1 of 14

DH-IGNITE KZN

​

SANReN Overview

​

Thokozani Khwela

19 October 2022

Slide #1

2 of 14

National Integrated Cyber Infrastructure System (NICIS)

SANReN

DIRISA

CHPC

HPDA

Fast/Secure systems

Transferring large data

Mainly large Scale Science projects SKA, CERN, Bioinformatics, 4IR, SADC C.I. Framework, Climate Change

Data Intensive Research Initiative of South Africa

​

Slide #2

3 of 14

SA NREN = SANReN + TENET

  • National Research and Education Network (NRENs) are specialised network infrastructure and service providers that exclusively supports a country’s research, education and innovation communities
  • Currently more than 130 NRENs active globally, e.g. JANET, RNP, ZAMREN, KENET

​

​

  • SA NREN
    • SANReN
      • Builds the Network
      • Prototype Services
    • TENET
      • Operates the Network
      • Host Services

​

​

Slide #3

4 of 14

TENET (2000-present)

  • Tertiary Education Network of South Africa (TENET). TENET was incorporated on the 22nd August 2000
  • TENET bought use of 10 gigabit per second circuit between London and Mtunzuni for $20 Million with SEACOM,
    • A quarter of that what commercial clients were charged
  • In 2008 became a fully licensed network and network services provider according to the Electronic Communications Act of 2005

​

Slide #4

5 of 14

SANReN (2005-present)

  • 2005 Department of Science and Technology (DST) received funding from the fiscus to build a national research and education network (NREN) in South Africa.
    • R365 million over three years
  • Initially there was confusion between TENET and SANReN over who exactly the NREN was to be.
  • What emerged was that neither organisation could exist without the other.
  • In January 2008 TENET and the CSIR signed an extensive agreement called the Collaboration Agreement to Deploy and Operate a SA NREN which laid the terms of the collaboration between the entities
  • South African NREN = TENET + SANReN�

​

Slide #5

6 of 14

Slide #6

7 of 14

Network Information

  • Metro Networks
    • Johannesburg metropolitan network
    • Tshwane (Pretoria) metropolitan network
    • Cape Town metropolitan network
    • eThekwini (Durban) metropolitan network
    • Bloemfontein metropolitan network
    • East London metropolitan network
    • Pietermaritzburg metropolitan network
    • Vanderbijlpark metropolitan network
    • Polokwane metropolitan network
    • Port Elizabeth metropolitan network
    • Nelspruit metropolitan network
    • George metropolitan network
  • Users
    • 1.2 Million (estimated)
  • Total Available Broadband Capacity (TABC)
    • Exceeding 3500Gbps
  • Physical sites connected (Between SANReN and TENET)
    • 300+
  • International bandwidth
    • 250 Gbps
    • Five undersea cables
  • Multiple 100Gbps backbone links between mayor cities

​

Slide #7

8 of 14

SA NREN Services

SA NREN Services: User Communities

  • eduroam
  • Large Data Transfer
  • FileSender
  • SAFIRE

​

Other Services: IT Departments & Researchers

  • PERT, perfSONAR, CSIRT, NetSage, etc.

Slide #8

9 of 14

eduroam

  • eduroam allows any user from an eduroam participating site to get network access at any institution connected to eduroam

​

Slide #9

10 of 14

Large Data Transfer

  • Typically > 100 GB
  • Large File Transfer: Gigabytes or even many Terabytes of data
    • 3 locations have been chosen and Data Transfer Nodes (DTNs) deployed for first phase:
    • Wits University (Johannesburg)
    • CSIR (Pretoria)
    • Teraco Data Centre (Rondebosch, Cape Town)
    • Using Globus File Transfer Software
  • PERT Team
  • pert@sanren.ac.za

​

​

​

Slide #10

11 of 14

FileSender

  • Typically < 100 GB
  • Used extensively by universities to share large data
  • Web-based application that allows authenticated users to securely and easily send arbitrarily large files to other users.
  • sysadmin@sanren.ac.za

Slide #11

12 of 14

SAFIRE

  • SAFIRE is an academic identity federation
    • Facilitate access to other academic institutions
    • Use your university login details to access resources at other universities around the world
    • at no cost to you
  • SAFIRE makes federated login possible
  • Guy Holse (TENET)
  • https://safire.ac.za/
  • safire@tenet.ac.za

​

Slide #12

13 of 14

Other Services

  • PERT: Performance Enhancement Response Team

​

  • perfSONAR: performance Service-Oriented Network monitoring Architecture

​

  • CSIRT: Computer Security Incident Response Team

​

  • NetSage: Network measurement, analysis, and visualization service

Slide #13

14 of 14

THANK YOU!�

Slide #14