Yuri KORZH (yvk@gu.kiev.ua)
Global Ukraine, Ukraine
Ukraine Online Information Agency
Yuri DEMCHENKO (demch@cad.ntu-kpi.kiev.ua
)
Kiev Polytechnic Institute,Ukraine
Paper describes trends in Internet development in Ukraine. Infrastructure, external links and traffic of leading Ukrainian ISPs are analyzed. Problems in coordination of activity between ISPs and PTT companies are discussed. Some meaningful trends in technical, research, academic and social transformation are studied.
Presented information summarises active experience of non-state initiatives of Internet community in developing Internet and associated services in Ukraine. Besides complete information about Ukrainian Internet, paper will give some analytical results concerning effective approaches in promotion Internet technologies in conditions of country with restructuring economy and emerging technologies.
GII development in the world and it's orientation on worldwide cooperation and technologies exchange according to G7 initiatives gives developing countries possibility to leap-frog intermediate stage of technology development and launch directly stage of integration into building Information Society and Electronic Economy in the world.
A modern and competitive information infrastructure requires that Ukraine as European country evolves towards the application of common principles regarding communication and regulatory issues, and creates the conditions which would foster foreign and local investments in building National Information Infrastructure (NII).
Main issues that should be solved for smooth integration of Ukraine in worldwide community
New concept of cooperation in technology areas is applied now by EC based on wide access to new Information and Communication Technologies implementation and testing and shared funding of prospective projects. However, such cooperation demand good national communication and computer networking infrastructure.
Therefore, European and international R&D cooperation should be supported by national infrastructural programs. Rapid changes in telecommunication industry in Ukraine have began after Soviet Union dissolution in 1992 when Ukraine started to conduct/implement national oriented infrastructure programs policy in telecommunication area. At the beginning of this period Ukraine didn't have developed national telecommunication infrastructure. All external connectivity (long distance telephone and data links) was provided via Moscow. However, notwithstanding the importance, possibilities to provide effective state policy and regulation in area of NII building remains to be very limited because of poor budget funding.
Owing to international technical assistance in the frame of special TACIS (Technical Assistance for CIS) project on Telecommunication Studies for Ukraine, Trans-European Project ITUR (Italy-Turkey-Ukraine-Russia) was proposed and have been resulted in building transit links from Italy (Palermo) and Turkey (Istanbul) to Ukraine (Odessa) and Russia (Novorossiysk). Now it is running and providing transit link from Europe to Central Asia and China through territory of Ukraine and Russia. Realisation of this project stimulated development of national telecommunication infrastructure using the same SDH technologies. First such SDH path locked up in Trans-European loop via Odessa, Kiev, Lviv and Krakow (Poland).
Notwithstanding that Ukraine currently doesn't participate in some European and CEE Telecommunication initiatives and programs but actual development of Telecommunication market in Ukraine arises in coordination with worldwide and Trans-European programs and principles.
National Agency on Informatization is established in Ukraine for coordination state policy in the area of building elements of NII. It have initiated recently adopted by Parliament of Ukraine Law on Informatization Policy in Ukraine that defines legislative base for new Information and Telecommunication Technologies implementation. The importance of this document is that it defines building of NII and Internet as priority issue for economy development in Ukraine.
However, NII program's realisation is restrained by limited budget funding in conditions of current economical difficulties of restructuring economy in the country. In prospect of this local private businesses and ISPs become active in implementation of modern Networking Information Technologies that facilitates Ukraine's integration into GII. Important areas of restructuring national economy are in the direction of forming elements of Global economy of developing Information Society.
Internet development in Ukraine and Ukrainian Connectivity Map
Good geographical location of Ukraine on the transit ways between Central Europe and Eastern Europe and Asia accelerate international investments in building modern telecommunication infrastructure in Ukraine that will secure good basis for Internet development and building national communication infrastructure.
According to Mario Hilgemeier prognosis West have been reached it's S-curve point in growth of Internet hosts number in June 1997 and in the future rate of hosts growth will slowdown [2]. Ukraine is now at the beginning (exponential) stage of Internet hosts growth. Hostcount statistics provided by RIPE NCC confirms this assumption [3]. Last 15 monthly hostcount reports data are compiled in the table and visualised on diagram Fig. 1. Diagram demonstrates general trend for exponential growth of hosts number in Ukraine.
