- Pakistan Education & Research Network
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Pakistan Education & Research Network (PERN2) is the only research and education network of Pakistan launched in 2002 by Higher Education Commission. The purpose of this national research and education network is to provide communication infrastructure to the universities, institutions of higher learning and research organizations to meet their networking and internet requirements. The network has evolved significantly and providing valuable services, like high-speed internet, audio/video conferencing, access to digital library resources. At the time of its inception, 56 public and private sector universities/institutes were provided connectivity with a total core capacity of 2 Mbit/s and 8 Mbit/s internet bandwidth had been shared by these universities/institutes, whereas universities/institutes used to get 64-128 kbit/s links.
The initial architecture of PERN was based on legacy telecommunication Infrastructure which was not aligned with modern NREN’s architecture and so was not capable to support Next Generation Network’s services and applications. Moreover, limited bandwidth availability due to old infrastructure and constraints on last-mile segment do not allow supporting environment for research groups, special interest groups and today’s bandwidth hungry applications.
Contents
Why PERN2
Realizing the limitations of existing network and the needs of having a true end-to-end IP-based research & education network of the country, the Higher Education Commission has established a new state-of-the-art advanced research and education network, named PERN2, while keeping in consideration the current needs of the institutes of higher learning and their future requirements with respect to advanced networking infrastructure. This network offers extremely high bandwidth at charges several folds less than the ones offered by commercial telecom operators and competitive to the prevailing rates of PERN, whilst additional value added services will be also available to its users. PERN2 reflects a very cost-effective investment in next-generation networking for research and education.
This network provides students, faculty members and researchers a fully integrated and dedicated communication infrastructure using advanced Information & Communication Technologies. This NREN is being established to achieve true collaborative research, knowledge & resource sharing and distance learning. The PERN2 has connectivity to other NREN(s) of the world including APAN (Asia), Internet2 (USA), GEANT2 (Europe) etc. and has initiated collaborative research with the consortiums of NREN(s). PERN2 fulfills the requirements of advance technologies and applications with proper security and management. The advance features include, but not limited to QoS, IPv6, MPLS routing/switching, Gigabit Networks, Adaptive Applications and Multicasting.
Design Summary
The design of this network is based on latest technology available in this domain, i.e. Gigabit MetroEthernet, SDH, and DWDM (OADMs/OLAs). The network architecture consists of 10 GE Metro Ring Networks in Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Lahore metro cities, whereas in other larger cities like, Hyderabad, Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta and Peshawar, the network is being established as hub-and-spoke topology. Three (03) High End Carrier Class Core Routers at Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi have been installed as three Regional Access (RA) POPs (Point of Presence: a junction/aggregation point of connections), whereas, Eight Local Access (LA) POPs in the three metro cities and Four Sub-Regional Access (sRA)POPs based on aggregation/ distribution routers of Carrier Class have been installed in four major cities of the country.
PERN2 Connections
PERN2 interlinks more than 100 public/private sectors academic and research institutes (view list) of the country over an IP based infrastructure through metro fiber ring (Gigabit Ethernet) in the cities where facilities are available. The remaining universities/institutes are interlinked via leased dark fiber or legacy TDM communication system.
PERN2 is internationally connected through TIEN3 which is The third generation of the Trans-Eurasia Information Network TEIN3 that provides a dedicated high-capacity Internet network for research and education communities across Asia-Pacific. TEIN3 already connects researchers and academics in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Cambodia are in the process of getting connected, bringing the total number of partners involved in TEIN3 to 19.
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