This report summarises security recommendations provided by the SANReN team for perimeter firewall and IPS solutions suitable for our end customers on 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps connections:

SANReN Security Report – October 2011

The SANReN progress report for September can be found by clicking on the link below.

SANReN Progress Report September 2011

The SANReN progress report for May can be found in the following link.

SANReN Progress Report May 2011

SANReN and BCX completed Network Ready For Use tests of the Pretoria DWDM ring network on Monday 21 February. The network has been handed over to TENET for operations, and is ready to deliver dedicated 10Gbps service to the main campuses of the University of Pretoria, University of South Africa and Tshwane University of Pretoria.

Eduroam is a world-wide roaming service that allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to access the Internet while visiting another participating institution via wireless hot-spots. Through the use of RADIUS proxies, Eduroam allows logging on using the credentials from your home institution, regadless of where you’re visiting.

SANReN began a South Africa Eduroam pilot last year in September, and established the proxies required for local insitutions to participate. Several institutions are already participating in the pilot.

Today the SANReN Eduroam RADIUS proxies were connected to the European Eduroam root. This temporary connection now allows for global testing of Eduroam in South Africa, in anticipation of the establishment of an African Eduroam root.

Visitors to South Africa can now use Eduroam at all Eduroam enabled institutions.

Maps (and KML files) for the three SANReN Pretoria metro fiber rings (DWDM, North and South) have been added to the metro rings page

The latest high-level SANReN progress report can be found below. The report is an executive summary about the work that the SANReN team has been busy with over the past few weeks.

SANReN Project Status November 2010

The diagrams on the sub-pages below Implementation Status -> Planning on the menu, have been updated with the necessary SANReN PoPs that have been identified.

The SANReN team gave a presentation to ASAUDIT today, here it is!

SANReN ASAUDIT Presentation

We are pleased to share with you this first issue of the SANReN Newsletter. The South African National Research Network (SANReN) is an integral part of a comprehensive Cyberinfrastructure initiative funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and implemented by the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) through the Meraka Institute. Through our newsletter, we plan to share project highlights and other news with you.

Regards

Professor Colin Wright

Manager: Cyberinfrastructure Group, Meraka Institute

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Progress in the metros

Over the past few months the SANReN team of the CSIR Meraka Institute has been busy rolling out fibre optical networks in Tshwane (Pretoria), eThekwini (Durban) and Cape Town. Progress on the networks has been much slower than anticipated, due mostly to issues encountered with way-leave applications by our contractors. In addition to the delays associated with city council interactions, preparations for the Soccer World Cup tournament meant that the way-leave process was managed more strictly than usual. In order to mitigate this problem, the CSIR has had to micro-manage several contractors to ensure that way-leave applications are submitted and processed on time. It is expected that the process will in future be managed more effectively by contractors and result in on-time way-leave approvals. An additional delaying factor is the embargo that was placed on construction until mid-August as a consequence of World Cup security considerations.

Tshwane: Large portions of the fibre optical network have already been installed in Tshwane; however, some critical parts required to form a full route are still outstanding. For this reason the CSIR will only be able to bring three additional sites (University of Pretoria, University of South Africa, Tshwane University of Technology) live in the next few weeks. The remaining sites will only be completed after the Soccer World Cup when contractors are allowed to continue building our routes.

eThekwini: The SANReN fibre ring in Durban has almost been completed; the only sites that will not be connected until after the Soccer World Cup are the MRC (Medical Research Council), DUT Brickfield, and DUT Steve Biko campuses. The fibre network is not a ring at this stage, so it is expected that SANReN institutions in eThekwini will only be ‘test’ users on the network until the ring is completed and SANReN can provide sites with adequate redundancy.

Cape Town: The SANReN Cape network is in the process of being installed. Due to the magnitude of this network (it stretches to Stellenbosch), it is expected that only portions of the network will be completed by December 2010. Way-leaves have again caused a tremendous slow-down in the implementation of the network.

The strategy of micro-managing our suppliers has reaped substantial benefits as it has ensured that sites have ‘test’ connections despite constraints related to the Soccer World Cup. It is an effective strategy for getting sites connected as soon as possible, but places a substantial burden on the team.

Joint planning with TENET

During a presentation to ASAUDIT at a recent meeting, the CSIR stated that a joint planning exercise will be undertaken together with TENET to ensure that all sites in South Africa can be provided with accurate information as to how and when the sites will be connected. This planning process has been completed and a plan has been drawn up, which  includes all sites known at this time to the CSIR and TENET.

The plan defines a number of projects that categorise further rollout of the network into components, namely ‘Backbone Extension’, ‘Point of Presence (PoP) Establishment’ and ‘Access Network’ projects.  The plan has been shared with all IT Directors in order to obtain input for improvement or modification. A workshop was also held between the SANReN team, TENET and the ASAUDIT Executive committee to interrogate the principles on which the plan was developed and to review aspects of the plan. Once the plan has been finalised it will be made available through the SANReN website where everyone will have access to it. This plan is open for scrutiny and any comments or suggestions from sites are welcome.

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Issued by: SANReN

Tel: (012) 841 4678                                                               Email: sanren@csir.co.za