August)
APCN2 S1 SG-MY? (19/August)
APCN (?)
FNAL (HK-TW)

Quotes:

The impact of the cuts was less severe than the previous multi-cut event back in December 2006, which halted Internet traffic in the region for an extended period. Operators seem to have learned their lesson and have managed to largely reroute traffic over other routes. However, no one seems to know, or is not prepared to explain, what caused those cuts.

“Several news outlets have reported multiple undersea cable breaks around Southeast Asia occurring on 12 August 2009. Due to the depths of the water and the fact that – according to various reports and quoted cable operators - multiple cables have been affected, the most likely cause is undersea seismic activity (i.e. earthquakes),” he wrote in a note. “Cable damage due to fishing activity tends to be in shallow water, and usually affects one cable at a time. Yesterday’s disruptions, then, are puzzling.”

A ComputerWorld Singapore report put the time of the fault on APCN2 at 10:50am Wednesday. The affected segment was between China and Taiwan, forcing regional Internet traffic to be routed onto other systems. The report suggests that the APCN2 cut impacted the performance of the Internet for users in South East Asia.

The report also highlighted two previous faults on APCN2 - on Segment 7 connecting Hong Kong and Taiwan and on Segment 1 connecting Singapore and Malaysia. The sources told ComputerWorld that the cause of the fault was still unknown. However, a Straits Times report is suggesting that Typhoon Morakot, which triggered massive flooding in Taiwan, is the cause of the latest APCN2 cut.

A spokesman for Pacnet also confirmed to ComputerWorld that there were "double faults" on its pan-Asian EAC system off the coast of Taiwan over the weekend. According to the report, the EAC cable experienced its first cut in the early mornings of 9 August on a segment linking Taiwan and Hong Kong and a second cut on another segment linking the two countries roughly 12 hours later. Pacnet also gave no explanation for the EAC cuts. Pacnet was not immediately available for comment.

10 Gig-E IP Transit Prices

2009-08-01T15:55:00.001-07:00

Firstly, I want to quote this : "Tata Communications says that its recently launched 10 Gig-E service now offers large capacity users a saving of up to 60% per megabit of traffic when compared to traditional Gigabit Ethernet services" (Commsday). Now, we might want to ask ourselves, without having to call any sales personal, how much does it actually cost? Price is something strongly not linear :-D .. it depends on this, that, these, and those. And often such factors can not be explained easily (if not at all :-D). Na Und? just want to know how much! :-D ... okay, look at the table below, it's a very simple model.

At "good locations" IP-transit providers could offer you as low as USD 4 - 5/Mbps/Month (10 Gig-E full port). At "other locations" you might only get the service for USD 40/Mbps/Month or maybe more. Plain english text please! .. :-D .. okay, where will you connect?

Singapore! --> there you could start with a figure of around USD 240 th.
Hong Kong! --> ehmmp, around USD 170+ th.
Japan! --> well, if lucky, you can have it for less than USD 150 th.

So gentlemen, how good are my numbers? :-D

Submarine Cable Laying

2009-08-01T05:24:00.001-07:00

If some days ago I mentioned two videos illustrating submarine cable repair/maintenance, this time I would refer to two other videos showing a basic scheme for submarine cable laying. As before, the first video is 3D (from GMSL??) while the second one is in the ASN fashion.. :-D

Internet : How It Works

2009-07-31T17:01:00.010-07:00

How does the Internet work? The following two videos are good introductory material for answering that question. We used those for introducing our Department at TUHH to new undergraduate students. And couple of times I used also at ITB for the same purpose. The fist video (Warriors of the Net) is made by Ericsson MediaLab (?), narated in English and it's also available for download in several languages. The second video (Die Maus erklaert das Internet) is an episode from the "die Sendung mit der Maus" from the german WDR TV-broadcaster (sure, it's in German, but I think it's quite "selfexplanatory" :-D ).

WildBlue Satellite Services

2009-07-28T20:27:00.003-07:00

As mentioned in the previous posts, O3b Networks will utilize Ka-Band. They are surely not the first who use that frequency band for commercial satellite services. Personally, I remembered "WildBlue" when I, for the first time, read about O3b Networks. Sure, if we look at the type of satellites they use and the services they offer, O3b and WildBlue are completely different. But I see they share the same idea: reinventing satellite technology for broadband purposes. Though, I'm a bit dissapointed to know that O3b can "only" achieve a bit more than 1 Gigs/beam or around 10 Gigs/satellite... :-D .. I did hope for a bigger figure :-D

Wikipedia

WildBlue Communications, Inc. offers satellite broadband Internet services to both home and business customers. WildBlue is one of the newer satellite Internet services, having begun operating in June 2005.

After nationwide beta testing, the first residential retail customers had WildBlue service installed at their home in June 2005. During the summer of 2005 a dealer network was established to provide installation and customer service to clients throughout the 48 contiguous United States.

WildBlue claims superior performance both in terms of upload and download speed through its use of newer satellite technology. Specifically, WildBlue uses the Ka band instead of the Ku band used by established competitors. For improved performance, it covers the U.S. and most of populated Canada with many "spot beams" instead of a single, broad beam covering the entire market. It has adopted DOCSIS technology to reduce costs while maintaining quality of service.

The maximum advertised transmission speed with the premium subscription is 1.5 megabits per second download and 256 kilobits per second upload. The satellite equipment costs approximately US$299, exclusive of the mandatory professional installation service. They have in place a Fair Access Policy that slows bandwidth to less than 150kbit/s for users who reach predetermined bandwidth caps on usage.

WildBlue uses the Ka-band exclusively for both the receiving end and the return path on two satellites using VSAT technology.

Anik-F2
This Telesat Canada-owned Boeing 702 Anik-F2 satellite has a Ka-band payload designed for and leased by WildBlue. It has four spot beams for a total of 38 transponders in the Ka-band. It also has C-band and Ku-band payloads for other customers. It is located at the 111.1° W, geostationary orbit slot.

WildBlue-1
WildBlue-1 is a purpose-built satellite built for use by the WildBlue service exclusively. It has 35 spot beams in the Ka-band.[4]. WildBlue-1, was launched on December 8, 2006 at 22:07 GMT aboard an Arianespace Ariane 5. WildBlue-1 is an LS-1300 was built by Space Systems/Loral and occupies the 111.0° W slot. WildBlue-1, while co-located with Anik-F2, requires subscribers to have separate accounts and different equipment than subscribers to Anik-F2.

AMC-15
For added coverage in the southern US, Wildblue has leased space on AMC-15 at 105° W. Initially two extra spot beams will be used. These additional beams will cover all of Mississippi, and small to large areas of Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arkansas. This additional capacity will come online Q3 09.

WildBlue Site

WildBlue Mini-dish
WildBlue's mini-dish (28" x 26") both receives signals from the WildBlue satellite, and sends signals from the customer up to the satellite. The WildBlue mini-dish can be mounted on a roof, wall or via pole mount in the ground.

WildBlue Gateways
WildBlue has 11 gateways located throughout the U.S. and Canada that efficiently connect WildBlue's satellite access network with the Internet. Each gateway consists of microwave, Internet, and other broadband equipment that quickly and efficiently route traffic from the customer's PC to the Internet and back. WildBlue connects the gateways to the Internet via a state-of-the-art fiber backbone.

WildBlue Satellite
WildBlue has designed a state-of-the-art Ka-band communications system aboard our own WildBlue-1 satellite and Telesat's Anik F2 satellite, covering the contiguous U.S. with a total of 66 spot beams. Our satellites occupy a geostationary orbit 22,500 miles above the equator at 111.1° West Longitude. WildBlue chose the 20/30 GHz Ka-band frequencies and a spot-beam architecture as the most efficient and effective technology platform to offer broadband via satellite. WildBlue's advanced technology and low cost structure allows us to offer consumers and small office customers higher speeds and lower prices than other satellite broadband companies.

O3b Networks - Latency

2009-07-28T20:27:00.001-07:00

Below is a table showing a comparison of some latency figures of the O3b and a typical geosynchronous satellite system. The O3b Networks MEO orbit constellation is at an altitude of 8,063 Kilometers, while the geosynchronous satellite at 35,786 Kilometers.

The table shows that a ground station in Lagos, Nigeria using an O3b Networks MEO satellite to connect to a teleport in Almeria, Spain will experience round trip time (RTT) ranging from 122 to 133 milliseconds. If we add in the average internet latency from the Almeria teleport to most internet destinations in Europe (60 ms), we end up with an overall latency from Lagos to a European internet site of 183 to 193 milliseconds. This range of latency is caused by the change in distance to the ground sites relative to the moving O3b Satellites. The AOS is the Acquisition of Signal, and the LOS is the point at which the O3b system will perform the handover to the next rising satellite. The Maximum Elevation is the point at which the satellite is closest to the customer ground station which explains why this point has the lowest latency. By comparison, the same Lagos customer site using a geosynchronous satellite to a European internet site using will have to see latencies of 552 milliseconds.

O3b Networks - 2

2009-07-27T04:55:00.001-07:00

Below are several quotes mentioning O3b Networks from media/third parties' point of view.

Wikipedia

O3b Networks, Ltd. is a network company aiming to build an Internet infrastructure based on satellites to provide Internet access to third world countries. The company was founded by Greg Wyler. The name "O3b" stands for "[The] Other 3 Billion", referring to the population of the world where the Internet is not available without help. O3b is financially backed by Google, HSBC and cable television magnate John Malone.

By 2010 O3b plans to launch a constellation of 16 satellites into orbit to provide inexpensive Internet service to billions of users in remote areas of the world.

O3b's ability to raise the estimated US$500 million to launch its first eight satellites has been questioned. O3B's initial press release on September 9, 2008, states the system will be launched in late 2010 and the satellites are being manufacturered by Thales Alenia Space. They have contracted Sea Launch to launch the first batch of Medium Earth Orbit satellites by deploying the Zenit-3SL system.

The O3B website shows PDR (Preliminary Design Review) of the satellites was completed by Thales Alenia Space in February, 2009.

O3b Networks plans to provide a high-capacity satellite connection to the Internet on which telephone companies and Internet service providers in emerging markets will be able to build their high-speed mobile and web-access offers. O3b Networks will offer fiber performance via satellite at prices comparable to fiber in developed regions. By allowing direct connection to core networks and 3G Cellular/WiMAX towers, the O3b Networks system will completely change the economics of telecommunications infrastructure in the world's fastest-growing markets for communications services. Latency is reduced by putting the satellites in a MEO orbit, less than a twentieth of a second away at light speed as opposed to the half second needed to reach geostationary orbit.

Commsday

Start-up Google-funded satellite operator O3B Networks has put its hand up as a future Australian National Broadband Network provider, telling a Senate committee that its planned fleet of medium-earth-orbit satellites will provide low latency rates that are sufficient for core broadband use.

O3B CEO Greg Tyler:
“with only 124ms of round trip latency, and 62ms one way” his proposed fleet will allow for “natural conversation” on video conferencing and fast response times for “online gaming.” He says typical latency rates on geosats exceed 550ms.

“O3b satellites are designed to provide high bandwidth links (up to 10gbps) to telecom operators as a direct substitute for fiber. O3b can also provide cost effective fiber quality links directly to cellular towers for rebroadcast over WiMAX or 3G networks, as well as high bandwidth directly to the home, schools and businesses.”

“In the Australian environment a combination of terrestrial wireless and O3b satellites will be a cost effective way to reach the remaining households not connected by fiber. For significantly less than 10% of the budget, the remaining homes can be reached.”

O3B Networks is funded by HSBC, Google and Liberty Global and says its first satellites will be delivered by late 2010. It has already signed capacity and reseller contracts with Nigeria’s Netcom Africa, Galaxy Wireless and DirectOnPC, Afghanistan’s Neda Telecommunications, Democratic Republic of Congo’s Microcom, Guyana’s Quark Communications and Ghana’s SatConsult. Earlier this year, it claimed $US200m of customer contracts and $US400m of funding.

Under the Australian government’s $US31b NBN plans announced in April, satellite is likely to be used as a solution for areas that are uneconomic for fibre or terrestrial wireless, possibly covering as much as 2% or 400,000 people.

O3b Networks

2009-07-27T03:33:00.000-07:00

What is special about it? I've heard about Teledesic story happened more than 10 years ago. At a glance O3b Networks offers similar things. Then again, what is special? Could it happen that they just repeat the old story again? Hmmm, to be honest, I don't know .. :-D .. What attracts me for the first time to O3b because it's Google's! :-D ... I see that Google always innovates cleverly, offering people good stuff and often for free!! Now, that they've backed O3b, it should be something different, right? :-D .. As I wrote this, if everything okay, I'll meet some of O3b guys tomorrow. But let's open our eyes and look a bit more deep at their concept.. :-D

O3b Networks

In 2010, bandwidth access will get cheaper, faster and easier for most of the world. O3b Networks is building a new telecommunications infrastructure offering low-latency links from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps for core trunking, instant fiber-path and 3G Cellular backhaul. Lowering access costs, increasing availability and bridging the digital divide, O3b Networks will enable emerging-market operators and ISPs to make the Internet a truly global and ubiquitous experience.

"Fiber speeds, Satellite reach - 3G/WiMAX Wireless Backhaul and IP Trunking"

"Connecting the other 3 billion"

Low Latency: O3b Networks' system virtually eliminates the delay of standard GEO satellites by reducing the round-trip transmission time from over 0.5 second to just 1/10 of a second. The reduced round-trip delay creates a web experience closer to terrestrial systems such as DSL or Optical Fiber.

Coverage: With O3b Networks, you can provision fiber-quality backhaul virtually anywhere you like with no need for digging or building extensive terrestrial backhaul networks.

Scalability: A minimum constellation of five satellites is needed to cover 360 degrees over the Earth. O3b Networks’ initial launch phase will exceed this number by more than two satellites. As demand rises, new satellites will be launched to increase network capacity. New satellites cost much less than submarine cable, without being restricted to a landing station at the beach. The O3b Networks satellites can bring gigabits of bandwidth directly to where it is needed.

Simplicity: All you do is plug in the Ethernet cable.

