THE INDONESIA COMPUTER NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE
A STATUS REPORT

Onno W. Purbo, Ph.D
Computer Network Research Group
Inter University Center on Microelectronics
Institute of Technology Bandung
Bandung 40132
FAX 62‑22 214‑417
InterNet yc1dav@itbgtw.itb.ac.id

ABSTRACT
		This report will briefly describe our computer networking initiative within Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB) as well as at national level in Indonesia. ITB is currently the most wired campus in Indonesia with more than 1500 users on Campus. We managed to self‑create our network including the technology to build ITB's network. The major difference with other conventional initiative, ITB's Campus Network is initially established by low cost technology (namely, radio network) using heavily bottom‑up development approach with minimal financial support from external resources. Human Resource (HR) development & the ability to develop our own technology are the key to success. The adoption of this approach leads to a self supporting campus wide network development with minimal support from outside the campus. Our self sustainable network development concept, which relies on HR & low cost technology, is currently being adopted by other universities in Indonesia. A complete report on our national networking status is broadcasted periodically in InterNet to keep the global InterNet community up‑dated on our effort in Indonesia.

COMPUTER NETWORK AT ITB

History
  •	Started in 1986‑1987, using leased‑line via the Indonesian commercial packet switching network to a conferencing system in Canada. This initiative failed due to lack of networking capacity within ITB.
  •	In about the same time (1986‑1987), ITB was participated in the Indonesia's first University Network (UNINET) lead by the University of Indonesia. However, the initiative was failed due to the high cost long distance calls, lack of human resources and no Campus network infrastructure.
  •	In 1988‑1989, ITB's computer center started to submit proposal for ITB‑Net. However, it is never been implemented due to no budget allocation.
  •	In 1992, as part of the research activities at the Inter University Center on Microelectronics, we are working on packet radio computer network. It requires as low as US$300 and a PC per node to be able to hook up into the network. Public domain software (including its source code) is used to reduce the costs.
  •	Starting with only a single PC 286 with 5 users with a direct radio connection to Jakarta, within two (2) years, we managed to increase the number of user to more than 1500 users and connecting close 400 PCs and several dozen of UNIX workstations.

Personnel
  •	The development of ITB‑Network leads by the Computer Network Research Group (CNRG) ITB with currently close to 10 dedicated researchers. Although, CNRG's objective is primarily in doing research in computer networking ‑ the development of computer network in ITB is actually the side effect of CNRG's activities as other initiatives fail to materialized.
  •	Student body at ITB, especially the Electrical Engineering Student Society and the Amateur Radio Club at ITB, are heavily involved in helping ITB expanding their network as well as in training / preparing the younger students in computer networking, thus, help speed up the human resource development required to support the expansion of our network.
  •	It is to say that the whole information communities at ITB, including, academic staffs, students and technicians, are heavily involved in building our network. Funding is obtained from various donation as well as activating the under utilized equipments.
  •	The result of our effort, within a short period of time, we managed to build the network and its technology as well as the required human resources to support it.

Hardware
  •	Currently, we use mostly packet radio technology for our long distance data communication links.
  •	In addition to packet radio technology, we are currently installing / negotiating several advanced data communication links, such as:
	  	Two (2) 64Kbps dedicated leased lines to InterNet (donated by PT. Telekomunkasi Indonesia and PT. Aplikasinusa Lintas Arta).
	  	One 38.4Kbps satellite link via ETS‑V to Japan (in collaboration with Communication Research Lab, Japan).
	  	One 19.2-250Kbps VSAT Palapa Satellite ground station (in research collaboration with PT. Elektrindo Nusantara).
	  	One 9600bps Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite ground station (donated by the Indonesian Amateur Radio individuals).
	Most of them are donated by various organization / individuals knowing their donation will be used for good by the users at ITB.
  •	Locally, within the universities, the network is currently using ethernet 10Mbps backbone as our primary Campus Wide Area Network.
  •	PC based routers are heavily used due to its availability with increasing capacity at low cost.

Software
  •	The TCP/IP software for the routers is made by the Electrical Engineering students of ITB adapted from the amateur radio community.
  •	In addition, we use several UNIX based PCs running FreeBSD, 386BSD, Linux, SCO Unix of which some are available in public domain.
  •	Various standard applications, such as, e‑mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet capability, Network File System (NFS), are normally used within our network.
  •	The emerging World Wide Web (WWW), Mosaic, HTTP servers are also installed and implemented in ITB's network.
  •	Novell LANs are also heavily used to integrate our DOS users into the network. At least close to two dozen Novell LANs in various units / departments are connected to ITB‑Net. Mercury & Pegasus mailers are used on the Novell LANs to enable it in communicating within the TCP/IP based network.
  •	Since most of the software used are in public domain, it is available at no cost.

