1. Lanka Educational And Research Network
Ajantha Atukorale & Nimal Ratnayake

2. History
The necessity of Academic network that connects all Universities and R&D institutions across the country was proposed to UGC
It was accepted in principle but implementation got delayed due to lack of funds
LEARNMail, the 1st service in Sri Lanka was started in 1990
Maintained by group of volunteers

3. History CINTEC approved a grant to set up the 1st phase of the LEARN
To connect three universities
University of Colombo
University of Moratuwa
The Open University
Phase 1 completed in 1995
Three universities connected by 64Kbps leased lines (via SLT)

4. History
After the successful completion of the phase-1, more universities were interested in connecting to LEARN
The need for a management body was identified
LEARN management committee was approved by UGC (on 17th October 1996)
UGC chairman or his nominee
Technical manager
Administrative manager
Secretary
One member from each university

5. Current Status 11 Universities (with multiple campuses)
National Science Foundation (NSF)
University Grants Commission (UGC)
Internet connection via two local ISPs
SLT & LankaCom
An aggregate of 2.5 Mbps Internet bandwidth
Monthly pays more than Rs. 1million to ISPs
Owns /17 IP block
Also uses /8 IP block within LEARN

6. Services Provided
LEARN manages the available bandwidth to get the optimum use of it:
Proxy servers (load balancing with Delay Pools)
Traffic shaping (to allocate bandwidth to different sites)
Electronic Mail:
Incoming/Outgoing mail relay
Virus/Spam filtering (AmaViS/SpamAssassin)
Virtual hosting & POP/IMAP based mail

7. Services Provided DNS Cache Proxy Servers for web accessing
Training Programs & Workshops
International events such as NetSA’03
Consultation

9. Training ….

10. Future Planes
Connects the rest of the Universities and Research Institutes
Introduce new services
E-learning (Remote/Distance Learning)
Video conferencing
Voice over IP
Multicasting special events
Grid Computing Research/Applications

11. Future Planes Expand the local connectivity
May be up to 45/155 Mbps ???
Expand the International bandwidth
Multiples of E1s to 45/155Mbps ????

12. Thank you