Redundancy and Reliability: Carrier Class requires a redundant system. Multiple paths and redundant components. O3b’s self-healing network is designed with redundancy at every point in the network. The entire system is designed as a RAID (redundant array of independent devices). Each satellite has both internal and external redundancy. Losses of components or even entire satellites are automatically compensated for. From your network, your links have multiple paths, whether back to an O3b Gateway with our Fi2 fully terminated services, or from any point to any point you decide.

System Design
O3b Networks is launching a satellite-based telecommunications infrastructure that will literally circle the world. Utilizing a redundant array of powerful satellites, each exceeding 10 Gbps of throughput, O3b Networks will offer low-cost, fiber-quality core backhaul services for cellular, fixed-line, and Internet service providers.

Construction is underway at Thales Alenia Space, with delivery scheduled in the second half of 2010.

Designed to bridge the digital divide for emerging markets and lesser-developed countries, O3b Networks’ system offers reliable web 2.0-compliant, fiber-quality backhaul anywhere in Africa, Australia, Asia, Pacific Islands and Latin America with no capital expenditure for a low monthly fee.

If you are a telecom operator who wants more bandwidth for your customers, reach out to us and we will bring the Internet right to you.

The space vehicle is designed, integrated and tested, by Thales Alenia Space. Leveraging the heritage redundant service module design and manufactured utilizing an innovative island production approach. The unique payload system design enables flexibility of antenna usage and graceful degradation. The first eight space vehicles will be in orbit by 4th quarter, 2010.

The Ka-Band payload is designed to enable the high speed flow of data between locations on the ground. Twelve (12) fully steerable antennas ensure an optimized connection to the area where data is needed. The payload portion uses existing Ka-Band repeater technology to allow for straightforward allocation of the bandwidth anywhere within the 500 km diameter area on the ground which is illuminated.

The flexible configuration of the satellite allows for inter-antenna data transfer in a variety of ways. Thus, trunking between two points is simple, or trunking between many points is also possible. The steerable antennas can be moved onto a location in minutes and each provide up to 1.25Gbps of throughput.

The service module provides platform three axis pointing stabilization. The 3-axis control is provided by a combination reaction wheels, torque rods and reaction engine assemblies. Attitude determination is provided by earth and fine sun sensors in conjunction with an inertial measurement unit. A GPS Navigation Unit provides orbit position. Power is supplied by two gallium arsenide solar arrays and a Li Ion battery.

Ka and Ku-Band

2009-07-26T21:39:00.013-07:00

Just to refresh our memory regarding electromagnetic spectrum :-D

Wikipedia

The IEEE K band is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies ranging between 18 and 27 GHz. K band between 18 and 26.5 GHz is absorbed easily by water vapor (H2O resonance peak at 22.24 GHz, 1.35 cm).

The IEEE K band is conventionally divided into three sub-bands:
Ka band: K-above band, 26.5–40 GHz, mainly used for radar and experimental communications.
K-band 18-27 GHz
Ku band: K-under band, 12–18 GHz, mainly used for satellite communications, terrestrial microwave communications, and radar, especially police traffic-speed detectors

The Ka band covers the frequencies of 26.5-40GHz. The Ka band is part of the K band of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum. This symbol refers to "K-above" — in other words, the band directly above the K-band. The so-called 30/20 GHz band is used in communications satellites, uplink in either the 27.5 GHz and 31 GHz bands, and high-resolution, close-range targeting radars aboard military airplanes. Some frequencies in this radio band are used for vehicle speed detection by law enforcement.

The Ku band is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies. This symbol refers to "K-under"—in other words, the band directly below the K-band. In radar applications, it ranges from 12 to 18 GHz according to the formal definition of radar frequency band nomenclature in IEEE Standard 521-2002.

Ku band is primarily used for satellite communications, most notably NASA's Tracking Data Relay Satellite used for both space shuttle and ISS communications. Ku band satellites are also used for backhauls and particularly for satellite from remote locations back to a television network's studio for editing and broadcasting. The band is split into multiple segments that vary by geographical region by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). NBC was the first television network to uplink a majority of its affiliate feeds via Ku band in 1983.

Indonesia
The ITU has categorized Indonesia as Region P, countries with very high rain precipitation. This statement has made many people unsure about using Ku-band (11 – 18 GHz) in Indonesia. If frequencies higher than 10 GHz are used in a heavy rain area, a decrease in communication availability results. This problem can be solved by using an appropriate link budget when designing the wireless communication link. Higher power can overcome the loss to rain fade.

Measurements of rain attenuation in Indonesia have been done for satellite communication links in Padang, Cibinong, Surabaya and Bandung. The DAH Model for rain attenuation prediction is valid for Indonesia, in addition to the ITU model. The DAH model has become an ITU recommendation since 2001 (Recommendation No. ITU-R P.618-7). This model can create a 99.7% available link so that Ku-band can be applied in Indonesia.

The use of the Ku-band for satellite communications in tropical regions like Indonesia is becoming more frequent. Several satellites above Indonesia have Ku-band transponders, and even Ka-band transponders. Newskies (NSS 6), launched in December 2002 and positioned at 95° East, contains only Ku-band transponders with a footprint on Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Moluccas). The iPSTAR satellite, launched in 2004 also uses Ku band footprints. MEASAT has named the Ku-band footprint directed towards Indonesia Ku-band for Indonesi. MEASAT-3 plans to cover the whole of Indonesia from West to East. This satellite was launched by Malaysia in December 2006.

Excelcomindo Pratama - Updates

2009-07-26T21:39:00.005-07:00

Some updates for XL (PT. Excelcomindo Pratama) - 07/2009:

International bandwidth: 640 Mbps (current); 1 Gbps (target at 2009E) - this is total or only for Internet service?
Customers: 25 mn (incl. 6.1 mn 3G - 20 th. from those are active broadband users)
18,000 BTSs (capacity upgraded recently - two times higher; figure??)
Coverage: 90% population (claimed)
International bandwidth for BlackBerry services: 45 Mbps (65 Mbps already?; end 2009 100 Mbps expected)
BlackBerry customers: 135 th. (target 2009E - 200 th. subscribers)

"Kami tak hanya menggunakan satu channel, tapi dua channel untuk memperkuat koneksi BlackBerry kita ke server RIM (Research in Motion) di Kanada," ujar Presiden Direktur XL Hasnul Suhaimi di sela drive test jaringan XL, Jakarta, Jumat (7/8/2009).

Di wilayah operasional east region, secara keseluruhan XL mencatat trafik percakapan sebesar 16 juta erlang (satuan trafik suara) di mana untuk Jawa Timur tercatat 9 juta erlang dengan 40% berada di Madura.

Terkait dengan persiapan jaringan menjelang Ramadan dan Lebaran, XL mengklaim jaringannya siap menghadapi lonjakan trafik hingga tiga kali lipat pada saat Ramadan dan Lebaran mengingat kapasitas terpakai saat ini baru 30% baik di lintas Lampung-Merak, Jakarta-Semarang, Semarang Surabaya, Surabaya-Madura, Batam, maupun wilayah lainnya.

Trafik data XL tercatat hanya memberikan kontribusi sekitar 2%. Pada 2008, kapasitas SMS terpakai mencapai 50%.

"Kita memperkirakan lonjakan terbesar justru terjadi pada saat hari H hingga H-2 setelah lebaran. Dengan persentase peningkatan 60 persen untuk SMS dan 30 persen voice," ... dilatarbelakngi pengalaman Lebaran tahun lalu, di mana terjadi lonjakan hingga 50 persen dari hari normal yang rata-rata lalu lintas jaringan hanya 30 persen.

Saat ini XL sehari-hari melayani trafik percakapan hingga 635 juta call dengan total menit sebesar 560 juta menit. Sementara untuk trafik SMS adalah 150 juta SMS, dan trafik data sebesar 1,45 terabytes. Diperkirakan sepanjang Ramadhan dan Lebaran tahun ini akan terjadi lonjakan trafik hingga 200%.

Infrastruktur XL di jalur Lampung antara Bandar Lampung - Bakauheni didukung oleh 16 BTS (2G/3G). Sementara itu, di sepanjang Pantura Jawa didukung oleh sedikitnya 1.750 BTS (2G/3G), dan di Madura sekitar 445 BTS (2G/3G). Dengan berdirinya Jembatan Suramadu yang menghubungkan Surabaya dengan Pulau Madura, XL juga sedang membangun fiber optik di jembatan terbesar Asia Tenggara tersebut.

Lebih lanjut Hasnul juga menambahkan bahwa jaringan XL di seluruh Indonesia saat ini diperkuat dengan 18.128 BTS (Base Transceiver Station, termasuk 1.840 Node B/BTS 3G, data per akhir Juni 2009), juga jaringan fiber optic yang membentang di sepanjang pulau Jawa dan tersambung melalui jaringan kabel bawah laut ke pulau Sumatera, Batam, Kalimantan dan Sulawesi. XL juga telah meningkatkan kapasitas SMS hingga 30.000 SMS per detik (srn)

Hingga semester I tahun ini XL mencatat ada 41 miliar menit panggilan telepon (outgoing call). Panggilan keluar itu tumbuh 113% dibanding periode sama tahun lalu.

Pengiriman pesan singkat (short message service/SMS) yang ikut naik 170% juga menjadi salah satu faktor meningkatnya pendapatan XL.

Seluruh trafik tersebut dihasilkan oleh 24,7 juta pelanggan XL (yang tumbuh 8%) lewat 18.128 BTS yang terpasang hingga Juni 2009.

Moratel - Updates

2009-07-26T21:39:00.003-07:00

Just found something related to Moratel and its new cable MBDC, that might be of our interest :-D

It seems that the branch to Melaka will also be installed in the near future (if not immeadiately); in several reports, Moratel uses BDM term (Batam-Dumai-Melaka) instead of MBDC
Length: 500 km (seems, incl. branch to Melaka)
Investment: USD 40 mn
GMSL is on the board! (Subcon from Triasmitra??)
Installation target: Batam-Dumai (08/2009); Dumai-Melaka (09/2009)
Inland segment: Dumai-Palembang-Lampung-Kalianda-Anyer-Jakarta (08/2009)

Sebelumnya, pada 2008, Moratel telah menyelesaikan pembangunan jaringan Java Back Bone dengan menggunakan teknologi terkini DWDM dengan kapasitas awal 80 Gbps sepanjang 2600 KM meliputi Pulau Jawa yang saat ini beroperasi dengan baik.

Presdir Mobile-8, Merza Fachys, mengungkap pihaknya baru sebatas menyewa kapasitas 210 MB. Jumlah tersebut akan ditambah seiring meningkatnya trafik akses. "Itu untuk internasional trafik gateway saja. Untuk lokal sudah satu lambda," ujarnya.

Jaringan serat optik yang disewa Mobile-8 dari Moratel tersebut digunakan untuk menyalurkan trafik akses internet EVDO dalam produk Mobi. "Kapasitas jaringan yang sudah terpakai untuk pelanggan Mobi baru mencapai 40%," pungkas Merza.

Pada tahun yang sama, Moratel juga telah mengoperasikan MIC-one, yakni jaringan SKKL antara Batam – Singapura dengan kapasitas 48 core, dan pada saat ini merupakan salah satu tulang punggung penghubung antara Indonesia dan dunia luar.

Smart Telecom - Some Updates

2009-07-26T21:39:00.001-07:00

If it isn't otherwise stated, the following data are as of 07/2009.

2+ mn subscribers
Operation since 2007 (i.e. now 2+ years)

Three HCPT - Some Updates

2009-07-26T21:38:00.018-07:00

If it isn't otherwise stated, the following data are actual as of 07/2009.

6,800 BTS (2009B)
5.3 mn subscribers (Q1/2009)
Coverage: 3,000 subdistricts (kecamatan); 21 provinces (kepulauan Riau, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Lampung, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Jawa Timur, Jawa Tengah, Jawa Barat, Jambi, DKI Jakarta, Banten, Bengkulu, Bangka Belitung, Bali, Nusa Tenggara Barat, dan Sulawesi Selatan; Banjarmasin, Banjar, Barito Kuala, Banjar Baru, Samarinda, Kutai Kertanegara, Balikpapan & soon Palangkaraya); claimed - 70% population
Average usage --> 15 mins/day
Cummulative investment: approx. USD 1 bn
Age of operation: 2+ years

Axis NTS - Some Updates

2009-07-26T21:38:00.017-07:00

Below are some facts as of 07/2009 for Axis / NTS (Natrindo Telepon Selular).

Coverage: 192 Cities
3,700 BTSs distributed in Jawa, Bali, Lombok, Riau, Kepulauan Riau, Sumatera Utara, and Sumatera Barat (+1,200 new BTSs in Java; 400 BTSs capacity-upgraded); Other source: 4,600 BTSs (appx. 1000 BTSs are 3G compatible)
Jatim 835 BTS, Jabar 565 BTS, Jateng 540 BTS, Bali-Lombok 235 BTS, Jabodetabek 1565 BTS, Sumatera 740 BTS
Signal strength: -81 dbm (average)
Current configuration: 50 Customers/BTS; claimed - can handle 100 to 150 Customers/BTS
Customer base: 5 mn

Tata : Onnet PoP soon in Jakarta ?

2009-07-26T04:37:00.000-07:00

Some times ago, Tata has opened a new data center in Singapore. There is a strong hint that they will not stop there. They intends to open several onnet PoPs in South-East Asian Cities, including Jakarta! It is unlikely that they will put a dedicated cable from Singapore or from any underwater BU directly to Jakarta, right? It could mean that they (have) approach(ed) one or two cable owners to Jakarta. The question is ... WHO? :-D ... But in any case, shall Tata indeed open a PoP in Jakarta, domestic Internet providers and users could expect for cheaper Internet access prices. Agree? No? .. :-D

Source: Tata Communications

EAC-C2C (2)

2009-07-26T04:28:00.001-07:00

Just want to put additional information for EAC-C2C system. This is official, taken from Pacnet's site.

