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**** The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ****
**** Computation Center ****
News Bulletin #101
1-May-1997
Today's topics:
- Internet business-class connectivity.
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Improved Internet IUCC Service
The Current Situation
Israel Universities are connected to the Internet via 2
communications lines: one line is connected to IBM with capacity of
1Mb/s and is mainly used for connecting to the USA; the second line,
with capacity of 256Kb/s, is connected to CERN in Geneva and is used
for connecting to Europe. These lines do not meet the current
communication demand, but there are difficulties in getting the
required budget to enlarge the network capacity.
The main problem in the current system of operating the network is
that all network users have equal access priority. A mechanism has
been developed at Tel-Aviv University for MACHBA which can change
this situation.
The Improved Service System
In May 97, the international line via IBM will be upgraded to its full
capacity of 1.5Mb/s.
* 1.25MB/s will be used for normal communications to USA and Europe
* 0.25Mb/s will be set aside by IUCC for the improved service system.
The system will enable different network priorities according to
source and destination of communication and according to the
communication protocol. The system is able to measure the exact
communication capacity which received priority queuing.
By using this system, whoever wishes to get high priority
communication, can do so, for a fee. An interested party defines in
advance the type of communication which should be given priority
according to the above mentioned factors, (it is not possibleto
give priority to a particular user of a computer, only to all users
of a particular computer) for which payment will be made each quarter.
IUCC's Improved Service Prices
The price for the service, based on real cost, is $180 per gigabyte.
The minimum charge is $100 a month.
By subscribing to the improved service, a user will be allowed
access to a special WWW proxy, which interogates the other MACHBA
proxies for requested URLs before issuing a request abroad. By
doing so, response time is improved, and bandwidth is saved. People
using the service have reported a 3-10 fold performance improvement.
A party which is worried that this arrangement may cause budget
overruns can choose an alternate pricing scheme, in which
communications priority will be given at a set data rate.
Communications which exceed this set rate will be given normal
priority, according to the amount of excess at each given moment.
In this way, the amount of priority communications can be limited in
advance, thus limiting the price. The price for this arrangement is
$625 a month for a data rate of 16Kb/s.
Applications for the Improved Service
If you are interested in getting the Improved Internet Service, contact
your local computer center (02 - 6584280) for further details.
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