Education and Research Network (ERNET), India is an autonomous scientific society of
Ministry of Communication & information technologyThe Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is an Indian government ministry. It contains three departments:*Department of Telecommunications*Department of Information Technology*Department of Posts...
(
Govt. of IndiaThe Government of India, also known as the Union Government or the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
). ERNET has made a significant contribution to the emergence of networking in the country. It practically brought the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
to
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and has built up national capabilities in the area of net-working, especially in protocol software engineering. It has not only succeeded in building a large network that provides various facilities to the intellectual segment of Indian society—the research and education community, it has over the years become a trendsetter in the field of networking.
ERNET is largest nationwide terrestrial and satellite network with point of presence located at the premiere educational and research institutions in major cities of the country.
Education and Research Network (ERNET), India is an autonomous scientific society of
Ministry of Communication & information technologyThe Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is an Indian government ministry. It contains three departments:*Department of Telecommunications*Department of Information Technology*Department of Posts...
(
Govt. of IndiaThe Government of India, also known as the Union Government or the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
). ERNET has made a significant contribution to the emergence of networking in the country. It practically brought the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
to
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and has built up national capabilities in the area of net-working, especially in protocol software engineering. It has not only succeeded in building a large network that provides various facilities to the intellectual segment of Indian society—the research and education community, it has over the years become a trendsetter in the field of networking.
Focus
ERNET is largest nationwide terrestrial and satellite network with point of presence located at the premiere educational and research institutions in major cities of the country. Focus of ERNET is not limited to just providing connectivity, but to meet the entire needs of the educational and research institutions by hosting and providing relevant information to their users. Research and Development and Training are integral parts of ERNET activities. The activities at ERNET India are organized around five technology focus areas:
- National Academic and Research Network
- Research and Development in the area of Data Communication and its Application
- Human Resource Development in the area of High-end Networking
- Educational Content
- Campus-wide High Speed Local Area Network
Beginning
ERNET was initiated in 1986 by the Department of Electronics (DoE), with funding support from the Government of India and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), involving eight premier institutions as participating agencies—NCST (National Centre for Software Technology) Bombay, IISc (Indian Institute of Science) Bangalore, five IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) at Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras, and the DoE, New Delhi. ERNET began as a multi protocol network with both the TCP/IP and the
OSIThe Open System Interconnection Reference Model is an abstract description for layered communications and computer network protocol design. It was developed as part of the Open Systems Interconnection initiative...
-IP protocol stacks running over the leased-line portion of the backbone. Since 1995, however, almost all traffic is carried over TCP/IP.
History of ERNET
- ERNET started with Dial-up network in 1986-87.
- Initially UUCP mail
UUCP is an abbreviation for Unix-to-Unix Copy Program. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. Specifically, uucp is one of the programs in the suite; it provides a user...
was only service started by ERNET.
- First leased line of 9.6 kbit/s was installed in Jan’1991 between Delhi and Mumbai
Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper is the most-populous in the world, with approximately 14 million inhabitants. Along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, it forms the world's 4th largest urban agglomeration, with around...
.
- ERNET was alloted Class B IP address
Classful network is a term that is used to describe the network architecture of the Internet until around 1993. It divided the address space for Internet Protocol Version 4 into five address classes...
144.16.0.0 by InterNICInterNIC, short for Internet Network Information Center, was the Internet governing body primarily responsible for domain name and IP address allocations until September 18, 1998 when this role was assumed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers...
in 1990. Subsquently Class C addresses were alloted to ERNET by APNIC.
- All IITs, IISc Bangalore, DOE Delhi and NCST Mumbai were connected by 9.6 kbit/s leased line by 1992.
- In 1992, 64 kbit/s Internet gateway link was commissioned from NCST Mumbai to UUNet
UUNET founded in 1987, was one of the largest Internet service providers and one of the nine Tier 1 networks. It was based in Northern Virginia and was the first commercial Internet service provider...
in VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
near Washington DC.
- In 1998 ERNET India was registered as Autonomous Society.
- In 1999-2000 new terrestrial high speed backbone was setup.
- In 2000 POP infrastructure was upgraded.
- Satellite WAN was setup in 1993.
- Today, 1100 institutes are ERNET users under different schemes.
ERNET backbone
ERNET backbone is a sophisticated link of terrestrial and satellite-based
wide area networkA wide area network is a computer network that covers a broad area...
s. The satellite WAN, using VSAT technology. The VSAT network acts as an overlay for the terrestrial WAN by providing backup links between the backbone sites. International connectivity is achieved through gateways at
New DelhiNew Delhi is the capital of India. It is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and serves as the seat of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi....
,
MumbaiMumbai, formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper is the most-populous in the world, with approximately 14 million inhabitants. Along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, it forms the world's 4th largest urban agglomeration, with around...
,
BangaloreBangalore , also known as Bengaḷūru , is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and fifth-most populous urban agglomeration.Though historical references to the city predate 900...
and
Kolkata, formerly , is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. When referred to as Calcutta, it usually includes the suburbs, and thus its population exceeds 15 million, making it India's third-largest metropolitan area and...
, with a total capacity of 6.64 Mb. Daily traffic over ERNET exceeds 20 GB. ERNET architecture is based on industry standard TCP/IP protocol.
ERNET backbone is being enabled to support IPv6.
ERNET international gateway and PoP sites
The ERNET is supported by the following backbone sites which enable organizations located at different geographical locations to access various services.
- ERNET Head Quarter, New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital of India. It is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and serves as the seat of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi....
- Center for Development of Advance Software Computing, Mumbai
- Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
- Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai
- Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune
Pune , formerly known as Punawadi or Punya-Nagari or Poona, is the eighth largest city in India, and the second largest in the state of Maharashtra, after Mumbai...
- Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkatta
- Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
- University of Hyderabad
The University of Hyderabad is an institute of post-graduate teaching and research. It was established by an act of the Parliament of India in 1974 as a Central University. The university also offers courses under distance learning programs...
- Center for Advance Technology, Indore
Indore is the largest city and commercial capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh . It is also known as The City of Holkars. The city was built by a holkar, Rani Ahilya Bai, one of the famous queens of India. Located in the Narmada river valley in the western part of the state of Madhya...
- Orissa Computer Application Centre, Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Orissa. Once the capital of ancient Kalinga, the city has a long history of 3000 years and is today a center of economic and religious importance...
- Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Kerala , is a state located in southwestern India. The state was created in 1956 on linguistc basis, bringing together those places where Malayalam formed the principal language...
- DOEACC Center, Gorakhpur
Gorakhpur is a city in the eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, near the border with Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur District and Gorakhpur Division and of Baba Gorakshanath...
- Indian Institute of Technology , Guwahati
- ERNET VSAT HUB, Bangalore