At the heart of Pacnet is EAC-C2C, our integrated state-of-the-art fiber optic submarine cable network spanning 36,800 kilometers between Hong Kong, China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Singapore. EAC-C2C has a design capacity of 10.24 Tbps with less than 20 percent lit and continuous upgrades underway.

The integration of EAC and C2C into a single system - with dual landings and PoPs (Points-of-Presence) in key markets - has strengthened Pacnet’s position as the region's leading provider of next-generation communications solutions.

EAC-C2C lands in the following locations: Shanghai, Qingdao (China), Chung Hom Kok, Tseung Kwan O (Hong Kong), Ajigaura, Shima, Chikura (Japan), Capepisa, Batangas (Philippines), Taean, Pusan (South Korea), Changi (Singapore), Fangshan, Pali, Tanshui (Taiwan).

Next generation core
Pacnet has also upgraded the core network platform of the EAC-C2C cable system with GMPLS (Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching) which enables a new set of features such as meshed protection on the optical layer, auto-provisioning, and optimized routing of traffic to support latency-sensitive applications such as video and IPTV.

Source: Pacnet

Moratelindo's Network

2009-07-26T02:57:00.000-07:00

The following pictures illustrate the network operated by Moratelindo. Sure, they mustn't necessarily own the transmission infrastructure. However, it seems that they "slow" but sure try to build their own lines. In addition to MIC-1 and MBDC, recently they also claimed: they just finished their Java backbone development last year. If it's true, then they shall currently have a (completely or slightly) different Java backbone compared to that in the picture below. Why ? You know lah I guess .. :-D

Source: Moratel

Google's Container - Soon in MY ?

2009-07-25T23:14:00.000-07:00

I guessed it already :-D ... but I just found things that support it. So, 2010 or early 2011 Google's container (data center) will come to Malaysia. Singapore is overpopulated ? Seems so. What do you think? :-D

IET - Into the Light, by David Sandham

Google has combined with other companies to build a trans-Pacific fibre-optic cable called Unity. According to Rawle, Google had the idea because it is building a server farm in Malaysia which it needs to connect to the US. “They went into the market but could not get the price they wanted so came up with the idea of a mini-consortium,” he says. Unity will be built by Tyco and NEC for $300m and will provide 4.8Tbit/s.

Submarine Cable Repair/Maintenance

2009-07-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing some videos for my class in this fall semester and searched for those in YouTube. Below is one video showing submarine cable repair/maintenance. It's almost similar to a video distributed by Alcatel-Lucent, except that it's 3D! Cool, right?

And this is what I've talked before: a video from Alcatel-Lucent.

Palapa Ring (12)

2009-07-24T17:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, some media reported a "minor" update regarding the Palapa Ring project. Telegeography (citing AsiaPulse) mentioned among other things that the project shall cost around USD 700 mn. Bisnis (citing one of the ministry VIP) said that Palapa Ring project shall be supported by the govt's ICT Fund (loan 0% interest).

Telegeography: A group of three Indonesian telecoms operators have reportedly postponed until the end of this year plans to deploy a USD700 million fibre-optic telecoms cable in eastern Indonesia, citing financial obstacles as the reason. AsiaPulse writes the three - PT Telkom, PT Indosat and PT Bakrie Telecom – have jointly agreed to begin construction work on the Palapa Ring project in December 2009, rather than the original August start date.

Bisnis: Proyek Palapa Ring yang dimaksudkan sebagai proyek pendistribusian jaringan serat optik nasional backbone NGN yang semula menargetkan 32 landing station dengan spesifikasi dua pasang fibre kabel bawah laut repeatered dan 12 pasang fibre kabel bawah laut repeaterless serta 12 pasang fibre kabel optik darat (inland). Proyek itu merencanakan panjang jaringan 4.450 km di antaranya mencakup 3.850 km kabel bawah laut dan 600 km kabel darat dengan 15 landing point dan rencananya akan melintas di 21 kabupaten/kota di Indonesia bagian timur.

Moratel + XL + FIC/SCAN ?

2009-07-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

I unintentionally found a picture below. It could be just an illustration. But it could also be a real plan :-D ... To my guess, it looks similar to the current Excelcomindo + Moratelindo networks combined with the new FIC SCAN system. How good is my guess? What do you think? :-D

*SJJK fragments*

At the last quarter 2008 --> an ongoing project for Inland Submarine Project SJJK from PT. ALCATEL LUCENT INDONESIA, to prepare a landing Point for Submarine cable at Kalianda (Sumatera), Anyer (West Java), Banyuurip (East Java), Bawean (East Java), Takesung (South Kalimantan) and OSP Project from Bandung – Cirebon (West Java).

Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

2009-07-22T03:29:00.000-07:00

Clear enough? Yes, no matter when, you just have to pay! :-D ... Well, it's the title of Randy Bush's presentation at the last NANOG event. What is it all about? IPv6 of course, what else! Several times ago, Todd Underwood (formerly at Renesys) has written a nice blog entry about this, ehm, maybe not exactly the same but similar. It more or less can be interpreted as follows.

Es wird knapp, We don't have enough free "space" (i.e. addresses) anymore in this "world" (IPv4) so we need to move to a much better & bigger "world" (IPv6). Yes, we might think that we can create two or three parallel "worlds", but then our "lives" will much depend on the "gates" between these "worlds" - this solution is not preferable for the most "politicians" of the networking society.

So what's the problem? Let's move together to this better & bigger "world". Well, unfortunately this new "world" isn't that ready yet! Why? Simply because everybody wants to have a "perfect world" so that the future generation doesn't have to move again and again. But "perfect" is something that is developed "slowly", sometimes "very slowly" or maybe "very very slooooowwwwly". And don't forget here we are talking about (a few) millions of "things" that have to be "tuned" (configured) to the environment in this new "world". Moreover, die Zeit draengt! we don't have enough free space for our new "family" members in the upcoming months.

That's what I got from Todd's writing. Now, when you say, "ok, no problem, if the time comes I'll pay". This is answered by Randy in his talk:

"You Can Pay Less & Slowly Now or You Can Pay a Lot More & Steeply Later"

So, which one will you choose? :-D

TGN-IA : Latency

2009-07-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

I already wrote about this somewhere :-D ... but below is a better table mentioning this latency figure for the TGN-IA system. This latency issue seems to be one selling point exposed by Tata. Sure, they should (have to) sell this, since they construct a new system in a currently "cable-dense" area :-D

Estimated RTDs in msec - Source Tata

TGN-IA

2009-07-22T00:22:00.001-07:00

Some details for TGN-IA system:

The TGN-Intra Asia Cable System is a linear cable system between Singapore and Japan with Day-1 branch landings into Hong Kong, Vietnam and the Philippines
The system is equipped with two additional branching units, which enable entry into other markets, and is designed with four fibre pairs delivering a capacity of at least 3.84 Tbps
Tata Communications’ TGN-Intra Asia Cable System is a 6,700km multi-terabit cable system connecting Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. When combined with Tata Global Network, TIC and Pacific Cable Systems, the TGN-Intra Asia Cable System will complete Tata Communications’ multi-terabit capability from India to Asia and onward to the United States. Through Tata Communications’ partners, EVNTelecom and Globe Telecom, TGN-Intra Asia Cable reaches into Vietnam and the Philippines as well. The system integrates seamlessly with Tata Communications global network infrastructure and is a strong complement to existing regional systems
The TGN-Intra Asia Cable System is the only direct fibre route between Singapore and Japan offering Asia’s lowest latency with RTD of 63ms. In addition, the system’s unique design bypasses earthquake zones around Taiwan
PoPs: Singapore (Global Switch, 2 Tai Seng Avenue, 534408); Hong Kong (Mega I Advantage, 399 Chai Wan Road, Chai Wan); Tokyo (Shinagawa, 3-8-21 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-Ku, Tokyo, 140-0002)

Tata's 10 GigE Services

2009-07-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Just read a news entry mentioning Tata's new service platform: global 10 GigE (10 Gbps Ethernet) services, available at 25 major cities in 11 countries. Jakarta isn't in the list, but Singapore is of course inside. The service covers both 10 GigE LAN PHY and WAN PHY at selectable grade of availability ranging from 99.5% (unprotected circuits) to 99.9% (protected circuits). The service features MEF 6.1 defined Ethernet Private Line (EPL) point to point configuration so that customers’ data is isolated and travels on its own Ethernet pipe, is a truly dedicated, secure service.

The 10 GigE service integrates seamlessly with Tata Communications’ global network infrastructure including regional cable systems such as TGN-Atlantic, TGN-Northern Europe, TGN-Western Europe, TGN- Pacific and TGN-TIC and new investments like the TGN-Intra Asia Cable-a 6,700 km multi-terabit cable system that connects Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan; and the TGN-Eurasia Cable-providing express connectivity between India and Europe. Combining all these Tata-owned cables, Tata Communications can provide 10 GigE services literally around the world.

Telkom's, XL's, or Moratel's Cable Break?

2009-07-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

Several times ago detik.com has reported that Telkom and Excelomindo have experienced problems for their international connections due to submarine cable break(s). You might find the reports here and here. One source also said that three operators in Batam shared the same fate. The question is which cable is/was broken?

As you might already know, Telkom operates TIS cable to connect to Singapore, while XL has BRCS to connect to Sungai Rengit, Johor, MY. Moratel has MIC-1 and Indosat has also some capacity via consortium cables. BSCS and Jakabare aren't officially relased nor carrying commerical traffic, so we might neglect them. Which one is broken? well, it's unlikely that several cable being hit by any anchor at the same time by accident, right?. Besides, if we go back to the condition several days/weeks ago, not so many domestic users complained about network unaccessibility. I my self felt indeed that the connection was slower, but it was still connected at the rate of around one third from the usual average access speed. Go back to the question, using those facts, we might already have a good guess of the answer :-D .. No? Yes? Tell me!

Lastly, I would cite an interesting part of conversations discussing this "cable break" at Opisboy ... :-D

di laut kena jangkar , di udara kena interferensi , di darat kena cangkul ... di tiang kena tebang tukang tebang pohon ... PR nya gak kelar kelar besok gw pulang kampung aja ah nyangkul aja di sawah ... (tm)DA-Opisboyer

"Sawah" shall in this case be a fiber-optic free area, right? Sonst, you'll just create other cable breaks ... :-D ... peace!

Things Come, Things Go

2009-07-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hi :-D meet you again .. so, from where should I start? ... Maybe, I can start with the "things" :-D ..

Well, sometimes things went o.k. the other times things went unexpected. If you read this post and you know me personally as a professional from a certain "thing", I guess it's time for me to deeply apologize to all of you. I'm very grateful for your cooperation and I'm also very sorry since the things run others than my expectation. It is far from my habbit but unfortunately it's also beyond my control. Wovon redest Du? :-D ... well, if you don't understand what I mean with the above writing, don't let it last your mind; it's probably not for you :-D

Lastly in this post, I would like to thank Simon Fong from Nexans, who gave "something" useful for my students; I can use in my class :-D

Telkom's BSCS

2009-06-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

AAG will be ready in the next two or three months. Indosat and Telkom have to be ready to connect to the system. Plain text: Jakabare & BSCS shall also be ready in this time frame.

I had (so zu sagen) a vacation in Batam several times ago, and I took the picture below (somewhere near by ferry terminal, north batam). Is it BSCS path ? Or is it part of Jasuka constructed several years ago ? ... Ehm, sure, this is very specific question, and the picture isn't about a path, right ? :-D

Pacnet's New Presence: Vietnam & Thailand

2009-06-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

Just checked again the world's telecom wholesale news after weeks-long pause :-D. This is one of the interesting news: Pacnet tries to get closer with traffic sources, this time in Vietnam and Thailand. Currently, international & inter-regional wholesalers tend to reach more potential customers, not only those which belong the industry giants but also medium-size customers. This might be a visible effort to anticipate loss of traffic, since many nationally-strong telcos are able and currently tend to build their own infrastructure. Disagree ? You are free to comment! :-D

Subtelforum:

In April 2009, Pacnet obtained approval for a Type 1 reseller license, enabling the company to offer IP Transit, IP VPN and International Private Line (IPL) services in Thailand, enabling businesses across the country to connect with their partners and offices worldwide.

Despite the challenging economic conditions, Thailand’s bandwidth consumption continues to grow. TeleGeography has forecast the country’s international bandwidth requirements to grow almost tenfold from 43 Gbps in 2008 to 404 Gbps in 2013.
“To meet the huge bandwidth demand, we are also exploring landing EAC-C2C into Thailand, which will provide access to an unprecedented amount of international bandwidth on our next-generation subsea cable network”

--------------------
Along with its burgeoning economy, Vietnam’s international bandwidth is forecast to grow aggressively. Latest research from TeleGeography puts Vietnam’s total international bandwidth usage in 2008 at 22.8 Gbps and this is forecast to grow more than 13 times to 302.4 Gbps in 2013.

“Through our partnership with FPT Telecom, a leading telecommunications service provider in Vietnam, we have established our first Vietnam PoP in Ho Chi Minh City which enables us to deliver our global network connectivity solutions not only into Vietnam, but also into Cambodia and Laos”

“As part of our strategic growth plans for the Indochina region, we are already looking to expand our presence to other cities in Vietnam over the next 12 months, and are also exploring landing our EAC-C2C subsea cable in Vietnam to provide the country access to Asia’s highest capacity subsea network,”

While Vietnam’s current broadband penetration rate is just under 3%, it has almost doubled its broadband penetration since 2008 and has a huge potential for future bandwidth growth. It is also an increasingly attractive destination for offshore services, with Gartner ranking it as one of the top 10 locations for offshore services in the Asia Pacific region.

Asia Pacific Gateway APG (1)

2009-06-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

The following low-res picture might be a better illustration for Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) than my previous sketch. It seems legitimate, but I couldn't find something to confirm this. It was published by a japanese news portal (livedoor.com ?).

In this pic, the APG cable will have two landings in mainland China in addition to one in Hong Kong.

source livedoor.com (?)

Asia America Gateway AAG (4)

2009-06-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

Citing PLDT/BusinessMirror, Primetrica has recently reported that AAG might be operational in August this year (2009). If it's true, it is faster than my prediction, but offcourse it's still slower than the original schedule in Q4|2008.

