International Computer Networks

International Computer Networks
International computer networks have flourished since the mid 1970s when sites in the United Kingdom and Norway were connected to the ARPANET. An early national network project outside the United States was JANET (joint academic network) in the United Kingdom. Later, several national network projects were initiated in numbers of countries on every continent. Examples include JUNET in Japan, DEN (Deutsche froschungesnetz) in Germany, UNINET in Norway, and SDn in Korea. International collaborations included NORDUNET in the Nordic countries (regional networks such as Swedish SUNET are part of NORDUNET), EARN and EUNET in Europe, and PACOM in the pacific-rim.
In the early 1980’s the CSNET (computer science Network); BITNET (because it’s time network), and UUCP (UNIX to UNIX copy) all developed international links. For Example, by 1984 CSNET was operating e-mail gateways between the United-states and Canada, Korea, Israel, Japan, France, Germany, Australia, and Scandinavia. In the same time period, BITNET spread to Europe, via the European Academic research network (EARN) and the other regions such as GULFNET in the Persian Gulf region. Similarly, the UUCP network developed a gateway to the EUNET (European UNIX networks) via Amsterdam [NAS93].
By the mid-1980’s, when the NAFNET backbone was being discussed, e-mail gateways already connected the various U.S. networks to a robust and growing global networking infrastructure. Today, the NSFNET and European networks are connected by two high-speed circuits linking the NSFNET at New York to INRIA, a French research network in Sophia Antipoles, and NORDUNET, a Scandinavian research network in the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
In Europe, the development of internet was hampered by national policies mandating OSI protocols. These policies prevented development of large scale internet infrastructures everywhere expect for the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Finland, and Norway) that embraced the TCP/IP protocols and became well connected. In fact Scandinavian countries are the heaviest users of internet after the united-states. In 1989, RIPE (Roseau IP Europeans) began coordinating the internet operation in Europe, and today about 25 percent of all hosts hooked to the internet are estimated to be in Europe.
Other international links to NSFNET were established in 1991. For example, the federal university of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) came on-line in December 1991. The connection between California’s regional network CERFnet and UFRJ is intended to provide internet access to a regional network located within the state of Rio de Janeiro. Mexico was also linked to the NSFNET in November 1991 with a 64-bps satellite link to the CERnet via the Mexican satellite, Morelles II. And, the system Engineering research institute (SERI), Seoul, Korea, was brought on-line in march 1991. The link between SERI and CERFnet provides internet access to the Korean national research network (KREONet).
Networking in developing countries such as china presents a cross-sectional view of the importance these countries place on computer networks. For instance the major wide area network in china was CNPAC (China national public data network). CNPAC was designed to carry data at speeds varying between 1.2 and 9.6 Kbps. The network hub was in Beijing, where the network management center is located. Since 1993, china has been installing a new network; CHINAPAC covers all provincial capitals of the main land and is intended to be the major public data network backbone. CHINAPAC and its international links run at a 64-kbps backbone rate. User links vary from 1200 kbps. User can connect to CHINAPAC through leased lines (9.6 through 64 Kbps) or through dial-up (9.6 kbps; 1200/2400 bps). It is expected that high-speed fiber will soon cover the china. China is expected to invest approximately $60billion in telecom infrastructure through the end of the decade. It is anticipated that $18.39 billion will be invested during the Eight five year plan (1990-1995) and $41.37 billion during the ninth (1996-2000).