Africa to benefit from ISOC, AfriNIC infrastructure project

The Internet Society (ISOC) and AfriNIC (African Network Information Center) have rolled out a collaborative project seeking to strengthen Internet infrastructure on the continent.

The only way to maintain electronic commerce in the continent is by strengthening the infrastructure, said Adiel Akplogan, AfriNIC CEO. "People will resort to local infrastructure once we demonstrate we can perform at the same level with the developed countries," Akplogan said.

The project will help countries establish national Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) where service providers can peer. Up to now access has been routed through Europe or the U.S. The second phase is setting up copies of the DNS (Domain Name System) root servers, which allow faster access to Web sites and pages.

"If a country is to enjoy the benefits of local content, it is important to have a functional IXP and a copy of the root server," said Michuki Mwangi, a senior education manager at ISOC.

A root server maps IP addresses. If the address map resides within the country, then it becomes faster to access the Web site.

The first phase of the project was a workshop where IXP operators without copies of the root server were asked to express interest. The project is also supporting countries without IXPs to set them up.

Tanzania and Mozambique will get a copy of the root zone server, Mali will get technical support of a fully operational IXPs and Sierra Leone will set up an IXP.

"A local copy of the DNS root server will provide resilience against an outage of a major international circuit. Waiting/response time will be improved from the current 600ms," said Frank Habicht, manager of Tanzania's IXP.

Tanzania has two exchange points and Habicht feels that it has helped online application form processing for customs inspection clearance and online applications to the Tanzania Revenue Authority.

"Companies are now relying on the IXP for business-to-business Virtual Private Networks," Habicht added. "New business opportunities for local content hosting have also come up."

The infrastructure has to be in place for local content to yield results, Michuki said.

The Kenya IXP grew by 384 percent last year, a factor Michuki attributes to awareness of the value of local content.

The true value of the IXPs has not been appreciated in Africa because the cost of connectivity has remained high. With fiber-optic connections finally coming to Kenya, Michuki predicted that low-cost bandwidth will become reality.

Sierra Leone, which is rebuilding after the civil war, received a grant of US$10,000 to set up the necessary framework and train engineers, added Michuki. Cisco Systems is providing additional switches to connect the local university.