"...the installation of the Philippine terminal station, as well as those in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Guam, Hawaii and US mainland has been completed"

"AAG was originally expected to carry commercial traffic by Q4 2008 but there was a delay in the Hong Kong deep burial phase due to severe weather conditions work, PLDT said, is now being undertaken to complete the 61km shore end in Segment 1 or the HK-Branching unit 4. The remaining submarine cable installation work is expected to be completed by 30 June, following which network testing can begin in earnest. The total cost of the project is USD550 million, of which PLDT contributed USD50 million."

Google vs. Bing

2009-06-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

As reported by several media, Microsoft's new search engine "Bing" has made a good debut in the business. StatCounter has identified that after two weeks of its formal introduction, Bing has overtook Yahoo as the second rank search engine, following the incumbent Google :-D ... O.k. true, it might still be changed as time goes, Yahoo might strike back :-D ... Google might innovate something to defend its (currently-reduced) market share.

But that all is not the reason for me to write this post entry :-D ... so what? I found an interesting thing as I tried Bing. It seems that Bing put some facilities locally instead of centrally e.g. at Microsoft's domain. Evidence ? I saw that, from my country, bing.com registered from AS 17974! This is however different with the way Google currently works: if you access Google.com from anywhere in the world you will notice that it is served from within AS 15169! So, Bing is local! ... Any comments ? :-D

Bing.com (from my ISP standpoint):

AS 17974 (Telkom)
BGP Prefix 125.160.0.0/16
bing.co.id redirected to bing.com with "id" parameters
Google's PageRank 2 (not bad for several weeks presence, right ?)

Source bing.com

Palapa Ring (11)

2009-05-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

Now, Palapa Ring consortium consists of only three telcos : XL/Excelcomindo has recently left, due to significant loss last year. It was a bit surprising, since XL is the third largest telco, which owns significant fiber infrastructure across the country. Previously, Powertek and Infokom Elektrindo have also cancelled their commitment for Palapa Ring project. Check for the entire story here.

Without new arrangements, the consortium would have only USD 120 mn left for the entire project. It could mean that the overall system shall be shorter and some landing candidates are removed from the list. To my guess, at this budget figure, the total system length would be around 1,500 - 2,000 km in total (or less at current price) with around 10 landing points (or less, depending on what kind of landing facilities to be installed). And I'm afraid, it wouldn't sufficient for a ring! Such a distance is comparable to the distance of Jakarta, Singapore and going back to Jakarta. Already guessed my point ? .. Yupe, without additional budget, Palapa Ring would be better to be changed to "Palapa Bus" or "Palapa Fishbone" :-D. What do you think? :-D

x-Gateway Trends: AAG, EIG and now APG - Asia Pacific Gateway

2009-05-26T04:09:00.000-07:00

Just several hours ago, several media have reported this issue: a new Asian cable named APG (Asia Pacific Gateway). The project is consortium-based, formed almost similar to the AAG fashion. Besides, TM is also involved!

Why do they want to install this new system (despite existing and new cables: EAC-C2C, APCN-2, TGN-IA, AAG - TPE Intra Asia Segment, SJC ...) ? Telegeography mentioned that the Telcos don't want to rely on Intra-Asia private systems (Pacnet, Tata, etc.). Sure, they should have other good reasons for putting "more money" underwater :-D Network diversity is one possible consideration. Another thing is that they might want to have full control on their end-to-end regional services! Is this a sign against the concept of "carrier collaboration" campaigned by Bill & his Pacnet team ??

Asia Pacific Gateway (APG)

RFS : Q3/2011
Consortium members: NTT Com (of Japan), Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), China Telecom (China), China Unicom (China), KT Corp (South Korea), PLDT (Philippines), TOT (Thailand), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia) and VNPT (Vietnam)
Length: approximately 8,000 km; connect Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore
Capacity: design 4 Tbps (at least)

An Artist View of Asia Pacific Gateway - NOT Official!!

SEACOM : 44 Days Away from Completion

2009-05-25T23:15:00.000-07:00

In the next months, Africa could hope for cheaper bandwidth price. Why ? .. Yes, right, SEACOM system shall be ready in the next couple of weeks. And they promised "We'll start the price war!". Well, I think there is currently still a few players on this business in Africa, means: the price would not be dropped very significantly. The "real" price war would happen if the other new systems connecting Africa to other regions are completed, which is likely to be happened after 2010. Any contra arguments ? :-D

SEACOM:

SEACOM provides high capacity bandwidth linking business and communities in Southern and East Africa, Europe and South Asia

SEACOM will be a full service provider of international fibre bandwidth along the East Coast of Africa to Southern Africa, Europe and Asia.

When it is fully functional in 2009, SEACOM will be a service provider of international fibre optic bandwidth along the East Coast of Africa linking Southern and East Africa, Europe and South Asia

SEACOM has an enormous capacity of 1.2TB/s, to enable high definition TV, peer to peer networks, IPTV, and surging Internet demand
Pricing will be significantly lower than current satellite or fibre pricing
SEACOM will be ready to serve Southern and East African markets from 2009, well in time to meet the bandwidth needs of the Confederations Cup and the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, and the growing requirements of the economies in the countries it serves.

SEACOM will be first to launch services with a planned Ready for Service date of June 2009

SEACOM is 77% African owned

Source SEACOM

Moratelindo Batam Dumai Cable (MBDC) System

2009-05-21T04:13:00.000-07:00

Now it is official! Moratel has silently revealed that they currently prepare Batam Dumai undersea cable system. The project is named "Moratelindo Batam - Dumai Cable" (MBDC). It shall extend their international connection via MIC-1 system to Sumatra mainland and from there to other domestic locations.

Moratelindo Batam Dumai Cable :

Capacity: 12 FP; @ 8 Lambda
Length: 380 km
Landing points: Batam, Dumai
Branching to Melaka/Malaysia prepared
Contractors : NSW (cable vendor), PT. Ketrosden Triasmitra (main contractor)
Construction : 10 months; RFS target August/2009

MBDC System

AAG : RFS in 2010 ?

2009-05-21T03:38:00.000-07:00

Recently, Telegeography said "PLDT hints at delays in completing AAG cable project". Inofficially, from one source, I heard that the system would commercially be ready in early 2010 at the soonest. Any other news versions ? :-D

According to Telegeography/Primetrica:

the majority of the marine and land cable installations have been completed, there are delays in other infrastructure segments such as in Hong Kong. ‘Delay in the Hong Kong deep burial operations was due to severe weather condition. Nonetheless, the 37km [Hong Kong shore end in segment 2 [HK-Philippines] was completed and work is being done to complete the 61km shore end in segment 1 [HK-Branching unit]

remedial works are underway to resolve the faults but that the setback means ‘a partial commissioning of the system and the estimated new ready for provisional acceptance date for the whole network is estimated in August 2009

Primetrica : Price Comparison

2009-05-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Primetrica has just released their sample database with regard to long distance bandwidth pricing. The price spans from Europe - Africa connection at the most expensive side and Transatlantic (Europe - North America) at the cheapest. How about Asia ? Transpacific connections (case Hong Kong - LA) cost around 6 to 7 times higher than those for Transatlantic. Connections from Japan should be cheaper, but Europe - Asia connections might cost close to the figure for Europe - Africa. Note, that Primetrica has used their sample database for Q4/2008. Any comments on this ?

How much bandwidth does USD15,000 a month buy?

Data from TeleGeography’s Wholesale Bandwidth Pricing Database reveal that stark price differences persist around the globe. For example, the median price of a 2Mbps E-1 circuit between London and Johannesburg in Q4 2008 was nearly USD15,000. For the same price, a bandwidth buyer could lease a 10Gbps wavelength—500 times the capacity of an E-1—between London and New York.

What You Don't Know Will Cost You!

-25% Change in median price of 10 Gbps wavelengths between Miami and New York in 2008

280% Price difference between the most expensive and least expensive trans-Atlantic Gigabit Ethernet circuit, Q4 2008

-32% Change in the median STM-1 price between Bangalore and Singapore in 2008

-3% Change in the median STM-1 price between Miami and São Paulo in 2008

-27% Compound annual decline in 10 Gbps wavelength prices between New York and Los Angeles, 2005–2008

Bandwitdh Price Comparison - a USD 15,000 look (Source Primetrica)

Jasuka Ring-3

2009-05-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

Around two weeks ago, Telkom experienced simultaneous double network failures isolating part of Sumatra from the rest of the world : equipment failure due to lightning (Dumai ?); and a fiber cut due to civil works (Riau/Jambi ?). One or two days ago, a Telkom official said that they will activate a new transmission infrastructure preventing such a blackout from happening again in the future. They call this Jasuka Ring-3.

Construction : 2007 - July 2009 (RFS)
The new link connects Padang, Painan, Balai Selasa, Muko, Ipah, Lais, Bengkulu, Kapahiyang, Curup Linggau, Tebing Tinggi, Lahat, Muara Enim, Tanjung Enim & Baturaja

Anybody knows other details ??

Malaysia : Broadband Infrastructure

2009-04-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

I just found a picture illustrating transmission infrastructure in Malaysia. However, it might be outdated, since it was the condition in 2004. But, we can see some statistics:

Long distance transmission infrastructure length approximately 70,000 km
Main players : Telekom Malaysia, Time, Maxis, Fiberrail

Source MEWC Malaysia, 2004

Global Networks : Another Ochre Services ?

2009-04-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Meneer for the pointer. I was thinking that Ochre Services was the only one, who has interest in wiring Singapore-Jakarta-Perth. I'm honestly still not sure whether these systems (Ochre and GN) will come into reality: whether they has secured how the projects will be financed? But let's see it. Previously I was not sure also about Surabaya - Hong Kong cable project, but it has been indeed executed. If one or more troubles come, I think, it is also possible that those companies collaborate ... something that happened like Pacnet's initiative and Unity cable. However, at a glance, it seems that Global Networks has a solid plan to enter the business in SG, AUS, and ID ...

The international sub-sea fibre optic cable network will connect Perth, Jakarta and Singapore while the domestic terrestrial networks in both Indonesia and Australia will interconnect with and provide greater capacity for telecommunications carriers, internet service providers and corporate entities to both the international and domestic networks at greater speed and at a lower cost than currently available. The international cable will also provide very important regional network redundancy and security particularly for Indonesia, Australia and all other South East Asian countries.

Plan (Indonesian Side):

Stage 1 of our domestic Indonesian terrestrial network will be approx 1,500 klm in length and be built to connect the key cities of Anyer, Jakarta, Cikampek, Bandung, Semarang, Jogya, Surabaya and Denpasar.

Stage 2 will consist of increasing the reach of our network to other areas within Indonesia, such as Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Our network will provide an increase in much needed capacity and bandwidth on already over-utilised telecoms infrastructure and enable local businesses and consumers much more cost effective access to the internet and other communications services.

Source Global Networks Australia

First Media | FastNet : Over-Booking Ratio

2009-04-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

Recently, Dicky Moechtar, director of PT First Media, said that the company has totally 3.5 Gbps bandwidth serving 122 th. customers. He also claimed that FastNet allows users to have external download rate 18 kBps (average I guess), which is according to him, three times faster than the usual external download rate offered by other operators.

If we take the numbers given by Dicky, then it seems that FastNet using an over-booking figure of around 1:5 (corresponds to 'simultaneous factor' of 0.2 for accessing service at the highest allowable rate - note: this is for external traffic!)

However, FastNet has currently also offers services based on rates! It could happen that they set better overbooking ratio for premium customers. However, for current situations, it seems that operators just play with "rates" which affects internal traffic only.

Over-Booking vs. Over-Provisioning

2009-04-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

We might already be heard these terms, in particular if we are inside or at least talk about network-related-things in an ISP / NSP. Overbooking is "a term used to describe the sale of access to a service which exceeds the capacity of the service" (Wikipedia). Over-provisioning is exactly the opposite i.e. a term used to describe how much excess/free capacity are available compared to used-capacity. In the networking world, overbooked system, sometimes, is also called over-subscribed system.

Users/customers of a provider will not have anything against Over-Provisioning, right? :-D ... But the provider does! Why ? You know this already I think, it's more-or-less about trade-off between Quality for customers' side vs. cost for providers' side.

A good provider deploys not only over-booking but also over-provisioning! Confused? How could two opposite schemes can be deployed simultaneously ?? ... :-D ... Right, something like "space division multiplex"! A provider (not necessarily a good one) usually appllies over-booking at access level (including international or domestic/peering connections). A good provider usually applies over-provisioning in their core networks!

Bandwidth Price (4)

2009-04-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

I just want to comment this local report. This is written by Arif Pitoyo (Bisnis) citing Galumbang Menak (CEO Gema Lintas Benua - a local Internet Service Provider). Below, I would use "GM|AP" to refer to this report. Summary of the report + my comments:

It is predicted that Internet bandwidth leasing cost decreases by 50% !
The figure would be around USD 100 to USD 300 / Mbps ! (he talked about supply cost in Java, I guess) - for comparison, in 2000 Internet via satellite links cost around USD 12 - 15 mn (?? that expensive ?)
In 2004, Moratel and Excelcomindo have built SDH microwave link Batam - Singapore (total capacity 2 STM-1; claimed to be the first link entirely owned by local company) - GM|AP said "because of this link, Internet bandwidth has decreased to around USD 6 mn/Mbps" (that expensive ??)
In 2007, as an impact of several new cables, the cost is further reduced to USD 200 / Mbps at wholesale level, and to USD 300 - 500 / Mbps at retail level (?? USD 6,000,000 to USD 300 ... ???)
As I read this : "Dalam tempo 3 tahun kembali terjadi penurunan lebih dari 95%. Harga 2007 hanya 5% dari harga 3 tahun sebelumnya ini merupakan penurunan harga yang paling drastis sepanjang sejarah,ujarnya" it's a bit clear, writing error! ... should be thousand not million!!