Table 1
Hostcount for Ukraine (Source: RIPE Database)
| Period | SOA | COUNTED | DUPL | REAL | CHANGE | CHANGE, % |
| January 1997 |
313
|
8509
|
1599
|
6910
|
333
|
4.8%
|
| February 1997 |
346
|
8583
|
1437
|
7146
|
236
|
3.3%
|
| March 1997 |
387
|
9665
|
2387
|
7278
|
132
|
1.8%
|
| April 1997 |
469
|
11734
|
2839
|
8895
|
1617
|
18.2%
|
| May 1997 |
487
|
13073
|
2793
|
10280
|
1385
|
13.5%
|
| June 1997 |
505
|
12849
|
2574
|
10275
|
-5
|
0.0%
|
| July 1997 |
574
|
14955
|
3500
|
11455
|
1180
|
10.3%
|
| August 1997 |
576
|
14954
|
3279
|
11675
|
220
|
1.9%
|
| September 1997 |
584
|
14554
|
3359
|
11195
|
-480
|
-4.3%
|
| October 1997 |
712
|
18215
|
4328
|
13887
|
2692
|
19.4%
|
| November 1997 |
706
|
17805
|
4595
|
13210
|
-677
|
-5.1%
|
| December 1997 |
771
|
18738
|
4742
|
13996
|
786
|
5.6%
|
| January 1998 |
848
|
20533
|
5116
|
15417
|
1421
|
9.2%
|
| February 1998 |
896
|
21651
|
5576
|
16075
|
658
|
4.1%
|
| March 1998 |
995
|
22944
|
6070
|
16874
|
799
|
4.7%
|
| April 1998 |
1073
|
24694
|
7070
|
17624
|
750
|
4.3%
|
| May 1998 |
1139
|
25318
|
7600
|
17718
|
94
|
0.5%
|
| June 1998 |
1263
|
27141
|
7750
|
19391
|
1673
|
8.6%
|
| July 1998 |
1361
|
26661
|
8016
|
18645
|
-746
|
-4.0%
|
| August 1998 |
1486
|
28533
|
8290
|
20243
|
1598
|
7.9%
|
| September 1998 |
1577
|
29883
|
8863
|
21020
|
777
|
3.7%
|
| October 1998 |
1795
|
30316
|
9189
|
21127
|
107
|
0.5%
|
| November 1998 |
1922
|
30721
|
9456
|
21265
|
138
|
0.6%
|
| December 1998 |
2048
|
29880
|
10105
|
19775
|
-1490
|
-7.5%
|
| January 1999 |
2154
|
32039
|
11431
|
20608
|
833
|
4.0%
|
| February 1999 |
2296
|
32695
|
11426
|
21269
|
661
|
3.1%
|
| March 1999 |
2522
|
34338
|
12508
|
21830
|
561
|
2.6%
|
| April 1999 |
2731
|
34770
|
12841
|
21929
|
99
|
0.5%
|
| May 1999 | ||||||
| June 1999 |
Fig. 1. Growth of Hosts number in Ukraine since January 1997 (Source: RIPE Database)
NOTE. You can compare updated hostcount data for Ukraine and hostcount data for Russia for the same period.
Table also contains related information for Russia that demonstrates higher growth of Internet host number in Russia which passed deep economical crisis period and survives now burst in growth of Internet during last year.
At the early stage of Internet development ("Internet advent" in Ukraine in 1994-95) high speed of Internet growth in Ukraine could be explained by growth from "the zero". During this period characterized by high market demand and undeveloped national telecommunication infrastructure many small ISPs were appearing over Ukraine. Many of them in that time had traditional external connectivity via Moscow ISPs, former Relcom nodes. Non-coordinated development of Internet in many regions of Ukraine was resulted in situation that Ukrainian ISPs now hold more than 25 Autonomous Systems [4]. AS numbers for major ISPs are given on the Ukrainian external connectivity diagram Fig. 2).
Previous two 1996-97 years were characterized by rapid growth of the number of small ISPs in Ukraine. According to RIPE Database Ukraine has now 27 Regional Internet Registry but 10 of them are not based in Ukraine. During last 1997 year the core external and internal Internet connectivity map was formed. Major ISPs raised above on the market which growth was based on competitive market policy and quality of services. Now five ISPs can be regarded as major market players on Ukrainian Internet Market: JV InfoCom, UkrTelecom, JV Global Ukraine, JV InfoCom, Lucky Net Ltd., Relcom-Ukraine Ltd. External links of major Ukrainian ISPs are listed in the Table 2.
