Connecting South Africa
GÉANT2 has been connected to South Africa since October 2004 (as part of the GÉANT project). GÉANT's initial 155Mbit/s connection to the Tertiary Education NETwork (TENET) in South Africa was achieved via a link between the two networks' PoPs in London and onwards to TENET’s PoP in Cape Town. TENET's main purpose is to secure, for the benefit of South African Universities and Technikons, Internet and information technology services.
The connection has the potential to open up an untapped seam of research collaboration opportunities. It allows South African researchers access to over 3,500 European research and education institutions. It will also stimulate the development of the South African national research network. Other positive impacts of research networking will have knock-on benefits for social, health and economic development.
The link delivers an important “feel-good” factor to the developing research networking communities in South Africa. The positive response to the announcement of the initial connection to Europe was overwhelming, and the support that TENET has received from DANTE and GEANT2 has been much appreciated.
The link is a result of close EU-South African collaboration. ICTs in Europe have dramatically improved access to information, and there is an enormous potential to do the same in developing countries. However, connectivity in South Africa, both terrestrial and internationally to Europe and the USA, is very expensive, even with negotiated special rates. Many institutions are reliant on expensive and relatively slow satellite links.
In response to this situation, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) within the South African government is creating the South Africa National Research Network (SANReN), under the project management of TENET. This development is principally driven by the requirement to meet the connectivity needs of big e-science projects in disciplines such as astronomy, high-energy physics, bioinformatics and medical science.
