CEENet
Central and Eastern European Networking Association

Latvia

Networking organization:

Latvian Academic Computer Network - LATNET
Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science
University of Latvia
Rainis blvd. 29
Riga, LV-1459, Latvia

Organizational structure

Latvian R&D community was for the first time connected to the worldwide Internet at the end of 1992 over 9.6 kbps leased line to NORDUnet. Since then the R&D network in Latvia has grown considerably in the following major directions:

By financial and technical assistance from Nordic Council of Ministers, German government and UNESCO, the international connectivity has improved. At the end of 1994 there were two international 64 kbps links established to Latvia and necessary CISCO router equipment was available.

LATNET is operated by the LATNET Laboratory located in the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Latvia and is by the Latvian Networking Managed Board established by the Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia. The board includes representatives from major universities, research institutions, Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia, and PTT.

LATNET has spread considerably inside Riga ( 37 objects in Riga are connected by leased lines, many more by dial-up SLIP or UUCP) and to other university cities in Latvia ( Liepaja, Daugavpils, Rezekne,Salaspils, Jelgava, Jurmala )

Actual topology

In the beginning of 1995 LATNET had two international links:

- Riga - Tallinn. This is 64 kbps IP link. In 1994 it was paid by Nordic Council of Ministers in the framework of BALTNET project. The cost of link is 22 000 ECU per year. This link is further connected to NORDUnet ( via Tallinn and Helsinki)

- RIGA - Berlin. This is 64 kbps link on which the primary protocol is X.25 and it is connected to DFN in Berlin. The link in 1994 was paid by German support Program and the cost of the link was 100 000 ECU/year. Over this link an IP tunneling to EuropaNet node in Duesseldorf was implemented. The traffic generated by LATNET was counted as DFN traffic. Unfortunately this link was extremely slow for IP traffic ( round trip for IP was 1 -5 sec !). The existing link 64 kbps to Tallinn is overloaded ( mean traffic equal 30 kbps)

See the picture