"Pada saat ini di tingkat wholesale, harga bandwidth Internet adalah sekitar US$50-US$70/Mbps, dan harga ini sudah bertahan dan stabil sampai 3 tahun belakangan ini" (where? Jakarta ? - or just another typo?)
"Bandingkan dengan harganya di negara lain seperti Jepang dan Hong Kong yang hanya senilai US$7-US$9/Mbps/bulan di tingkat wholesale. Harga transit termurah di dunia tentunya adalah di AS sekitar US$3-US$7/Mbps/bulan di tingkat wholesale" - I don't know whether GM|AP has used some results of a certain research company, but Primetrica said that IP transit (GigE full port) in Hong Kong cost around USD 36 - 37 / Mbps, in Tokyo around USD 45 / Mbps, in LA around USD 6 - 30 / Mbps!

"Sementara harga Internet melalui satelit, dalam 3 tahun terakhir relatif stabil pada kisaran US$1.500-US$3.000/Mbps per bulan dan diprediksi terus bertahan mengingat satelit memiliki kendala kapasitas maksimum 48 transponder" - this seems ok!

By the way, why has Galumbang Menak used "Gema Lintas Benua" instead of "Moratel" ? Did he leave Moratel after Smart Telecom's majority share acquisition?

Bandwidth Price Points

2009-04-02T15:14:00.001-07:00

According to Telegeography Research (2009B):

Prices are declining due to growing supply, greater competition, liberalizing markets, and technological advancements
Prices for higher-capacity products are dropping faster than lower-capacity products
The more you buy, the less you pay per Mbps
High capacity means high revenue
Prices change in large steps
Prices vary by geography, carrier, customer

Wholesale private lines (IPLC, etc.):

Compound annual decline 3% - 12% (median private line prices 2005 - 2008)
Prices vary by geography: different prices correspond to different market conditions (competition, supply/demand balance, etc); Hong-Kong - Tokyo price/km is 5x London-New York
Price trens vary by capacity: larger capacity, greater decline
Price per Mbps decreases with increasing capacity
Prices vary by carrier: different prices correspond to different paths, market segments served, regional strengts, SLAs, local access ownership, etc.; price changes occur in steps up to 50%; CAGR ranges from 0% - 28%

IP Transit:

Compound annual decline 16% - 26% (globally)
Prices vary by geography : prices correspond to different costs of underlying transport and market conditions (competition, supply/demand balance, etc.); Rio de Janeiro is nearly 8x Los Angeles
Prices vary by capacity: price per Mbps decreases with increasing capacity (a 10 Gbps port at $5 per Mbps is $600,000 annual revenue; FastE at $15 per Mbps is $18,000); Higher capacities, greater declines
Prices vary by committed data rate (CDR): price pe Mbps decreases with increasing capacity; 200 Mbps CDR price is 54% higher per Mbps than full port (but 70% less revenue)
Prices vary by carrier: different prices correspond to different market segments served, regional strengths, SLAs, local access ownership, etc.; price changes occur in steps of up to 50%; compound annual decline ranges 20% - 35%

IP VPN:

Prices vary by geography: retail price trend is more stable than wholesale; CAGR ranges 5% - 23%
Prices vary by carrier: prices vary due to different market segments served, regional strengths, SLAs, local access ownership, etc.
Price changes occur in steps of up to 50%, but demonstrate some convergence - CAGR ranges 11% - 36%
Price bundle includes value-added: port bandwidth remains dominant price component; other elements' proportion varies by region; less tied to commodity pricing dynamics

Other Notes:

Shift to high-capacity products, which are declining in price more rapidly, compounds decline in revenue per bit
Price declines outpaced by demand growth, implying growing revenue
Anecdotal price is not necessarily the market price (nor is the median price)
Other terms, conditions, and relationships can affect actual price paid for capacity

Facebook Infrastructure Needs

2009-04-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

Facebook has experienced a phenomenal growth. According to datacenterknowledge.com (03/2009):

Facebook has been adding more than 600,000 new users a day in recent months; it just surpassed 200 mn users
More than 24 percent of U.S. Internet users have Facebook accounts, as do 43 percent of the online audience in the UK
The company may be spending as much as $1 million a month on electricity to power its servers and data center space
Facebook hosts more than 10 billion photos posted by users

This all adds up to an enormous amount of data to store, manage and move across the Internet. And this is why Facebook needs more data center space.

Facebook Data Center:

ACC4 (Ashburn, Virginia); DuPont Fabros? --> 10,000 square feets (929 square meters)
ACC5 reserved (Ashburn, Virginia); DuPont Fabros? --> 20,000+ square feets; 6 MW power
Digital Realty Thrust Q4/2008; location unknown, but DRT owns numerous data center properties in Europe --> could be strategical partnerships for expanding Facebook to overseas
Terremark (Santa Clara - entire space) 02/2008
Switch & Data (Palo Alto)

Links & Resources

2009-04-01T19:10:00.001-07:00

Here in this page, I'll put some useful links and resources. Keep watching :-D

Contact | About

2009-04-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

About Me :: @Work

Institut Teknologi Bandung | 2006-Present

Technische Universitaet Hamburg-Harburg | 2002-2006

PT. Multimedia Nusantara | 1997

About Me :: Formal Education

Dr.-Ing. (Ph.D.) - Technische Universitaet Hamburg-Harburg, Germany - 2006

M.Sc. - Universitaet Karlsruhe, Germany - 2001

S.T. (B.Sc.) - Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia - 1997

Contact
You want to contact me? You might use my email address at Yahoo (eueung-[at]-yahoo.com). It's checked 1-3 times a week (yes, sure, it's not my primary email address). Or more easily, you might just leave a message on this page. If you prefer a private conversation, please provide me with your valid contact/email address. Thanks.

Surabaya Hong Kong | Submarine Cable Asia Network - SCAN

2009-03-30T04:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the hints, I've just post too early. This morning I found tens of media reports about this. I would like to congratulate NEC Submarine for the award, and also for updating the news section in their website! :-D

FIC (Dahlan Iskan, Linggar Mulyono)

PT. Fangbian Iskan Corporindo is a new venture founded by Mr. Dahlan Iskan, Chairman and CEO of Jawa Pos Group2 engaging in Telecommunications, Computer, and Information Technology businesses. Jawa Pos Group is the largest media group in Indonesia delivering quality content to the Indonesian community.

TPI (Hady Hartanto - Indonesian name, but HK citizen)

Telemedia Pacific Incorporation is a new telecommunications infrastructure operator in Asia with a focus to provide quality and reliable network services to connect the fast growing emerging markets within the region.

According to NEC, the cable is called SCAN (Submarine Cable Asia Network):

Landing points : Surabaya, Jakarta, Hong Kong; extension to SG, VN, PH is reseved!
The signing ceremony took place at Surabaya last Saturday, overseen by the Honorable Information and Communications Minister of Indonesia, Mr. Mohammad Nuh.
The cable system will provide the first direct cable link that connects the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and the second largest city of Surabaya to Hong Kong, where it will be further connected to other cable systems reaching around the globe.

Length : appx. 4,300 km
4 BUs (3 reserved to branch to SG, VN, PH)
Capacity: initial 40 Gbps, design 1.92 Tbps
Construction plan : H1/2009 - H2E/2011 (RFS)
CAPEX : appx. USD 200 mn

Other issues:

FIC plans to market their bandwidth product as cheap as USD 400 / Mbps instead of USD 600-700 / Mbps as current price (in Java island)! (this is IP or circuit ? seems IP, right ? transit included ??)
“Fangbian memperoleh izin prinsip dari Ditjen Postel pada 12 September 2008. Kehadiran perusahaan ini melengkapi 9 perusahaan penyelenggara jartup di Indonesia ,” ungkap Juru Bicara Depkominfo Gatot S Dewo Broto ... (but don't try to find it in the RECON, it's not there!!)

Surabaya Hong Kong Cable (SCAN) - Source NEC Submarine

ASEAN China Super Corridor

2009-03-30T03:20:00.000-07:00

Have you heard this "ASEAN China Super Corridor" ? As I follow it, Mr. M Nuh has used this term several times this month. It seems that this is named following a malaysian initiative "MSC". But what is it actually? Anybody knows ?

It is said several times, that this corridor shall be ready in 2012. To my opinion, it is unlikely that it a completely new cable project (partially could be), since it currently so many unused capacity in the existing, just installed or in the system currently under construction i.e. EAC-C2C, TGN-IA, AAG or Unity. These systems at least provide direct connection between Hong Kong and Singapore. Connections from mainland China to Hong Kong is not an issue.

So, my best guess, it could be something like regional RENs where the links are leased from the existing providers. What do you think ?

ERNET

2009-03-28T04:17:00.002-07:00

Objectives:

Set up and run a nationwide Academic and Research Network.
Undertake and promote R&D in the area of computer networking
Human Resource Development in the area of computer networking.
Content hosting relating to education and research.
Registrar for domains- edu.in, res.in & ac.in

Education and Research Network of India (ERNET):

ERNET operates through Point of Presence (POP) located at premier educational & research institutes
15 PoPs at various cities of India
400 Mbps of Aggregate Internet bandwidth
100 Mbps connectivity to global research network through GEANT 2
ERNET Network- GARUDA Network (GRID)
National Knowledge Network (NKN)

Garuda Network:

National Grid Computing Initiative - GARUDA
National initiative for grid computing as Proof of Concept
45 institutes connected in 17 cities
2.4 Gbps bandwidth for grid fabric
More than 300 CPU computing resource available in grid

NKN

Interconnect all National Research & Education
Institutes, Leading National Labs, Colleges etc

Connect more than 5000 sites across the country
Serve millions of end-users + eScience Projects
3-tier Architecture, partially subsidized by National

funds: Links national, regional and international initiatives
High Capacity, Highly Scalable Backbone

Provide Quality of Service (QoS) and Security
Wide Geographical Coverage
Bandwidth from Many NLD’s
Highly Reliable & Available by Design
Testbeds ( for various implementation)
Dedicated and Owned.
Connectivity for International & other global R&D Networks

Source Barman|ERNET@APAN

Surabaya Hong Kong Cable ?

2009-03-28T04:17:00.001-07:00

What do you think ? It's real or just another rumor ? I've heard this several times and till I read the news snippet below, I believed that was a rumor!

"Artinya, kita melihat kondisi penyedia jasa internet terlebih dahulu dan mempelajari aspek mana saja yang bisa diturunkan. Kita tidak bisa menetapkan prosentasenya secara sepihak," jelasnya di sela penandatanganan kerjasama FIC Indonesia-TPI Hongkong dengan NEC Japan Deployment of Submarine Cable Asia Network, Surabaya-Hong Kong, di Surabaya, Sabtu (28/3/2009).

Should we believe this news? :-)

The report mentioned three companies : FIC Indonesia, TPI Hong Kong and NEC. Anybody knows FIC and TPI ? If it's true, which route will be chosen ? Whether some other company will involve? (some branchings??)

Around one year ago, it was cited by some media that Moratel will install Surabaya Hong Kong cable. Is it indeed their project ? Advise is welcome ... :-D

Fictitious Surabaya Hong Kong Cable

International Teletraffic: Internet Dominance

2009-03-28T04:17:00.000-07:00

Trans-Atlantic submarine cable route (2008) :

Lit capacity : 9.3 Tbps
Purchased capacity: 7.9 Tbps
Used capacity : 3.1 Tbps

Traffic composition in the trans-atlantic used capacity (2008):

Switched voice : 1%
Private networks: 27%
Internet : 72%

Source Telegeography (2008E)

JGN, JGN2, & JGN2plus

2009-03-28T01:10:00.000-07:00

Japan Gigabit Network (JGN) is High Speed Advanced Testbed Network for Research and Development (R&D), which is operated by National Institute of Information and Communication Technology (NICT). JGN is promoted with cooperation among government, industry and academia, and also collaborated with communal and international networks.

On 1999, JGN started operation of domestic optical fiber network. From 2004, As JGN2, We added domestic and international access point, increased network bandwidth, stared IPv6 routing and installed optical switches. Moreover, From 2008, As JGN2plus, ''Service Platform Architecture Research Center''(SPARC) is operating testbed network which is providing various services for research and development of next generation network.

JGN2plus is a testbed network to support the New Generation Network (NwGN) promoted by NICT. The network supports the R&D activities at the JGN2plus research centers (SPARC) and, like the previous testbed networks as JGN/JGN2, it enables researchers to conduct demonstrative experiments for network R&D and various applications. JGN2plus is open to researchers for R&D purpose.

JGN has been supporting cyberinfrastructure as well as advanced networking instastructure for wide variety of applications such as …

Broadcasting service (IPv6, various type of multicasting, HD, 4K image)
Optical networking (optical switch, GMPLS, G-lambda)
Other applications (remote lecture/telemedicine etc.)
Next generation TCP

Strategic Visions of JGN2plus

To design new testbed for NwGN :

those variety of activities to be taken into account.
testbed network be built on existing and operational technology
testbed network supports evolution of technology

Testbed is used for

proof of concept
international collaboration and standardizatio
social implication
human resource development

Source Yamamoto, Yamaguchi|NICT@APAN

CERNET, CNGI, & CERNET2

2009-03-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

CERNET

CERNET project was started in 1993. It is the first nationwide TCP/IP backbone and the 3rd largest ISP in China.
CERNET owns its own transport network : 30,000KM darkfiber, 800G DWDM system.
CERNET has PoPs in 73 cities, covering all the provinces.
There are about 2,000 universities, schools and research institutes connected.
The end users reaches 25M : There are 320M students/school kids in China

CNGI

Initiated from 2002 and approved in 2003
Leaded by National Reform and Development Committee
Joint with MST, MOE, CAS, MII, NSFC, CAE, …
Main contents

CNGI Backbone: nation wide, 30-40 Giga Pops and 300 campus networks, international links
Network technology and applications
Delivery to information industry

All NSPs have jointed this project : CERNET, China Telecom, Unicom, Netcom/CSTNET, China Mobile, China Railcom

CNGI-CERNET2:

CERNET2 project was started in 2004. it is the largest IPv6 single stack network in the world.
CNGI-CERNET2 runs on CERNET DWDM transport network: 30,000KM darkfiber, 800G DWDM system.
CERNET has 25 Pops in 20 cities.
There are about 2,00 universities, schools and research institutes connected.
The end users reaches 1M: There are 320M students/school kids in China

Source Li|CERNET@APAN

CSTNET, CNGI & CSTNET2

2009-03-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

I just tracked RE networking in China. China shall have at least two main RENs : CSTNet and CERNET, cmiiw!

