CEENet
Central and Eastern European Networking Association
Bulgaria

Networking organization:

UNICOM-B, Bulgarian Academic and Research Network,
Centre of Informatics and Computing Technology
Acad. G. Bonchev Str. Bl. 25-A
BG-1113 Sofia
Bulgaria

Organizational structure

UNICOM-B is a non-profit organization created to co-ordinate research networking in Bulgaria. Membership in UNICOM-B is restricted only to academic and educational organizations. At present over 50 organizations are using its network - universities, institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and some other non-commercial organizations.

Topology of the network>

UNICOM-B started in 1991 with a single switched 4800 bps X.25 line Sofia - Vienna. It was used mainly for NJE traffic. Two additional leased IP lines are now in operation: Vienna - Sofia and Vienna - Blagoevgrad (both 9.6 kbps). Sofia and Blagoevgrad are connected with 19.2 kbps IP line. Some sites in Sofia are also connected through leased lines. Users from other locations in the country - Plovdiv, Rousse, Varna, Pleven, Sliven, Stara Zagora use the national X.25 network BULPAC to connect to Sofia.

See the picture

Protocols used

TCP/IP, DDCMP/DECNET, SDLC/SNA, NJE/BITNET, X.25

Number of hosts connected to the net and estimated number of users

Internet: 180
BITNET: 3
DECNET: 19
SNA 3
users: 3500

Financial sources

UNICOM-B is supported by the Ministry of Education and the Academy of Sciences. Part of the equipment is a donation from DEC and Soros Foundation.

Plans for the future

The Ministry of Education will support building of a ring of leased IP lines to connect the main university towns in the country. Existing non-IP lines will be switched to IP. A new 64 kbps satellite link Sofia - Vienna is to be build.

Main obstacles in the development of the net

High costs of leased lines
Old and heterogeneous equipment and software
Lack of experienced network managers

CEENet Central and Eastern European Networking Association Bulgaria