Table 2
Major Ukrainian ISPs and their external links
| Internet Service Provider | Connectivity | Internal Links in Ukraine |
| JV Global Ukraine
http://www.gu.net AS5415 |
1 Mbps (Satellite) - Digex Ltd., USA
2 Mbps - MCI, USA
1 Mbps - TeleGlobe
|
> 30 local ISPs |
| JV InfoCom
http://www.ukrpack.net AS6846 |
2 (4) Mbps (Satellite) - TeleGlobe, Canada | UkrPack X.25/Frame Relay Network
> 20 local ISPs |
| Lucky Net Ltd.
http://www.lucky.net AS3254 |
2 Mbps (Satellite) - Deutsche Telekom
512 Kbps (Satellite) - Demos Ltd. 256 Kbps - JV InfoCom |
> 20 local ISPs
LuckyNet Israel (Israel) |
| Relcom-Ukraine
http://www.relc.com AS3252 |
512 Kbps - JV InfoCom
64 Kbps - UkrTelecom |
> 15 local ISPs |
| UkrTelecom
http://www.ukrtel.net AS6849 |
2 Mbps - UUNET, London
2 Mbps - MCI, USA |
>10 local ISPs |
A few more external links are operated by regional commercial and non-profit ISPs
Alternative possibility for internal communications and Internet connectivity is provide by UkrPack X.25/Frame Relay Network that have backbone formed by four regional Switching Centers in Kiev, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa connecting more than 150 nodes over Ukraine. UkrPack network can be used as transport system for Internet access (that is provided by InfoCom JV - UkrPack Operator) or communication media for corporate networks.
National Internet infrastructure is formed now by interconnections between regional ISPs. Based on density of regional connectivity, Internet map of Ukraine can divided on four regions:
Typical traffic statistics for Global Ukraine links is shown on Fig. 4. Picture demonstrates Incoming and Outgoing Traffic in Bytes per Second for three mainstream channels. Outgoing traffic mainly forwarded via two channels GU-INFOCOM and GU-UTC-MCI but incoming traffic is received via all working channels. This sample illustrates typical ratio 1/3 for outgoing and incoming traffic. Provided statistics can be retrieved from http://noc.gu.net/mrtg/ [5].
Academic and Research Network development in Ukraine
Information Revolution increase importance of education and knowledge acquisition that is not possible without developed public and A&R networks and their integration into GII. At the beginning of Internet development in Ukraine the most significant groups of Internet users were scientific and educational institutions and information agencies Now the situation is changed definitely to commercial companies and private use.
Importance of creating and operating national infrastructure of Academic and Research Network (ARN) is commonly recognized. However, because of complicated political and hard economical conditions Ukraine didn't have possibility to build national Academic and Research Network (ARN) infrastructure. International technical and financial assistance in the frame of numerous programs (ISF Soros Foundation, TACIS, INTAS, UNDP, etc.) was sufficient only for initial stages of ARN projects realisation. But now these projects have been finished and ARN is developing now by own resources of Universities.
Ukrainian Academic and Research Network Project was partially supported in the frame of PHARE Project under RARE/TERENA activity during 1993-1996 years. Communication Center in ICMP, Lviv was created and provide access to Internet via Polish Scientific Network NASK for wide Ukrainian scientific community.
During 1994-1997 Kiev IP Backbone for Universities and Research Institutes in Kiev have been built in the frame of ISF Soros Foundation Internet Program. Now Kiev IP backbone connects 4 nodes located in different regions of Kiev and provides access for majority of A&R organizations in Kiev. But low speed external link doesn't satisfy current needs of served community.
The main problems of coordinated and sustainable development of Academic and Research networks in Ukraine is absent of state funding for development of Universities campus networks and purchasing sufficient Internet connectivity. Partial support for development of Universities Network components and purchasing Internet access for cooperating Universities will be provided in the frame of recently approved NATO Networking project "Ukrainian Academic and Research Data Network, Part One (UARDN-1)".
The number of Universities in Ukraine that have full Internet connectivity and started building their campus networks is constantly increasing. Some of them become centers of regional activity in building Academic and Research Network
Forming Professional Internet community in Ukraine
National Internet infrastructure development and its integration into GII demands forming in Ukraine professional associations and technical/working groups dealing with Internet related problems important for internal infrastructure development and technologies implementation and for participation in activity of International technical and coordination organizations.
After the period of intensive implementation of new Internet technologies Ukrainian professional community became ready to participate in activity of correspondent international professional groups and technical committees.
Such possibility is given now by open and benevolent policy of TERENA and RIPE allowing all specialists to participate in activity of working groups and technical committees. Bright example of this is recently adopted TERENA Pilot project "Multilingual MUAs -The Test" mainly based on Ukrainian and Russian project team [7].
Existing experience in some practical usage of Internet technologies could be useful and interesting for all Internet community. Currently, Ukrainian specialists participate actively in TERENA WG dealing with Internationalization problems (WG-MSG, WG-i18n), user support (WG-ETINU) and anti-spam WG (established on last RIPE29 meeting, Amsterdam, 28-30 January, 1998). Effective antispamming rulesets are developed and successfully implemented among users and clients' community of Global Ukraine [8].