----
China Science and Technology Network (CSTNet) is one of the earliest internet networks in China, and is extended upon the base of Chinese Academy of Sciences Network (CASNet). In April 1994, CSTNet opened the first official Internet link in China. Since then, CSTNet has been responsible for operation and management for the top domain of China (.cn).

CSTNet

China Science and Technology Network (CSTNet)
the pioneer to open the first link to Global internet in 1994 and One of the earliest internet networks in China
the academic and research networks in China to support advanced science applications and research on next generation Internet
Cover more than 20 provinces, 100+ institutes, and 1,000,000 end users

CSTNet‘s customers are spread across more than twenty provinces of China with 12 sub centers, including about one thousand research institutes of CAS and technical communities in China, Also, It has more than one million end-users.

In the near future, the bandwidth of CSTNet's international link, domestic interconnecting link and wide area networks will be upgraded, in order to provide better services for video conferences, remote education, collaborative problem-solving, virtual laboratories, digital libraries, and so on. Furthermore, CSTNet also will provide a test bed for research on Next Generation Internet technologies and actively participate in the national and international projects on advanced network applications.

Source Zhang|CAS@APAN

CNGI:

The world's largest IPv6 network

Cover 20 major cities, consist of 40 core nodes and 300 CPN
building a national innovative information infrastructure,
offering a platform for the provision of basic research and technology development environment.

CNGI progress

Phase one：From 2003 to end of 2005, build the network
Phase two：From 2006 to 2010, large scale deployment throughout China

Source Zhang|CAS@APAN

CSTNET2:

CSTNET/China Netcom establish 7 GigaPoPs among 38 GigaPOPs
The access of IPv6 network for 100 disciplinary research networks and institutes

Disciplinary research networks : about 30 networks cover many specific areas, most of them in Beijing
Institutes: more than 60 institutes around china, most of them are institutes in CAS

Connection Bandwidth At Least 1G (1G/10G)
Circuit Resource: Optical Fiber are provided in Beijing and Local Connection in Sub-center for further expansibility--BJlight

ThaiREN : UniNet, UniNet2

2009-03-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

To be honest, when I was in Europe several years ago, I never thought that RE networking in ASEAN (except Singapore) could be that as what I see right now. Thailand is currently in a very good track; Malaysia, Vietnam will follow it shortly. Indonesia ?? ... still needs much works!

----
UniNet/ThaiREN:

The Project of Inter-University Network (UniNet) is established by notification of Ministry of University in 1996. This year the project is 12-year- in operating and serving for universities and institutions.
UniNet has provided hi-speed information network linked to universities, institutes, and campuses 180 sites over the country. Linking with foreign countries research network enables Thai universities/institutes to manage virtual classrooms with universities/institutes abroad.
This project improves Thai education to be comparable to other countries. And now UniNet is developing particular research network which enables members to reach the source effectively.

UniNet/ThaiREN Timeline:

Since 1996 for Distance Learning via VCS, 2 Mbps to international link. (24 Public University + 22 IT Campus)
2000 Peering with 10 Mbps to Internet2
2001 Open to Other University for Educational Resource Sharing . (75 Public University, More 176 Connecting and backbone explantion to 155 Mbps)
2003-2004 expand backbone in Bangkok Area to 2.5 Gbps
2005 310 Mbps to International link 1 Gbps to TH-NIX . and 1 Gbps to Thaisarn.
2006 Peering with 155 Mbps to TEIN2
2007 connected with 730 Mbps to International link , and 10 Gbps to NIX

UniNet Objectives:

Promote and support distribution of higher education in Thailand
Develop self learning center
Sharing educational resources Learning and Teaching

UniNet2 (UniNet Next Generation):

UniNet2 is a national higher education backbone network for research and education
UniNet2 improved from UniNet which provides a powerful network-infrastructure based on DWDM-technology and Gigabit Ethernet for data communication between academic institutions (more than 200 universities), international Research & Education networks and offers full Internet connectivity.
UniNet2 Objectives : Collaboration of R & D communication network, Collaboration of Advanced Internet Technologies, Support Other areas in Information and Communication Technologies

UniNet2 Timeline:

2008 Backbone 310-622 Mbps , expand international link to 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps to CAT-NIX
2009 Backbone 10 Gbps and expand international link to 4 Gbps ,10 Gbps to CAT-NIX and 10 Gbps to TOT-NIX Respectively
2010-2012 Develop backbone to 40-100 Gbps , expand international link to 10 Gbps and 10 Gbps to Other NIX

Source Tawee/UniNet@APAN

PT. Singleterra : A Napinfo's Bandwidth Reseller

2009-03-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

Napinfo has a new partner for selling their bandwidth product: PT. Singleterra, previously PT. Singer Indonesia Tbk. Yes, offcourse :-D , "Singer" was/is a famous strong-branded international company, but not for bandwidth-related things ... PT. Singer Indonesia was a sewing-machine distributor.

Qoutes from Vivanews:

Pada prospektus, perseroan telah menandatangani perjanjian kerja sama dengan PT NAP Info Lintas Nusa. Singer ditunjuk sebagai agen penjual bandwith maksimal 10 gbps.

SINET3

2009-03-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

It seems that this is a GMPLS-Playground. *Work-in-progress :-D *

SINET3 is the new Japanese academic backbone network launched in April 2007 for more than 700 universities and research institutions. It has 63 edge and 12 core nodes and deploys Japan’s first 40 Gbps lines between Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka.

SINET3 emphasizes four service aspects: transfer layer, virtual private network (VPN), quality-of-service (QoS), and bandwidth on demand. It provides all services on a single network platform, and users can freely choose the best transfer layer services for their applications.

SINET3 provides bandwidth-on-demand (BoD) services as part of layer-1 services.
Users can specify the destinations, duration, bandwidth with granularity of about 150Mbps, and route option, via simple Web pages. BoD server receives path setup requests from users, calculates the appropriate routes, schedules accepted reservations, and triggers layer-1 path setup.

Source Nakamura/NII@APAN

Telkom + TM

2009-03-26T15:13:00.002-07:00

Several times ago, I asked my friend (affan basalamah - he is one of the VIPs :-D ) why our connection to TEIN3 happens via direct link to Hong Kong. He said, this link is provided by PT. Telkom. Previously, we always connect through Singapore. My guess was, that this is due to policy or maybe some technical reasons from DANTE or other partners. But one or two days ago, I read some reports that PT. Telkom and Telekom Malaysia (TM) have signed the agreement to intensify cooperation in particular to reach international market (this is offcourse for PT. Telkom) and seems that they will better utilize their DMCS, which is upto now still far from fully occupied. I honestly, doubt if the cost to HK is cheaper than that to SG. I am even more not sure about that, since the link JKT-HK is jointly provided by Telkom and TM, because Telkom currently doesn't have any cable to HK ... :-D ... So why? It should be at least one reason! TEIN3 currently opens a new PoP at Global Switch in SG and uses some brand-new gigabit Juniper routers there: it is technically and financially more efficient to connect to SG than to HK!! any contra opinions ??

Source Zam-Isa/TM

TWAREN & TANet

2009-03-26T15:13:00.001-07:00

TWAREN stands for "TaiWan Advanced Research and Education Network", while TANet "Taiwan Academic NETwork".

TWAREN :

A physical network serves multiple purposes and logical networks : TANet, connects to commodity Internet; TWAREN research network; experiment, testbed, special research
Provisioning services on multiple layers : L1 Lightpaths; L2 VLAN, VPLS VPN; L3 IPv4, IPv6, Multicast ; SSL VPN

TWAREN's International Connections:

Pacific Crossing to USA’s west coast upgraded to 5 Gb/s
Connections between LA, Palo Alto, Chicago, and New York are 2.5 Gb/s
Connects to the rest of the world via the U.S.’s Abilene Network
Connection expanded to Europe in 2006 (IEEAF donated 622 Mbps of bandwidth/fiber optic cable)‏

TWAREN peers with international NRENs at Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Seattle (through Pacific Wave).

TANet:

A national wide network backbone for academic and education use
In operation since 1990
Provides Internet connection for universities and some research institutes
Now expands to all levels of schools
Dual stack (IPv4/IPv6) has already deployed in universities

Source Liu|NCHC-TWAREN@APAN

AJC (2)

2009-03-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

Design Capacity of AJC
At least 32 x 10Gbit/s on each of 2 fibre pair = 320G+320G which can be configured as:

320G Protected
or 640G Non Preemptible Unprotected
or 320G Protected + 320G Preemptible Unprotected

Initially Equipped Capacity of AJC

40G+40G capable of mix of Protected plus Non Preemptible Unprotected plus Preemptible Unprotected.

Source AJC@ATUG

National and International Liasion:

Australian Critical Infrastructure - includes AJC, Reach, SCCN
Australian Protection Zones - proposed for AJC, SCCN, SMW3
International Standards - eg ITU-T for interoperability
Marine Maintenance - eg South Pacific ship shared by AJC, SCCN, Reach, Telecom NZ, others
International Consultative Fora - eg International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) and SubOptic (Vendors,Operators, Carriers tri-yearly forum – May07)

Consideration (2006E):

Protected SDH (G.707, G.841)?
Unprotected SDH (G.707, G.841)?
STM-N Interfaces: STM-1, STM-4, STM-16, STM-64?
GbE, 10GbE?
Optical Transport Network (G.709)
Direct Wavelength Access?
Latency: Audio/Video downloads, P2P?
Capacity Forecasts?
Connectivity?

Submarine Cable Capacity - A Hutch's View

2009-03-26T03:21:00.001-07:00

Below is a short summary of HGC's talk at PTC.

There are over 20 new cables in 2008/2009 around the globe!
New cable builds in the APAC region:

Long haul --> TPE (Ph1), AAG, TGN-IA
Short haul --> Matrix, Hokkaido-Sakhalin CS
Upgrades --> SMW3, APCN2, JUS, PC-1
Coming soon --> Unity, TPE (Ph2)
In the pipeline --> SJC

Internet traffic trends : video content fuels bandwidth demand and growth.
Used subsea capacity: (citing Telegeography 2007E)

Internet 72%
Private 27%
Voice 1%

Network topology varies from fishbone structure (e.g. TGN-IA) to ring (e.g. APCN2)
Factors considered:

Shorter latency (TGN-IA)
Cost optimization
Route diversity
CS diversity

Minimum Investment Unit (MIU): STM-1 --> Lambda/FP
Investment level :

Consortium cable 2000 : USD 1 mn / STM-1 (USD 10 mn/STM-64)
Cable build 2008 : USD 30+ mn / 0.5 FP (USD 1 mn/STM-64)

Upgrade policy: phased approach --> on demand basis by individual

Lesson learnt:

Investment peaked in 2001, USD 12 bn --> consolidation post-2001, avg. USD 2 - 4 bn (est. till 2010)
Diversity and restoration (Taiwan earthquake; new cable routes avoiding earthquake zone)
Network resilience --> Collaboration , capacity swapping and mutual restoration; aim to enhance route diversity and restoration options

HGC focus:

Hong Kong as Asia Pacific Regional Hub : CS to CS and PoP to PoP (subsea and terrestrial cables; within and beyond Hong Kong)
Connectivity solutions Layer 1 to Layer 3 : Hardpatch, IPLC, L2 peering, international Ethernet, IP-VPN, IP Transit

APCN2 and TGN-IA / Source Telegeography

Hong Kong Connectivity

2009-03-26T03:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not a Hutch's people, but I think we can see Hong Kong connectivity by HGC's HutchConnect services (see the picture below).

It is claimed that HGC :

has the whole Hong Kong connectivity!
has several cable landings in HK
connect to different cables
offers bandwidth on demand
has backhaul diversity
offers multilayer services

Any contra opinions ??

Source HGC@PTC

Matrix : Napinfo Downstream

2009-03-26T03:20:00.000-07:00

Now, I understood why I didn't see any involvement of Matrixnetworks (AS17886) for Napinfo connectivity! :-D ... It is definitely that Matrix is a downstream of Napinfo! Their homepage is also host under Napinfo's domain.

Quotes from matrixnetworks.sg

Matrix Ownership :
Brantwood International Limited (Incorporated in Hong Kong) - 50.00%
Causeway Bay Investments Limited (Incorporated in Seychelles) - 50.00%

Matrix Management / BoD :
Benny Setiawan Santoso. Mr. Santoso is the Executive Director of the Salim Group and also serves as Director of PT Indocement Tunggal Prakasa and the First Pacific Company and is the President Director of PT Indosiar Karya Media Tbk. Mr. Santoso also serves as an Advisor to the Board of the Philippines Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Company.

Anton Aditya Subowo. Mr. Subowo is a Director at BIL. In this role, he is involved in overseeing the performance of Brantwood's portfolio of companies in South East Asia. He is also Director of Symbidia, Hong Kong, and of Stradcom International Holding Inc. in the Philippines. Previously, Mr. Subowo was the Commissioner for PT Fast Food Indonesia, Tbk; a Director of Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corporation in the Philippines; and a Senior Management at Bank PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) Tbk. Mr. Subowo holds a B.Sc degree in Engineering Management from Boston University, USA.

Pangestu Tjuhendra. Mr. Tjuhendra is the President Commissioner for PT. NAP Info Lintas Nusa, and the President Director of PT. IQ Plus Prima, an Information Provider for the Jakarta Stock Exchange data serving Securities companies throughout Indonesia. He has more than 30 years of professional experience in the IT industry dealing with both the marketing and technical aspects of the business. He has previously held senior positions in various companies, such as General Manager of Metro Indonesia, a leading IT Company dealing with products such as EPSON and SUN Microsystems; Senior Marketing position at Reuters Ltd. He was also special advisor to CEO of LKBN Antara, a National news agency.

