From: cmf851@huxley.anu.edu.au (Albert Langer)
Newsgroups: aus.aarnet
Subject: AARNET upgrade research proposals due 4 and 12 days - $13M
Followup-To: aus.aarnet
Date: 9 Oct 1992 18:02:48 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: huxley.anu.edu.au
Summary: A $13M grant for research on upgrading the downunder Internet
 may be devoted to developing the market for broadband ISDN unless 
 alternative proposals are submitted NOW. AARNET faces "critical
 congestion and subsequent performance collapse" on its link to the
 rest of the Internet well before the end of 1992 as a result of budgetary 
 constraints imposed by the AVCC.
Keywords: AARNET Internet Research Grants Upgrade Telecom IBM

"The [Australian] Government will provide $13.17 million over the next two
years to upgrade the research data network in Australia (AARNET). A working
party will develop a proposal for the expansion of the existing computer
and communications network and upgrading its capacity, through the formation
of a Research Data Network Cooperative Research Centre."

("Developing Australian Ideas", Minister for Science and Technology, Aug. 1992)

"The primary goal of the CRC will be to develop the market for high-speed
communication and computing services in Australia, [...] The secondary goal
will be to assist AARNET to upgrade its infrastructure in order to support
high-speed data communications for the Australian research community."

("Advice of offer to develop the RDN CRC proposal" dated 1 October from 
Peter Gerrand, General Manager, Network Strategy, Telecom Australia - on
behalf of a consortium led by Telecom and IBM Australia.)

"The working group held a meeting on 2 October 1992, where it considered
the submissions. It became evident in discussions that at this stage
there is only one substantial bid for participation in the CRC [...]"

"Those interested in developing their own alternative bid would need to
submit concrete proposals, which meet the requirements of the CRC Program,
and provide details of partners, research and education activities,
timescales, resources and intended outcomes. Proposals should reach this
Office within a fortnight; [i.e. 22 October AEST, now 10 days] while
these will not need to be final, they will need to be well developed.
Should any such proposals be forthcoming, the working party would be
reconvened to consider them."

(Fax to me from The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,
Office of the Chief Scientist, Cooperative Research Centres Branch,
8 October 1992 15:12 AEST. Not a hoax. Verified by phone calls.)

"Invitation for participation

"We now invite interested parties (both prospective core and supporting
participants) to submit well developed proposals in this area of 
applications for experimental broadband networks for the proposed RDN CRC.
Suitable product descriptions should encompass the identification of
research and industrial partners, timescales, resource requirements
and contribution, and intended results.

"Due to the funding constraints, the number of proposals which can be
supported will be limited.

"In order to meet the required time constraints, proposals will need to
be received by 14 October. [4 days]"

(Letter from Telecom Australia forwarded with above fax)

For further information send email with the word SUBSCRIBE to:
balance-request@coombs.anu.edu.au and join discussions in newsgroup
aus.aarnet. Anonymous ftp area with full texts etc under construction at:
coombs.anu.edu.au:balance

(Signed) Albert Langer, Convenor of "Narrow Bandwidth Applications"
Working Group established at the RDN-CRC workshop, 25 September.

This announcement and any opinions stated or implied are my own, not 
from other members of the Working Group.

[Background and personal opinion: 
An invitation only workshop on the RDN-CRC was announced in the Australian 
weekly computer press on 18 September asking for anyone interested to request 
an invitation by... 18 September. I believe that Telecom Australia and IBM
Australia may well be right as to how the $13 million grant will be spent
by them. However they have made mistakes before and it is also possible
that the funds will be spent as originally specified by the Minister for
Science. The Office of the Chief Scientist has no access to the Internet
and may not quite understand just how quickly news can spread. They may
find it necessary to reconvene the working party whether or not "well
developed" proposals reach them in 10 days. Whether the research grant
is spent on "upgrading AARNET" as announced by the Minister, or to develop
the market for B-ISDN (35 Mbps to 600 Mbps channel access capacity) as
announced by Telecom and IBM Australia, depends on how quickly the net
can react. I believe there are plenty of researchers, institutions and
commercial enterprises in Australia and around the world who CAN produce
research proposals, or at least expressions of interest, aimed at
"expansion of the EXISTING computer and communications network and
increasing its capacity". For example it might even be possible to
find a way to extend the network so that the Office of the Chief
Scientist in Australia does not have to rely on fax when taking
decisions about it...]

Finally, attention is drawn to the AARNET Business Plan of September 1992,
available as a compressed postscript file by anonymous ftp in directory: 

coombs.anu.edu.au:balance/pub/aarnet/

Appendix A on page 35 includes more from the Minister's original announcement.

Pages 22 and 29 include the following:

"In considering current usage levels the most critical link at present
is the Australia-US link. This link is now (August 1992) running at 95%
utilisation levels for 4-6 hours per working day, and it is anticipated
that critical congestion and subsequent performance collapse will be
experienced well before the end of 1992." (p22)

"Provision has also been made [for] an upgrade of the Internet circuit
to 1.5 Mbps (T1) capacity (scheduled to be installed in 3rd quarter
1993). The requirements for this additional capacity in the backbone
network is based on considerations as detailed in the section on
Engineering Capacity considerations (pages 21-22).

"It is noted that this proposed installation date is scheduled to
occur well after critical congestion is anticipated on this particular
service (critical congestion and consequent acute degradation of
the national service is anticipated to be a critical issue for the
operation of AARNET well before March 1993), but requested budgetary
constraints from the AVCC for the 1993 program mandate this delayed
implementation of the required capacity upgrade." (p29)

Newsgroups: aus.aarnet