UUNET expands local, international networks

By Basheera Khan, UK correspondent, ITWeb

Johannesburg, 10 May 2000

Internet infrastructure provider UUNET SA has added an asymmetric E3 circuit to its international network and six more to its national network; a move it hopes will address customers` concerns regarding bandwidth, reliability and redundancy.

The new national E3 circuits link UUNET SA`s two Gauteng nodes, based in New Doornfontein and Victory Park, with its two Western Cape nodes, based in Newlands and Tygervalley, and provide dual high speed connections to the Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX) for peering to other Internet service providers (ISPs). The installation of the six additional circuits was carried out over four months.

"The redundancy in the core of the network - over which we deliver IP bandwidth - ensures that no single point of failure can take the network down," says Greg Lock, product developer, UUNET SA.

Additional potential benefits include the distribution of required bandwidth wherever customers are or need to reach in SA, and the elimination of potential congestion at interfaces with any local ISP.

The network upgrade will also mean the capacity for more efficient performance by UUNET SA`s data centres in Cape Town and Johannesburg, which are both being expanded to the tune of R25 million, and the new data centre currently under construction in Durban.

"It gives very real muscle to our service level agreements - we can easily keep the promises of reliability and redundancy we make," says Lock.

Justin Colyn, sales director, UUNET SA, adds: "Within [a year], 13 African countries will enjoy [Internet] access from SA, including SLAs [service level agreements]."

The announcement of the expansion was held at Dotcoza`s cyberhouse, and featured a keynote address delivered by the man widely hailed as the "father of the Internet", Dr Vinton Cerf, senior VP, Internet Architecture and Technology for MCI WorldCom.

Cerf`s presentation touched on the history and future of the Internet, and the projects currently advancing the implementation of the Interplanetary Internet.