Information stored
  •	Several FTP sites have been set‑up within the ITB‑Network, it contains:
	  	Various research results.
	  	Various public domain software.
	  	Information / international standards on computer networking.
  •	The WWW & Mosaic server is run at www.ee.itb.ac.id, it currently contains:
	  	Various information on research results at ITB.
	  	The profile of various research units within ITB.
	  	The profile of researchers at ITB.
  •	Several electronics discussion groups have been hosted at ITB, some of them also links to similar electronics discussion groups in InterNet. To name a few, we are currently hosting:
	  	General discussion group for the Indonesian network operator at sysop@itbgtw.itb.ac.id.
	  	Relay for the discussion group of ITB alumni centralized at itb@shinano.cs.uec.ac.jp.
	  	Relay for the discussion group to support the ASEAN Australia Economic Cooperation Program (AAECP) in Microelectronics and Information Technology Sub‑committee.
	  	Various local electronics discussion groups within ITB.
  •	In addition to it, some of our users also subscribe to various Internet mailing lists and newsgroups. The availability of access to international experts via these lists and newsgroup have increased the capacity of our students tremendously.
  •	Currently, the total traffic between ITB and InterNet is close to 2Mbyte / day limited by the current capacity of the radio link between ITB and Jakarta. It will rapidly increases as soon as we managed to install our 64Kbps dedicated link to InterNet (hopefully, by the end of March 1995).

Evaluation
  •	A bottom-up development approach has been successfully used to build the computer network at Institute of Technology Bandung. Although, it requires an active participation from the members, in the long run, it can be easily sustainable.
  •	Several hardware prototypes have been produced, some prototypes are currently under small scale production.

COORDINATION AT NATIONAL LEVEL

Bodies involved
  •	At national level, we have several computer networking initiatives. Some of the leading initiatives are:

		IPTEK‑NET	The national research and technology network
				(supported by the National Research Council).
		JASIPAKTA	The national aerospace agency networking initiatives.
				(supported by the German Aerospace Agency).
		INFO‑RIS	Research Network
				(supported by the National Telecommunication Company).
		SDNP		Sustainable Development Networking Programme
				(funded by United Nation Development Program ‑ UNDP).

	The ITB's networking initiative has close collaboration with these networking activities. In fact, our InterNet access are supported through all of the above networking initiatives.

Information compiled
  •	Research results.
  •	Public domain software.
  •	General information / standards.

Reports produced
  •	Onno W. Purbo, "An alternative approach to built low cost TCP/IP-based Wide Area Network in Indonesia," the South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC) '92 regional conference, Kuala Lumpur, 14 August 1992.
  •	Onno W. Purbo, "The building of computer network in Indonesia," accepted for publication in Canadian Journal of Development Studies.
  •	Onno W. Purbo, Aulia Khusnul Arif, Arman Hazairin, Basuki, Ichwan F. Agus, Yudhi Prasetyo, "The implementation of packet radio wide area network in Indonesia," Seminar on computer network and terrestrial data communication, LAPAN November 1994, Jakarta.
  •	Onno W. Purbo, Aulia Khusnul Arif, Arman Hazairin, Basuki, Ichwan F. Agus, Tedjo Widodo, Yudhi Prasetyo, Utoro Sastrokusumo, "An overview of the implementation of TCP/IP packet radio wide area network in Indonesia," International Conference in Telecommunication 1995, Denpasar, Bali April 1995.
  •	Onno W. Purbo, "The Indonesia Computer Network Status Report," periodically broadcasted in InterNet & available in electronic form upon request.

Services provided
  •	Standard applications:
	  	e-mail (with capability to reach InterNet sites).
	  	FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
	  	Telnet
  •	Some advanced applications, such as, NFS, X-Windowing.
  •	At least, there are five (5) HTTP servers are running in the Indonesia network.
  •	A couple gopher servers are running in the network. However, they are gradually replaced by HTTP servers.
  •	A couple of dozen FTP sites are in operation, containing:
	  	Various research results.
	  	Various public domain software.
	  	Various general information & standards.

