From: sawyer@sccm.Stanford.EDU (William Sawyer)
Subject: Computer Networking in Slovenia
Keywords: Slovenia, Networking
Organization: Scientific Computing/Computational Mathematics (SCCM), Stanford U.
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 16:10:38 GMT



			COMPUTER NETWORKING IN SLOVENIA
			===============================

During a brief stay in Slovenia in Mid-September, I had the good fortune
to meet Networking professions from the University of Maribor, the
Slovenian PTT and the Institute Jozef Stefan in Ljubljana.  What follows
is a report about Computer Networking in Slovenia past, present and
future.

Computer Networks in Slovenia are not as complete or as ubiquitous as they
are in Western Europe or North America, but they are making considerable
progress.  The Computer networks can be broken down into two basic areas:
the industrial and academic communities.  An X.25 network made available
by the PTT (formerly JUPAK, now SIPAX.25) which encompasses both communities
has existed for several years.  In addition a DECNET based mainly on leased
PTT lines has over 300 nodes throughout Slovenia.

Pavel Mese, director of new PTT Telecom services, explained
the current situation of the Slovenian PTT:
The PTT is in a transitional state.  It is waiting of new legislation to be
passed by the Slovenian Parliment to allow the privatization of certain
sectors of the communication spectrum.  While post, voice telephony
and telecommunication infrastructure will remain a monopoly, other areas,
eg. Telecom services, will be open to the private sector.  The PTT will
presumably be broken up into corresponding units and phone and computer
services privatized.  What will ultimately come out of this process in the
field of networking is not clear.  Chances are that the Telecom branch of the
PTT will have competition for network services like electronic mail.

The numerous 9.6 Kbps connections in SIPAX.25, Mese said, would be slowly
upgraded to 64Kbps, particularly with the introduction of Glass fiber
in and around Ljubljana.  In addition a new 2Mbps standard copper connection
to Maribor has been installed recently.  The connections of JUPAK to
Croatia and Macedonia (via Hungary) are being maintained.   Already the PTT
offers clients in industry e-mail (X.400).  This service will be emphasized
in the future and new services added, eg. the X.500 directory service.

ARNES (Acadmeic and Research Network of Slovenia)  has arisen from
YUNAC (Yugoslavian Network for the Academic Community).  YUNAC still
exists: Marko Bonac of the Institut Jozef Stefan is at the same time the
chairman of both organizations.  YUNAC still has representatives from Croatia
and Bosnia, and supports connections to Zagreb.  Connections to Bosnia have
been broken due to the war.  YUNAC, says Mr. Bonac, will ultimately
become an international organization for the cooperation between
ARNES, CARNET and later other networks in the territory of former
Yugoslavia.

ARNES, currently based at the IJS, is responsible for, firstly, improving and
consolidating the current network connections in the academic community which
are currently rather disorganized.  It is a central organization to which all
academic institutions can go to acquire connections, thus avoiding the previous
practice of building point to point connections.  Secondly, it will provide
new services, such as Internet access to Slovenia, an X.400 <-> SMTP gateway
(with PP), and the X.500 directory service. It already provides X.400 mail
to about 1000 researchers in Slovenia and gives them access to BITNET/EARN
and Internet Mail (at the moment through gateways outside of Slovenia).
Finally, ARNES will provide consultary services to academia, is a member
of the international organization RARE (The Association of European
Networking Organizations) and will participate in international workshops
and research projects like COSINE.

Ultimately the ARNES network will support IP, X.25 and DECNET as protocol
on its backbone. As far as ervices are concerned ARNES will support
Telnet and SET HOST for remote logins, ftp and DECnet COPY for file
transfer and X.400, SMTP and DECnet Mail-11 for electronic mail.
In addition, ARNES will run the primary DNS (Domain Name Server) for the domain
SI (Slovenia), as well as domains within the academic community and will
backup other DNS' responsible for domains in the industrial sector.

The international connection to Slovenia is currently provided by 64Kbps
X.25 connection over IXI (international X.25 Interconnection).
Currently X.400 goes over this connection to the WEP (Well-Known Entry Point)
at the IJS.  Mail via SMTP is converted in Germany to X.400.

The new Convex C3840 which the Ministry of Science and Technology will
purchase for the IJS will run DECNET and will be integrated into the
existing DECNET infrastructure.  There was considerable controversy
about this purchase. Some people felt that the network infrastructure
should first be expanded and its performance increased in order to give
more people access to networking services.  Within the realm of suggestions
for improving the infrastructure were an FDDI ring connecting the IJS and
other institutes and faculties of the University of Ljubljana, as well as
the mass purchase of workstations for researchers.  Such ideas may be
realized at a later time.


GENERAL NOTES ON VISITING SLOVENIA:
-----------------------------------

Travel in Slovenia is safe and not problematic.  The country has been
peaceful since its week-long war in June 1991.  Visas are not necessary
for citizens of most Western European countries or are supplied for
free to Canadians, Americans, Australians, etc, at the border.  The
people I met were very helpful and were happy to answer all my questions.