1. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Baltic Open.Net Establishing network over submarine cable Stockholm – Ventspils Connecting the Sweden Royal Technical University (KTH) in Stockholm and Ventspils University College (VeA) in Latvia Gints Neimanis VeA, Latvia

2. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 About Ventspils and VeA Ventspils is located in the north-west of Latvia with ~44 000 inhabitants. Main industries in Ventspils, with main industries in tourism and transit (one of the major ports in Baltic states) The VeA was established in 1997. In 2004./2005. - 750 undergraduate and master students in following directions – business and management studies – translating and interpreting – information technology (from 2002.)

3. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Submarine cable in 2002. Stokab AB (Sweden) has built submarine fibre cable from Uto (near Stockholm) to Foresund in Gotland. The Hulvent ABand Foco 16 decided to extended this fibre cable from Gotland to Ventspils.

4. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Uto Farosund KTH VeA

5. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Submarine cable At the end of 2003. Hulvent AB\Foco 16 and Ventspils municipality made agreement, where the cable owners agreed to give the free access to one fibre pair in cable to KTH and VeA for academic task (not commercial use) In spring of 2004. the cable was drawn from shelf to VATS buildings - electricity company in Ventspils

6. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Starting the BalticOpen.Net In beginning of 2004. KTH and VeA started the project BalticOpen.Net with main goals: – Establish the connection between KTH and VeA over sumbarine cable, and demostrate, that the cable is operational – Demonstrate the possibilities to use the inexpensive network equipment for reaching 175km fiber without amplifiers in middle.. – Demonstrate the services for cable usage – to build a interactive videoconferencing room in VeA for the joint lectures between KTH and VeA

7. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 BalticOpen.Net Project group Principial – prof. Bjorn Pehrson, KTH, IT-University, Telecomunications System Lab. Graduate students from KTH and partly - G.Neimanis from VeA side

8. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Tasks to establish the network connection To find and install inexpensive equipment, which can transmit light over fibre in distance 175 km (Fårösund – Ventspils) To get the access to fibre pair from the one of the existing Stockholm/Uto – Fårösund fibre cable owners To connect the network in VeA building with the fibre in Vats building ( ~ 7 km distance over city)

9. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 The main obstacles Limited budget ~ only 21 000 EUR from Hulvent AB/Foco 16 for the equipment What transmitting equipment we can use? What results we will have from negotiations with the existing cable Stockholm – Fårösund owners Unfinished negotiations between Hulvent AB and Stokab AB Time limit – the project was arranged to work only till June 2004.

10. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 The fibre cable It is a 38 pair fibre cable from Ericsson with the fiber type Corning. The cable included three sorts of fibers: – G.652c – the most common – G.654 – low reduction – G.655 – low dispersion Signal loss < 0,2 dB/km @ 1550nm Theoretical overall loss in distance Fårösund – Ventspils is ~ 34 dB.

11. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 The link KTH – VeA stretches – KTH – Utö, 81km, 28dB loss, KTH – Utö – Fårösund, 149 km, 29dB, Permission from Stokab AB – Fårösund - Ventspils, 175 km, 34 dB. Permission from Hulvent – Ventspils – VeA. 7km. We decided to use the radiolink (Proxim MP.11a) until we have the fibres in Ventspils city Uto Farosund KTH VeA

12. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Transmitting equipment At beginning we started to look at equipment like LAN Switches with 100Base FX modules. We got some offers from companies to build a modified equipment with amplified laser modules. After negotiations with different manufacturers and their representatives (Transmode, Lumentis, Nortel etc) we started to explore the Gigabit connection possibilities too.

13. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Transmitting equipment After public procurement we got some offers and decided to use the Lumentis M301 with DWDM transceiver at very affordable price, and use it in all stretches - in Ventspils, Foresund and Kista (KTH). The network bandwidth is 2,5 Gbit / GE. In Utö is installed the the Lumentis repeater M101 The devices are connected with network switches – HP 2824 and HP 2524 with MiniGbic modules.

14. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Establishing the connection All fibre equipment was installed in late August, beginning of September 2004, after Baltcom Fiber - the new owner of cable Fårösund – Ventspils made the necessary measurements and cable splitting to the patch panels. In 9. September 2004. we plugged the optical patch cables and in 13. September we officially started to use the link., and already in autumn 2004. VeA students participate in videoconferencing course, which was held from KTH.

15. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Lumentis installation in Ventspils

16. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Future tasks Connect the VeA building to VATS with our own fiber cable, to get the full speed Gbit connection Connect the Ventspils International Radioastronomy Center (with biggest radio telescope in Northern Europe) which is located ~ 30 km from Ventspils to transmit VLBI data

17. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 Future tasks Watch for inexpensive devices, which are capable to work at 10 Gbps to upgrade the existing connection. Connect the VeA and VIRAC to the GEANT over the link. The existing VeA connection to the GEANT PoP which is located in capital Riga is only 4 Mbps. Demonstrate the OpenNet (Operator neutral network) possibilities. For example, how the users in Ventspils can choose and access the ISP's in Sweden.

18. BalticOpen.Net. Gints Neimanis. CEF Networks 16.-18. May 2004 References and contacts Bjorn Pehrson - bjorn@it.kth.se Gints Neimanis – gints@venta.lv www.balticopen.net – project website www.it.kth.se – IT University at KTH www.venta.lv - VeA website www.ventspils.lv – Ventspils website www.lumentis.se – Lumentis website bcfiber.lv – Baltcom Fiber