RIPE WG-TLD devoted to the problems of Top Level Domain management is another working group of primary interest for Ukrainian Internet community and, particularly, problem of national TLD (nTLD or ccTLD) administration in accordance to current IANA restructuring and new regulatory basis for Internet administration in the world. In this way, Ukraine will support initiative of establishing RIPE Council of European National TLD Registries (CENTR) for registration and administration of national TLDs in countries of RIPE Region [1, 9].
Ukrainian Internet community is on way now to founding independent ISP Association whose goal will be to provide common technical policy, operability and interoperability of national networking and information infrastructure, coordination of local activities with international associations, initiatives and programs on Internet technologies. Currently coordinating activity in area of Internet development in Ukraine is provided now by ISP Section of Association of Telecommunications Operators of Ukraine (TELAS) formed by major Ukrainian ISPs.
First such action of the future Association was establishing KOI8-U Working Group for coordination of registration and implementation of KOI8-U Ukrainian Character Set and encoding for Ukrainian language support in Internet. KOI8-U WG activity was resulted by preparing KOI8-U RFC draft for official registration by IANA [10].
Internet Information Resources development
National information resources development and creation of national Information space, particularly, cultural content should be regarded as priority for integration into GII and Open Information Society. Activity in these areas and participation in correspondent international technical committees and working groups become important not only for governmental bodies and budget organizations but also for commercial IT and Internet companies. In new conditions of Information Revolution that does not limited by state of political boundaries national security issues become depended on technologies' access and knowledge acquisition [11].
Importance of development of useful and significant information resources and business implementation of new IT technologies now widely recognized among major ISPs and IT Companies in Ukraine.
National Information space is becoming ready for business and education. This area attracts now interest of commercial companies planning to develop elements of Electronic Commerce (EC) in Ukraine. Creating public information resources is the first intermediate step for forming Information Society consumer community that will become target for forthcoming EC.
Recent the most important events in formation and development of Information resources and directory services in Ukraine are the following
1996 -- Educational WWW Server on Internet and Networking Information Technologies (Kiev Polytechnic Institute; http://cad.ntu-kpi.kiev.ua/)
1997 -- Ukraine Internet Service Providers directory (Global Ukraine; http://uanet.gu.net/)
1997 -- INROFES (ElVisti Information Center; http://www.visti.net/search/)
December 1997 -- Search System in Ukrainian Net Resources (ElVisti Information Center; http://el.visti.net/)
January 1998 -- UAvista WWW Search system (Global Ukraine; http://www3.gu.net/dig.html)
February 1998 -- Ukrainian Internet Pavilion - WWW Server on Ukrainian Historical and Cultural Heritage (Kiev Polytechnic Institute, International Renaissance Foundation, Global Ukraine, Ukraine Online; http://www.park.kiev.ua/)
The most important recently and currently funded projects include:
In Education and Training: Establishing Training Center on Internet Technologies in Lviv (ICMP), Kharkiv Polytechnic University, Development of Educational Program for Professional Education in Internet and Networking IT, and other projects.
Most significant IRF's Project in Information Resource development is "U'Pavilion - WWW Server on Historical and Cultural Heritage of Ukraine (http:/www.park.kiev.ua/) [12] that is been realizing on the base of Kiev Polytechnic Institute since 1996 and recently became available for wide Internet community owing to support of Global Ukraine and Ukraine Online. Project was initiated as response to the International initiative of establishing worldwide Internet Pavilion at the Exhibition '96. Established Web server will serve both for presenting wide information about Ukraine and as technological server for integrating activity and initiatives of humanitarian community and experts interesting in presenting information about Ukraine in Internet and developing non-commercial information resources.
Ukraine Online Computer Information Agency
Recently founded Computer Information Agency "Ukraine Online" (UOL) by joint initiative of Global Ukraine ISP, Kwazar-Micro Company and Ministry of Information intends to become the center for Internet technology innovation and dissemination in Ukraine [13]. One of the goals of UOL will be forming national information infrastructure and resources.
UOL will integrate many current initiatives started by Global Ukraine and Kwazar-Micro Companies in modern IT and resource and services development and plan to cooperate tightly with Kiev Universities research and design groups.
Main areas of UOL's business and activity are the following:
Some non-commercial initiatives will include preparing Ukrainian WWW/Internet Resources Catalog, creation of devoted Web Server to Ukrainian Historical and Cultural Heritage (in the frame of supported U'Pavilion Project), technical assistance for cultural organization in IT implementation and establishing Internet presence, etc.
Ukraine survives now rapid Internet development and modern Networking Information Technology emergence. There are the vital needs for deep analysis of new emerging market perspectives and prognosis. This paper presents current results of the attempt to analyse situation and trends on Internet market in Ukraine and based on active participation of authors and their organizations and companies in development and forming of this market sector. Regular updates of analytical information will be published on Global Ukraine Company's Web Site at http://www.gu.net/gis/.