AJC - Australia Japan Cable

2009-03-25T04:51:00.001-07:00

Network summary (AJC/ATUG):

12,700km collapsed ring configuration cable Australia-Guam-Japan.
Two cable stations per country each with own landing.
Network Operations Centre in Melbourne with backup in Sydney.
Design Capacity 32 protected 10Gbit/s wavelengths (320+320G)
Initially equipped 4 protected 10Gbit/s wavelengths (40+40G).
ITU-T G.841 Network Protection using MS SPRING (span/ring)
One Traffic Affecting Fault since Dec 2001 to Sept 2006

ajcable.com :

Australia-Japan Cable is a quality cable system offering connectivity and bandwidth. Operationally excellent since its inception in 2001 it has provided outstanding reliability and resilience enabling for our customers a cost effective and diverse method of supplying services onto their customers.

Australia-Japan Cable is a submarine cable directly connecting Australia and Japan, via Guam. To enable onward connectivity the AJC network provides access to high capacity, high volume, low unit cost trans-Pacific and intra-Asia cables via Guam and Japan. It is currently equipped to 240Gbit/s and has current capability to over 1000Gbit/s enabling further upgrades as required.

The cable system provides diversity which assists traffic survivability in a dual event outage to any one ring system. AJC offers a range of products allowing capacity users to apply to their individual network requirements. These range from Protected SDH, FlexProtect, Direct Wavelength Access and Ethernet Services.
Australia Japan Cable was established in 2000 as a private cable company to design, construct, market and operate a 12,700km submarine fibre optic cable network (AJCN) from Sydney, Australia, to near Tokyo, Japan, via Guam.
The business was funded by a combination of equity capital from the founding shareholders and a project finance debt facility provided by a consortium of a dozen banks (the consortium now consists of 8 banks following several transfers). A significant proportion of the debt was secured by pre-sales.
The construction phase of the project was completed under budget in December 2001, with equipped capacity of 40+40 Gbit/sec of a total design capacity of 320+320 Gbit/sec.
In April 2008 an upgrade was completed on time and on budget, bringing total equipped capacity to 120+120 Gbit/sec and confirming a design capacity increase to a minimum of 1000 Gbit/sec.

Wikipedia.org:

The Australia-Japan Cable, or AJC, is a submarine telecommunications cable system linking Australia and Japan via Guam that became operational in 2001. It had an original design capacity of 640 Gbit/s, but was initially equipped to utilise only 80 Gbit/s of this capacity. In April 2008 a capacity upgrade was completed, bringing equipped capacity to 240 Gbit/s. Design capacity was also increased to 1000 Gbit/s. Further upgrades will increase equipped capacity to meet increasing demand.

The AJC network employs a collapsed loop design that features diverse landings in Australia, Guam and Japan and diverse routing at water depths less than 4000m. This design reduces cost by utilising a common sheath in deep water, where risk of failure is low, but provides redundancy to mitigate risk in shallower waters and in the landing stations.

The network supports a range of access interfaces, including SDH at STM1, STM4, STM16 and STM64 levels, 2.5G clear, Direct Wavelength Access, Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. A range of protection options are available, including SDH span and ring protection and 1:n wavelength redundancy.

The cable has landing points in:

1. Shima, Japan
2. Maruyama, Japan
3. Tanguisson, Guam
4. Tumon Bay, Guam
5. Oxford Falls, Sydney, Australia
6. Paddington, Sydney, Australia

Source AJC/ATUG 2006

Source Lon/Wikipedia

Source Zam-Isa/TM

PGASCOM (Not PGASKOM)

2009-03-25T04:51:00.000-07:00

Source pgascom.net

I just found the official webpage of PT. PGAS Telekomunikasi Nusantara, which is previously (in many reports) called "PGASKOM". But now, it seems that the company enters the market with the brand "PGASCOM".

Unfortunately, the site provides very limited information and is host by third party (i.e. BiZNET). Below are some statements quoted from the site:

PGASCOM was developed to serve the changes in the need for telecommunication networks in Sumatera and Java Area.

The transmission networks involves transporting bandwidth through Fiber Optic Transmission Systems between Sumatera and Java Island to end users. Long Haul Fiber Optic Transmission Systems, are connected between Batam-Jambi- Palembang-Lampung-Cilegon-Jakarta, part of them presently in operations. In addition, the combined transmission networks length is about 1,015 as of end of 2008.

OADM BU

2009-03-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

I noticed that several times, Pipe guys have addressed this "OADM BU" issue installed in their PPC-1 system. What is special in it ? How reliable is this kind of BU ? How much budget can we save compared to "normal BU" deployment ? ... Any idea ?!?

At functionality level, I see this OADM BU as simple as "OADM+BU" which is put underwater. It could especially be useful, when we need to "pull & push" a relatively small capacity compared to the whole fiber capacity and for some reasons we do not want to route "pass-thru" traffic via the corresponding points. With this in mind, such equipment are suitable only for submarine repeatered cable systems. Agree ? :-D Comments are welcome ...

Source Loko/TPNG

Exploring CBN

2009-03-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

CBN has also 2 ASes : AS4787 and AS38158. Connection from AS4787 is a bit diverse than that can be found for Telkom or XL network. Upstreams for CBNnet (AS4787):

AS24203 NAPXLNET-AS-ID PT Excelcomindo Pratama (Network Access Provider)
AS38158 CBN-NETWORKS-AS-ID Network Access Provider
AS4761 Indosat

Upstream for AS38158:

AS6453 GLOBEINTERNET TATA Communications
AS703 UUNET - MCI Communications Services, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Business

This configuration could emerge from CBN's network development: it seems that AS4787 has established first before the other one and CBN has kept the other connections for diversity.

InterPlaNet (IPN) : Interplanetary Internet

2009-03-22T03:59:00.000-07:00

(Almost) Everybody knows Vint Cerf. Yes ? If no, try find him virtually via (or physically at) Google ... :-D ... He was and is one of the VIPs behind the development of the Internet.

But as he mentioned "Interplanetary Internet", I was thinking, that he probably was talking about the far future; or maybe he did some kinds of "futurist jokes". But slowly I realized that he addressed something real! I didn't check it entirely, but the logic is: NASA, ESA, JAXA or other bodies currently in the state that they have to communicate with their equipment sent to the far space. And the current trend is, every communication shall be in IP way, right ?

Interplanetary Internet (Planetary Internets + Interplanetary Gateways ??):

End-to-end information flow accross the solar system
Layered architecture for evolvability and interoperability
IP-like protocol suite tailored to operate over long round trip light times
Integrated communications and navigation services

Interplanetary Long-haul Architecture (RFC 4838 ??)

Licklider Transport Protocol (LTP)
Bundle Protocol (RFC 5050): Delayed Binding of Identifiers, Email-like behaviour

Delay and Disruption Tolerant Protocols

Tactical Mobile Applications (DARPA?)
Civilian Mobile Applications (SameNet?)
Deep Impact Testing (DINET?)
Space Station Testing in 2009 (?)

IPN - Source Vint Cerf | Google @ PTC09

TEIN3

2009-03-21T16:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, TEIN2 is retired! It's replaced by TEIN3. Well, in the networking world, naming convention is (still) more conservative than, say, in the Linux world .. :-D .. The successor of TEIN3 shall be named TEIN4 in place of e.g. TEIN "Potato" or TEIN "Reloaded" ... :-D

TEIN3 highlights:

Tendered Q2 – Q3 2008
6 circuits Contracted with 5 providers
10 circuits provided by TEIN3 partners
Migration to TEIN3 underway, due to complete march 2009

New Singapore PoP at Global Switch
New Juniper M120 routers in Singapore and Hong Kong
Singapore – EU upgraded to 2.5 Gbps
Singapore – HK upgraded to 2.5 Gbps,
Beijing – EU 2.5 Gbps link being re-tendered by CERNET
TransPAC2 link to US via Tokyo maintained

Indonesia – 45 --> 155 Mbps
Laos – 10 Mbps (via ThaiREN, being provided)
Malaysia - 45 --> 155 Mbps
Philippines – 10 Mbps (via MAFFIN)
Thailand - 155 Mbps (via NICT Singapore/Bangkok link)
Vietnam - 45 --> 155 Mbps

Australia – 622Mbps --> 933 Mbps
Hong Kong - 18 Mbps
Japan – NII 2 x 622Mbps, NICT 1Gbs,
Korea - 622 --> 2.5 Gbps
Singapore - 45 Mbps
China – 2.5 Gbps to EU, 1Gbps to HK
Pakistan – 155 Mbps (via NSF/PERN link)

TEIN3 South Asia Extension:

Tendering started for: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

TEIN3 as of March 2009 - Source West/DANTE

SPIN

2009-03-21T16:10:00.001-07:00

SPIN stands for South Pacific Islands Network. It's a regional initiative supported by: Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, French Government, Government of French Polynesia, and Government of New-Caledonia.

SPIN shall provide faster and cheaper bandwidth to Pacific Islands countries and territories:

Interconnect the 3 French territories of New Caledonia, Wallis & Futuna and French Polynesia
Connect Pacific Islands countries currently relying on satellite
Open a new transpacific route Sydney - Hawaii

Impacts in terms of connectivity:

For Islands operators: significant reduction of international bandwidth charges
For subscribers: lower prices and better access
For international Telco and ISP : new offer with up to 600 Gbps spare capacity available for sale

SPIN will be built in three steps:

New Caledonia cable - Sydney to Nouméa
French Polynesia cable - Tahiti to Hawaii
SPIN cable - Nouméa to Tahiti

SPIN - Step 1

SPIN - Step 2

SPIN - Step 3 / Source Frouin/SPIN

SPIN is :

Limited company incorporated in Wallis & Futuna - France
Private investors, among which API Group
Public investors : French Territories of Pacific region

Approximate cost of SPIN: Euro 150M

Ongoing tender under finalization
Expected contract signature March 09

Funding:

Investment and capacity agreements
Own funding from shareholders
French public aid
Bank financing

Credits : Frouin / SPIN

Palapa Ring (10)

2009-03-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

I just want to quote and share two points which are addressed in this local media report :

"Harga kabel jadi makin mahal. Padahal, lima puluh persen biaya operasional ditentukan harga submarine cable," keluh Ketua Konsorsium Palapa Ring, Tonda Priyanto kepada detikINET, Jumat (20/3/2009). Menurutnya, konsorsium keberatan dengan harga yang ditawarkan oleh vendor kabel optik peserta tender proyek. Tiga vendor NEC Corporation, NSW Fujitsu, dan Alcatel-Lucent, menawarkan harga US$ 50 ribu untuk harga serat optik per kilometer. Sedangkan konsorsium cuma menganggarkan dana US$ 20 ribu.

Menkominfo Mohammad Nuh sebelumnya pernah mengatakan bakal mencari jalan keluar untuk masalah ini. Salah satunya, adalah dengan meminta bantuan dari negara lain. Kabar terakhir, menteri coba melobi Korea Selatan untuk menarik kabel laut dari Negeri Ginseng ke Sulawesi

This basically mentions additional reasons for project delays (cable price USD 20 th. in the plan vs. USD 50 th. in the proposals) and possible alternatives to support that project (invitation for foreign involvement - this case, the ministry has approached South Korea to construct SK-Sulawesi submarine link). However, I don't really understand, what is the relationship between realizing local network Palapa Ring with international link from Sulawesi to South Korea ?? Details might be missing from the report. Any suggestion ??

Telikom PNG's View of PPC-1

2009-03-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

The most valuable role of the PPC-1 for Telikom PNG (TPNG) is probably to provide back up of its international link for via APNG-2 cable system (see below).

TPNG involvement in PPC-1:

Capacity: 1 x 10 Gbps Madang (PNG) to Guam; 1 x 10Gbps Madang to Sydney
2 FP spur link
2 BU (BU4 – Madang, BU3 – Alotau - future)
OADM Bus are the key as only a few wavelengths are required, not fibre pair capacity
Does not require Sydney Guam traffic to route via Madang
Without OADM BU, new cable would have needed which would have been prohibitively expensive

Madang Spur :

Direct access to north of the PNG from Aust and Guam
Provides international services for major industries
Provides real time internet broadband services for educational institutions located at Madang
Provides quality low latency links for corporate business and government agencies
Network robustness for government’s development programs such as the major LNG plant in Port Moresby

Source Loko/TPNG

Carrier Collaboration

2009-03-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

In many opportunities, PACNET's CEO Bill Barney has "campaigned" for collaboration. He said "Colloboration is the catalist for growth!". Agree?? Why do we need to collaborate ? Below are several noticeable things he mentioned.

We are not completely redundant on our own - sample case Taiwan earthquake 2006
The bits are getting bigger
The bigger bit guys are multiplying
Online video: traction high and increasing (08/2008 - YouTube --> 344 Mn global visitor|+50% YoY; 43 bn minutes | +99% YoY); other distribution models: Hulu, FanCast, veoh, Joost, SlingMedia, VUDU
We cannot afford 'it' alone
(especially in Asia) : the Internet population doubles every 3 years; the bandwidth per user doubles every 5 months

Source Barney/Pacnet

The bits - Source Barney/Pacnet

FLAG + FALCON + FLAG NGN

2009-03-20T23:31:00.001-07:00

These cable systems are currently owned by Reliance.

FLAG (Fiber-optic Link Around the Globe):

RFPA: 1997
Length: 27,000Km
Capacity: 10’s of Gbps
Landing Sites: 15, 2 of which are in Egypt
Technology: Optical Amplifier WDM

FALCON

RFPA: 2006
Length: 10,000 km
Capacity: 2.8 Tbps
Landing Sites: 14
Technology: Optical Amplifier DWDM

FLAG NGN (Hawk)

RFPA: 2010 (Plan)
Length: 3000+Km
Capacity: ?
Landing Sites: 10, 2 of which are in Egypt
Technology: Optical Amplifier DWDM

Source Nasr/TE

Internet Statistics

2009-03-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

Some Internet statistics as of June 2008 (Source Vint Cerf/Google - InternetWorldStats.com ?):

Region | Internet Population | Penetration
Asia | 578.5 mn | 15.3 %
Europe | 384.6 mn | 48.1 %
North Am. | 248.2 mn | 73.6 %
LATAM/C | 139.0 mn | 24.1 %
Mid-East | 41.9 mn | 21.3 %
Oceania | 20.2 mn | 59.5 %
Africa | 51.0 mn | 5.3 %
TOTAL | 1,463.6 mn | 21.9 %

Other things:

570,937,778 (ftp.isc.org/www/survey/reports/current/Jul 2008)
1,464 mn users (InternetWorldStats.com | June 30, 2008)

IMEWE (India - Middle East - Western Europe)

2009-03-20T23:30:00.001-07:00

IMEWE shall be a cable system connecting India - Middle East and Western Europe.

