Introduce the project Africa IXP (Team 4). Introduce team members.

Introduce the project

Africa IXP (Team 4)

Introduce team members

Connectivity in Africa• Fibre optic links are few and expensive

Reliant on Satellite

• High satellite latency = slow speed, high prices• Growth of Internet businesses is inhibited

ISP BISP A

200-900ms

5-20ms

ISP 1

ISP 2

Research & Education Institutions

• Research and Education Institutions in Africa are part of the people

Internet Exchange Points

• Interconnection points of the Internet

• Place where ISPs come to interconnect

• Keep local traffic local

Shortening the Chain

Internet

ISP A ISP B ISP C

IXP

Grow local bandwidth

ISP A ISP B ISP C

NationalGateway

IXP

256k

512k

12

8k

1M

1M 1M

Benefits

• Cut down costs– Up to 15%– 400 Million dollars is spent on local traffic that

is exchanged internationally.

• Add Value

• Improve Quality

• New Business and revenue opportunities

Current Status of IXPs in Africa

• 2 large• 8 small• 4 in progress• 14 out of 53 countries

Overall Goals

• Solution to the current situation with the IXP

• 3 IXPs in 3 countries???

• Solutions for NREN, how can they connect?

Stakeholders

• ISPs

IXP architecture

• Design of IXP– Layer 2 or layer 3 ?– Layer 2 with a router reflector

• Redundancy and load balancing

• Proposed equipment

IXP architecture

ISP A ISP B ISP C

RouteReflector

Server

Switch 1 Switch 2

IXP architecture

• IXP services

– WEB server– Secondary and/or primary DNS– Network statistics– Looking glass– …..– Transit traffic

Resources

•SIDA – Funding of the project

•Cisco – Donation of switches offers training to ISPs

•AFRISPA – Have set up workshops in the countries to help prepare for the IXPs (with assistance from DFID)

•KTH – Use of workrooms, equipment for labs and offer lectures for technical teaching purposes

•Teaching Team & Coaches – Feedback, assistance in project matters

Working Methodology

Project Status / Achievements

● Technical proposal and design of IXPs were done for 3 countries: Burundi, Malawi, Zambia

Training of project members

• BGP training: important topics

• Basic training related to IXP services: ➔ DNS➔ MRTG➔ Looking glass• Presentation training• IXP similation

Convincing ISPs to connect

● Presenting economical benefits which will save expensive International bandwidth

● Showing how IXP will increase the speed of Internet

● Presenting how IXP will influence Internet applications development and open up web hosting opportunities

Policy document

• Objectives of IXP

• Organization and management• Members conditions• Responsibilities

Designed questionnaire for NREN road map

Problems encountered by team

• Inefficiency in communication with local stakeholders

• Hesitation from stakeholders to join the IXP

• Budget (constraints and delays)

• Procurement procedures and shipping

• Dealing with the African business environment:

Problems encountered by team

P: Inefficiency in communication with local stakeholders

- Different geographical location

- Absence of face-to-face communication

• S: use the technologies available

Problems encountered by team

P: Hesitation from stakeholders to join the IXP

• Unawareness of benefits

• Need for a minimum number of members

• Organization of workshops and discussion of benefits

Problems encountered by team

P: Budget Issues

- Constraints on the amount

- Delay in approval of budget proposal

- S: Proposal of different alternatives / Compromises in design

Problems encountered by team

Procurement procedures and shipping

-Length and hard process

-Inability to ship some equipment

-Customs and clearing of equipment

S: Proceed immediately after budget approval / Make use of local participants

Problems encountered by team

Dealing with the African business environment

- Low tolerance for change

- Presence of incumbents

- Size of organizations (very small)

- S: Cope with the cultural differences

• Problems the team encountered– Delay in communication with local

stakeholders.– Budget (Constraints and delays)– Procurement procedures– Shipping– Multicultural interaction

• What we are currently working on

“The next step”

• Implementation phase– Finish procurement– Handle shipping and customs clearing– Deploy IXP and testing– Training for local administrators– Policy document– Prepare road map document for NREN– Conclusion phase

• Documentation• Lessons learned

• Finish procurement– Budget was approved– Compile final list of items– Contact vendors

• Handle shipping and customs clearing– Clearing procedures different for each country– Tax rates different for each country – Tax customs duty and VAT

• Training for local administrators– Made contact with cisco– Cisco proposed a train the trainers workshop

• Deploy IXP and testing– Work with internet service providers– Draw configurations for internet

exchange point– Test configurations– Connect internet service providers

• Policy document– Policy document will outline management of

IXP– Feedback on policy documents for each

country– Translation to French for Burundi

• Prepare road map document for NREN– Document to address available infrastructure – Identify available terrestrial links– Recommend links that can be used

• Documentation– Prepare for each internet exchange point– Services deployed

• Lessons learned– Purchasing procedure takes considerable

time– Budget preparation should start early– Coordination

Questions

• Maybe picture of ourselves?

Thank you for listening

• Bye bye!