Into the Knowledge Economy: an Indian Knowledge Network Perspective

Global information technology and communication capacity is escalating, and India, with its population of more than a billion, is fast emerging as a knowledge hub.
The growth of Indian telecom and of IT skills subsequently developed leave India well-placed to use einfrastructures to create centers of excellence that unite universities and research institutes. The National Knowledge Network (NKN) is an initiative in this direction, aiming to leapfrog India into the global knowledge economy.
The Indian Government’s National Knowledge Commission (www.knowledgecommission.gov.in/) recommended the creation of the NKN as absolutely necessary to India’s development. The project’s ultimate aim is to unite stakeholders in science, technology, higher education, R&D and governance using network speeds of tens of gigabits per second coupled with extremely low latencies. Ten thousand institutions will be connected at varying bandwidths of 100 to 1000 megabits per second (Mbps). The initial phase—to be commissioned in next two years—will cover over 1000 institutions with funding of 1000 million US dollars.
The NKN is expected to encourage collaboration and the creation of new national intellectual assets, enabling the sharing of high-performance computing facilities, e-libraries, virtual classrooms, and more.
The NKN will also provide access to global content on emerging technologies; allow close coordination among different institutions across nations.

Proposed network architecture

The proposed special purpose network will have gigabit capabilities providing the backbone and network infrastructure. It will have a Next Generation Network (NGN) format, where access and core layers will be based on the Internet Protocol (IP) on top of an optical layer based mainly on wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM). The Internet layer will be enhanced for quality of service and control by deploying Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS). The architecture will be scalable and able to provide on-demand bandwidth. The network will consist of an ultra-high speed core (multiples of 10 gigabits per second), with distribution layers at appropriate speeds. Institutions at the edge will connect at speeds of 1Gbps or more. Network governance structure will allow user institutions to connect to the distribution layer through a last mile connectivity bandwidth. The NKN is designed to support dedicated, overlay and virtual networks as well as grid computing infrastructures. It will provide a critical infrastructure for the nation, supporting scientific work of tremendous potential value to the country and fulfilling a long-felt need for synergy and critical mass in pursuit of modern science.

Target aplications

NKN is designed with applications in agriculture, health, education, bioinformatics, genetics, governance and more in mind. Many target applications require very high and guaranteed bandwidth, and will have a direct impact on the quality of life and education in India. For example, the “Country-wide Classroom” application allows planners to create a common calendar of lectures offered across India, exploiting synergies to consolidate similar lectures and broadcast them nationally. Until now, interaction between different institutes has been mainly limited to conferences.

Current and existing initiatives

S&T and higher education institutions within India have facilities of varying capacity, with many far below the required levels. NKN is an attempt to redeem the situation, using of fibres already laid by various government-owned public sector entities. There are two government-owned decade-old networking initiatives within India: the National Informatics Centre (for e-governance) and ERNET India (the national education and research network). The GARUDA (www.garudaindia.in/) initiative is also working to provide proof-of-concept for national grid computing. The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research is connected to CERN in Geneva via a dedicated link for high volume data transfer to LHC Tier II centers across India. All these networks will be able to use the NKN backbone for connectivity and to run applications. ERNET is also connected to the European Research Network through GEANT. ERNET participates in European e-infrastructure projects like BELIEF-II (focusing on the development of reliable and robust e-Infrastructures worldwide), EU-India Grid (aimed at interconnecting the European and the Indian Grid Infrastructures GARUDA), and 6CHOICE (focusing on the promotion of IPv6 adoption in India). Since ERNET will be part of the NKN, ERNET-GEANT connectivity will be available all NKN users for global research, bringing Indian researchers in to the global research community. ERNET is also working to connect India with TEIN3 in Singapore as well as GEANT in Europe, thus providing access to Internet2 APAN and Australian Research Network AARNET.