IMEWE Cable System:

RFPA: 2009 (Plan)
Length: 13,000Km
Capacity: 3.84 Tbps
Landing Sites: 9, 2 of which are in Egypt

Source Nasr/TE

EIG (Europe India Gateway)

2009-03-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

The name "EIG" reminds me to that of the AAG. Both are using "Gateway" :-D ...

Europe India Gateway (EIG) :

RFPA: 2010 (Plan)
Length: 15,000Km
Capacity: 3.84 Tbps
Landing Sites: 11, 2 of which are in Egypt
Technology: Optical Amplifier DWDM

Source Nasr/TE

Exploring FirstMedia

2009-03-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

PT. First Media Tbk. (AS23700) is formerly known as PT. Broadband Multimedia, which provides cable TV and Internet services (currently only in the greater Jakarta area and Surabaya) under brand-name "FastNet"

It is claimed that the company has totally 3.5 Gbps bandwidth (but it is unclear, whether this is international + domestic peering, or solely international bandwidth). They expect to increase this to 5 Gbps by the end of this year. As of now, FirstMedia has served around 122 th. customers in those mentioned areas.

Upstreams of FirstMedia:

AS45147 NAPINFO-TRANSIT-AS-AP PT. NAP Info Lintas Nusa
AS4761 INDOSAT-INP-AP INDOSAT Internet Network Provider

International Traffic Growth

2009-03-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

What can happen in 10 years ? yupe, many things! I just want to share what Alan Mauldin has presented in the last PTC conference regarding how international teletraffic has grown unprecedented. Using the same metric and the same methodology we could then calculate when would the ocean space fully occupied with the "reds"! :-D

Source Telegeography/Mauldin

Internet Captivity and De-Peering Menace

2009-03-15T02:05:00.000-07:00

Source Brown/Renesys

Have you seen this one ? :-D ... No? Then, you should go to the newest NANOG movies! It's interresting and somehow a bit funny!

As you might already guessed, the Renesys guys addressed some de-peering cases esp. the latest one between Sprint and (as usual) Cogent. But I won't tamper with that issue. Just a minor thing : they used the term DFZ (Default-Free Zone) replacing the usual "Tier-1" term. I'm not sure whether they indeed introduced that term or maybe they just used it because somebody previously has introduced that ?! somebody knows?

The DFZ according to Renesys:

AS174 Cogent
AS209 Qwest
AS293* Energy Sciences Network
AS701 Verizon
AS1239 Sprint
AS1299 Telia
AS2828 XO
AS2914 NTT
AS3356 Level 3
AS3549 Global Crossing
AS6453 Teleglobe
AS6461 Abovenet
AS7018 AT&T

Who is XO, Abovenet and ESN ??

Telkom Java Backbone Network

2009-03-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

PT. Telkom has renewed their long distance transmission infrastructure in Java island since 2004. The project was called "Telkom Java Backbone Network" - at least it was the name their supplier (ZTE) called :-D

May 2004, ZTE Corporation was awarded the contract to build the Telkom Java backbone transmission network, which covered all major cities in Java Island;
Jun. 2005, ZTE Corporation won the contract of Phase I capacity expansion project of Telkom Java backbone network;
Dec. 2006, ZTE was awarded the contract to undertake the JDCS submarine cable DWDM TK project. As the extension to Java backbone network, the network covered all major cities in Java Island and Bali Island, the most thickly populated islands in Indonesia;
Mar. 2007, ZTE won the contract of Phase II capacity expansion project of Telkom Java backbone network;
Oct. 2007, ZTE won the upgrade and reconstruction project of Telkom Java backbone network;
Nov. 2007, ZTE inked contract of RMJ SDH backbone network TK project to build SDH backbone network in Sumatra Island and deliver turnkey integrated solution to OSP. Once deployed, the network will cover 9 major cities in Sumatra Island.

Other notes:

Built by ZTE ultra-long-haul DWDM equipments ZXWM M900 and 10G/2.5G SDH equipments, the network covered Java Island’s most major cities like Jakata, Bandung and Surabaya. The network has gained the customer’s approval and trust for its ultra strong stability and high reliability since its completion in 2005.

So far, Telkom’s most backbone traffic among major cities in Java Island is carried over Java backbone network. In addition, Telkom has leased a large amount transmission bandwidth carried over Java backbone network to other operators without backbone transmission networks.

Java backbone network has been the core of Indonesia’s transmission networks, further consolidating Telkom’s leading position in domestic communications industry.

Factors Boosting Bandwidth Demand Growth

2009-03-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Still citing Telegeography, the following are factors accelerating bandwidth demand growth:

Increased adoption of high-speed broadband access (more than 400 mn broadband subscribers worldwide at 2008E)
(Illicit) P2P usage --> case TPB
Legal video content --> skyrocketing!!

Hulu had 9 million unique viewers in October 2008, rumored to be going international soon
Most sporting events are broadcast online to a global audience in increasingly high quality
Beijing Olympics:100 million online viewers in China according to CCTV; The BBC served 40 million streams

And sure : "Content Providers and Content Delivery Networks Increasingly Large Capacity Buyers!!":

Content providers and CDNs push content nearer to end-users to optimize quality
Google is investing in the Unity cable project and building data centers around the world
Microsoft is building a global CDN with 99 nodes and adding 10,000 servers a month
Limelight Networks continuing to add servers and PoPs

Source Telegeography / Alan Mauldin

Beyond P2P : P4P ?

2009-03-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

Know P4P already ? I've just known it yesterday as I skimmed some new PTC material. Here are some quotes taken from Alan Mauldin's talk:

Traditional P2P traffic connects peers randomly, regardless of geographic location or parent network
P4P optimizes P2P traffic by connecting peers within the same ISP and those in close geographic proximity

Field tests have proven promising
Telefonica - percentage of P2P traffic that stayed within a metropolitan area went from 1% to 36% with P4P
Verizon - percentage of P2P traffic that stayed within a metropolitan area went from 6% to 58% with P4P
Verizon plans to roll out P4P during 2009

DMCS (2)

2009-03-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

Just found the official DMCS website couple times ago. It's host under Telkom's domain.

Dumai-Melaka Cable System (DMCS) represent the project of fiber optic communications cable title under sea to accommodate growth of high communications traffic among Indonesia and Malaysia

PT Telkom and Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) develop System Communications Cable Go out to sea Dumai-Melaka as long as 150 km with investment 9,3 million US dollar represent strategic step

Melaka and Dumai selected as landing station because its location assessed strategic as interconnects to channel traffics from each operator. DMCS very required to remember its excelsior request from Indonesian traffic to Malaysia and vice versa, more than anything else infrastructure capacities.

SKKL DMCS getting through Strait Rupat and this Malacca Strait represent submarine optical cable system unrepeated with multiplexing division wavelength technology ( DWDM). This technology enable a tired optical fiber communications with a long distance transmission which a minimal amount of amplifier

DMCS capacity in this time is 20 Gbps or equivalent by 121.000 maximum extension phone at a time and DMCS maximum capacity is 320 gigabit per second ( Gbps), equivalent by 3.870.720 extension phone at a time

Source dmcssystem.com

DANTE

2009-03-14T17:33:00.001-07:00

DANTE stands for Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe Ltd , a not for profit limited company, UK-registered. Its shareholders are Europe’s National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). Till early 2008, they operate pan-Europe GÉANT2 serving >30M users on 34 NREN national networks. Additionally:

Their annual telecoms spends c 30 - 40M Euro, all tendered
We also manage R&E regional networks outside Europe: North Africa and Middle East (EUMEDCONNECT), Latin America (ALICE), Asia (TEIN)

Credits : West/Dante

Topology in 1996 - 34 Mbps Backbone

Topology in early 2008 - Multiple 10 Gbps Backbone

GEANT2 Network:

25 POPs
Hybrid structure
11600km of dark fibre
Multiple 10Gbps paths
Global connections to other R&E networks
15 Connectivity providers
Drivers: Technology, Cost reduction, User demand

TEIN : TEIN1, TEIN2 & TEIN3

2009-03-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

The first TEIN (TEIN1) linked Korea and France (2 Mbps) in 2001.

TEIN2 network started Jan 2006, connected:

30M researchers and students
4000 institutions
10 countries

TEIN2:

Intra-Asia regional network
Asia-Europe inter-regional links
PoPs in Singapore, HK Beijing + Tokyo
NOC in HK
10M Euro European Commission funding + funding by Asian partner countries
Funded to Sept 2008, then --> TEIN3
TEIN2 programme: build and operate regional network, promote network usage, train technical staff in developing countries, Reduce digital divide

TEIN2 Partner - Asia Pacific : Australia (AARNet), China (CERNET), Indonesia (ITB), Japan (MAFFIN, NICT, NII), Korea (NIA), Lao (LERNET), Malaysia (MDC), Philippines (ASTI), Singapore (SingAREN), Thailand (ThaiREN), Vietnam (MOST)
TEIN2 Partner - Europe : France (RENATER), Netherlands (SURFnet), UK (UKERNA), DANTE
TEIN2 Partner - Other : TRANSPAC2, Juniper Networks

TEIN3 Project :

EC funding committed to end 2011
Extend to South Asia
Further support for application development
Transfer TEIN3 programme to Asian ownership
Plan for ‘TEIN4’

TEIN1 Network

TEIN2 Network

Credits : West/Dante

VinaREN

2009-03-14T17:28:00.003-07:00

VinaREN (VIetNAm Research and Education Network) is currently coordinated by NACESTI (National Centre for Scientific and Technological Information).

VinaREN as of 03/2009 :

Total 7 NOCs: NOC (VNNOC; NOC-HN; NOC-TN; NOC-DN; NOC-HUE; NOC-HCM; NOC-CT) and 02 POP (POP-VAST; POP-WRU). To be expanded more POP in some City.
53 Members (Universities and Institutes in whole country) connected directly to the backbone and manage about 200 Km fiber optic cable.
Conneted 11 provinces and major Cities in Vietnam

Source Van Dien|NACESTI@APAN

MYREN, & MYREN2

2009-03-14T17:28:00.002-07:00

Malaysian Research & Education Network (MYREN):

officially launched in March 2005
spearheaded by the Ministry of Energy, Water & Communications (MEWC)
a network linking 17 universities and research organisations throughout Malaysia
centered at the MSC Malaysia Innovation Centre in Cyberjaya(the country’s first intelligent city)

First generation (MYREN):

Telco managed network
Connection speed range from 1Mbps to 8 Mbps.
5 universities have 34 Mbps but rate-limited to 8 Mbps :

University Malaya (UM)
National University of Malaysia (UKM)
University PutraMalaysia (UPM)
University of Science Malaysia (USM)
UniverisityTechnology Malaysia (UTM)

MYREN2:

Fully managed WAN with MPLS enabled
Core network of STM4
ISP level routing equipment
Members access of 10, 20, 50 Mbps with option to upgrade to 1Gbps.
Connected university hospitals : Direct connection
University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) ; Via main campus HUKM, HUSM; National University of Malaysia Hospital (HUKM); University of Science Malaysia Hospital (HUSM)
Prospective institute (strong interest) : National Heart Institute (IJN), Institute Medical Research (IMR)

Source Kamal|MYREN@APAN

SingAREN

2009-03-14T17:28:00.001-07:00

singaren.net.sg
Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network (SingAREN) is a non-profit organisation. We are Singapore’s national research and education network (REN) and part of the Internet2 community. We started as a national project funded by the government to take on the challenge of ensuring that Singapore’s Research and Education community is connected to the international community.

SingAREN maintains close working relationship with the Next Generation Internet community such as Internet2, APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network), and RENs in various countries.

SingAREN is now an officially registered society that serves the user community with the objectives:

Advocate and champion advanced network applications and technology in Singapore
Be the platform of collective representation of the community of research and education networks (REN) in Singapore
Facilitate cost-competitive adoption of advanced Internet technologies for Singapore RENs

Source Goh|SingAREN@APAN; singaren.net.sg

Exploring Asiakomnet

2009-03-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

Does anybody know whether this company has any relationship with Pacnet (formerly Asia Netcom - ANC) ? I heard that Pacnet also sells capacity from/to Jakarta. The name "Asiakomnet" is also just a "local and reshuffled" version of the previous company name of Pacnet (Asia Netcom) :-D And if we look at the network connectivity, it seems that Pacnet is also their main upstream. Any contra argument? :-D

Upstream of Asiakomnet (AS18052):

AS10026 ANC Asia Netcom Corporation --> Pacnet
AS703 UUNET - MCI Communications Services, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Business

Robtex view of AS18052

Japan - US Cable

2009-03-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

Suppliers/Contractors: Alcatel, Fujitsu, KDD and NEC
Customers : AT&T, BT, C&W, Japan Telecom, KDD,Qwest, SBC, Level 3 Communication, Sprint, Worldcom, NTTWN
Length : 22,700 km
Capacity : 640 Gbps (4 FP x 16 wl @ 10 Gbps)
RFS : 2001

China - US Cable

2009-03-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

Suppliers/Contractors: Alcatel, Fujitsu,KDD, NEC & Tyco
Customers : World Com Inc., Concert CommunicationsCorp., China Telecom, KDD Corp, Teleglobe Inc & Others (as of now??)
Length : 27,000 km
Capacity : 80 Gbps (4 fp x 8 wl @ 2.5 Gbps)
RFS : 2000