NETWORKING

Figure 1. Indonesia Network Topology as of February 1995
Status report of the computer network in Indonesia as of February 1995, can be summarized as follows:

  •	A total of 83 major nodes are in operation with 67 (81%) of which are located in Bandung; the rest (32%) are spread all over Indonesia including Jakarta.
  •	Interestingly, most of the nodes (80%) are using the low cost packet radio technology to form a WAN, the rest (20%) mostly in Jakarta are using dial-up UUCP / TCP/IP to reach the InterNet gateway at IPTEK-NET Jakarta.
  •	In addition to the active nodes, there are currently at least 71 nodes are preparing their equipments and human resources to join the network.
  •	The estimated total user is 6049 users with 37.0% are at universities, 7.5% in research institutions, 1.7% NGO, 34.7% in government institutes, and 19.1% commercial / industries.
  •	Approximately 68.3% of total users accessible in Jakarta; 30.1% users reside in Bandung city (24.4% are users of ITB).
  •	Major applications are 4 major electronic mailing lists, 14 major newsgroups & Gopher / WWW servers.
  •	Estimated growth rate is 700% per year.

Summary of the Indonesian major computer network international links.

  •	IPTEK‑NET
	  	TCP/IP 300bps to Aachen Germany
	  	TCP/IP 64Kbps to SprintNet (USA)
  •	University of Indonesia
	  	UUCP 14.4Kbps to UUNET (USA), DIALIX (OZ)
  •	Institute of Technology Bandung
	  	TCP/IP 38.4Kbps to CRL in Kashima, Japan via ETS-V (experimental)
	  	Store‑and‑Forward AX.25 VITASAT to InterNet

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
	The whole concept on self‑supporting network in Indonesia cannot be implemented without the dedicated group of people who sacrifice many sleepless nights trying to run our computer network into a reality. Until today, most of them are still working and sacrificing their time for our network. Among the endless list of these devoted people, I would like to acknowledge many of my colleagues who make our dream into a reality, but not limited to, M. Ichsan (LAPAN), R.M.S. Ibrahim (UI), Samawi Samadikun (IPTEK‑NET), Firman Siregar (IPTEK‑NET), R. Santoso (IPTEK‑NET), Adi Indrayanto (ITB), Arman Hazairin (ITB), Basuki Suhardiman (ITB), Aulia Khunus Arif (ITB), Ichwan F. Agus (ITB), Yudi Satria (ITB).
	In addition, I would like to thank the generous supports from Prof. Dr. Samaun Samadikun (DRN), Prof. Dr. Harsono Taroepratjeka (DIKTI), Dr. Vinarya Legoh (IPTEK‑NET), Dr. Tati Mengko (ITB), Dr. Sudaryatno (ITB), Dr. Soegiarjo Soegijoko (ITB), Dr. Richard Mengko (ITB).

Expert Group Meeting in the Development of RIHED
Information Network on Higher Education
Sol Twin Towers Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
March 14‑16, 1995

PARTICIPANT's FORM

  1.	Name:		Onno W. Purbo
  2.	Post Held:	Group Leader, Computer Network Research Group
			Institute of Technology Bandung
  3.	Address and contact numbers

	 3.1	Office address:
			Computer Network Research Group
			Inter University Center on Microelectronics
			Institute of Technology Bandung
			Bandung 40132, Indonesia
			FAX: 62‑22 214‑417
			E‑mail: yc1dav@process.paume.itb.ac.id

	 3.2	Home address:
			Setra Sari Atas 15
			Bandung 40152, Indonesia

  4.	Experience on information and higher education:
	  •	Group Leader, Computer Network Research Group ITB 1993‑
	  •	Bandung‑Net coordinator 1993
	  •	Member of National Task Force for the development of library & information technology.
	  •	Indonesian node coordinator for academic community for developing Sustainable Development Network (SDN) ‑ United Nation Development Program (UNDP).
	  •	Country coordinator for YB‑NET, Amateur Packet Radio TCP/IP Network under Class B IP address 44.132.
  5.	Any dietary restriction: no ham.
	Duration of stay: From: 13 March 1995 to 17 March 1995.

										Onno W. Purbo
										24 February 1995

(To be sent to SEAMEO RIHED in Bangkok)
5th Floor, Ministry of University Affairs Building, 328 Si Ayutthaya Rd, Bangkok 10400,
FAX: (662) 246‑4030