By the Year 2000, 100 % of Swedish University Students will be Connected to Internet
by Lars Bergman
SUNET is the organization responsible for developing and running the Swedish University Network. The goals for the next three years include increased capacity, covering most of the small and medium sized universities all over the country as well as the bigger universities. This includes capacity for 240,000 students communicating from home. Nordic and European cooperation are the other parts of SUNET's responsibilities. The success of SUNET is to be considered as a major factor in Sweden remaining in the frontline in Internet usage and progress. As the university side is naturally ahead of the commercial side from the technical viewpoint, SUNET is an important technological frontrunner for Swedish industry.Expectations are always surpassed!
The growth of the university network needs has always been faster than forecasted. The current budget for the period 97-99 is as follows (at an exchange of 8.6 Swedish crowns for 1 ECU):
- 1997: 9.2 MECU
- 1998: 12.5 MECU
- 1999: 15.3 MECU
This budget is based on the prediction of a usage which is expected to grow not only as a result of an increase in the number of users but also due to changes in the manners of usage. Information services such as web-based information searches are expected to grow rapidly. New services will be added. SUNET is testing videoconferencing (multicast) as one example.
SUNET has been successfully pushing the MIME-standard. This means a considerable reduction is difficulty and frustration in handling the Swedish alphabet for Swedish Internet users - both on the academic side and the commercial side.A catalogue service for email addresses on a national level is an ongoing activity of SUNET.
Nowadays, a 34 Mbit/s-network of 1993-94 is fairly stable but new techniques like ATM are being tested. In 1995 a 34 Mbit/s-connection was established to North America in cooperation with the operator. This has meant that a 24 Mbit/s capacity is ensured, meaning a big improvement if compared to the former 2 Mbit/s capacity. SUNET is engaged in EBONE, follows DANTE and take a serious interest in the ongoing EuroCairn discussions as well as the provision of the European TEN-34 net.
Please contact:
Lennart Forsberg - SUNET/UMDAC
Tel: +46 90 786 69 69
E-mail: Lennart.Forsberg@umdac.umu.se