JKUAT Case on Open Access

Building E-Infrastructures or Cyberinfrastructures in Kenya

Transforming research & education using ICT

A presentation at the FAO Forum Open Data and Open Science in AgricultureJacaranda Hotel, June 15, 2015By Meoli Kashorda, PhD, MIEEEExecutive Director, KENET and

Professor of Information Systems, USIU

Agenda

• KENET as the National Research and Education Network– Responsible for building cyberinfrastructure or e-

infrastructure for Kenya• KENET Governance, Mission and Core Values

– BoT, Membership, Operator• What services does KENET provide? • Access to E-infrastructure or cyberinfrastructure

for Open Data and Open Science

Transforming Education with ICT 3

KENET supports the Kenyan Higher Education and Research Ecosystem

KENET is the National Research and Education Network ( NREN) of Kenya

• Aggregates Demand for Connectivity, Internet bandwidth and Cloud Services of member institutions

– Increasing buyers power of the higher education sector and reducing costs– KENET operates expensive data centers for member institutions to provide community cloud services

• Aggregates Internet traffic from Higher Education and research institutions– KENET generates up to 3,500 Mb/s of Google traffic per day– Up to 6,000 Mb/s of traffic generated by connected campuses– Translates to support by Global content distributors like Google and Akamai

• Develops High-end ICT talent – technical + project management– Capacity building for KENET and member institutions– KENET Critical-mass of high-end ICT and engineering talent for R & E community

• Builds and operates advanced research infrastructures for the R &E community of Kenya in different areas

– Africa Science Gateway and federated services (KENET CA, iDP, EDUROAM)– Special Interest Groups (SIGs) in Educational technology and Engineering Education constituted in FY

2014-2015– SIGs in Medicine, Agriculture and ICT shall be constituted in FY 2015-2016– KENET focus is support for STEM education and research!

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KENET Governance • KENET is constituted as a not-for-profit TRUST with Seven

Registered Trustees– Seven Vice Chancellors + PS Education + DG CA, CEO, KEMRI as 10 Trustees

– Governed by Board of Trustees, Assisted by Management Board – ILRI representative – Member institutions and academic community are the beneficiaries

• KENET is a membership organization and only serves members – it is NOT a business

• KENET licensed as a Alternative Network Facilities Network Operator since 2002– See https//www.kenet.or.ke

• KENET is an implementation agent of the Government of Kenya, Infrastructure donors (KTCIP, Google, Foundations etc) and Member institutions– Partnerships for research and infrastructure expansion

• KENET is the National Research and Education Network of Kenya– Largest NREN in Africa after TENET in South Africa in terms of Internet traffic– Exchanges traffic with other NRENs in the world at NO cost

Transforming Education with ICT 5

KENET Mission and Core Values (see www.kenet.or.ke

• KENET’s mission is to be a catalyst for transformation of research and education in Kenya– Catalyst for improved quality of research and increased productivity– KENET discovers and support faculty and research champions through

travel grants, min-grants, and Special Interest Groups in STEM areas• Core values include:

– Diversity (e.g., diversity of staff measured as university, county, gender, temperament etc)

– Innovations – in services and promotion of research collaboration– Open access – Open source software, open data, open e-infrastructures– Partnerships and collaboration– Integrity and ethics– Sustainability

Transforming education through ICT

Membership Growth (92 members)

Public Universities Private Universities Colleges University College Government Affiliates Research institutes0

5

10

15

20

25

30

7

20

5

20

98

2223

6 6

89

22

24

109 9

10

22

24

10 10 10

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Membership Growth Categories 2011/2014

July 2011July 2012July 2013July 2014

KENET facilitates collaboration through Annual Heads of Institutions Forums (2013 forum participants)


Google Confidential and Proprietary

• .

Uganda

Tanzania

Somalia

INDIAN OCEAN

Ethiopia

Primary fiber links

Lokichoggio

Lodwar

Kitale

Weybuye

__

Kakamega

Eldoret

Kisumu

Kisii

Kericho Bomet

Narok

Rongo

Isebania

Nairobi

Kaljiado

Namanga

Tala

Kitui

Mwingi

Garissa

Garsen

Thika

Muranga

Nyeri

Embu

Meru

Nanyuki

Nyahururu

Nakuru

Isielo

Wajiir

Marsabit

Moyale

Mandera

129

15 9

318

912

70

Mombasa

Malindi

Kilifi

Backup fiber links

Mombasa POP

Meru POP

USIU DC

Kisumu POP

Nakuru POP

UoN POP

Eldoret POP

500KM

KENET POP

400KM

500KM

400KM

350KM

350KM150KM

Italian Space Agency -Luigi Broglio Space Centre- Malindi

Marsabit Girls

KENET Operates a Broadband Network for Members

POP Connected Campuses

Nairobi POP 72

Kisumu POP 21

Mombasa POP 10

Eldoret POP 15

Nakuru POP 11

Meru POP 17

Total Campuses connected

170+

Garissa UC

JKUAT Kitale

Furthest connected campus

Rongo UC


CS Matiang’i Launched of the KENET Broadband Network in Dec 2013


What Services does KENET provide? → Broadband Internet and connectivity services

o Total International Internet bandwidth subscriptions from July 2015 - 4,800 Mb/s o 5 Mb/s for KALROo >400 Mb/s for UoN, KU, JKUAT!

o Special price for research institutes with 20 Mb/s and above subscriptiono KENET-owned Last mile fiber for 40+ main campuses of large members

→ Shared Services – Web-hosting (FREE), Storage services, Infrastructure as a Service, collocation, Video/web conferencing, EDUROAM etc. o Tier 3 Data Centers at UoN and USIU; No downtime, stable power supplyo JKUAT and CUEA to be upgraded to data centers in FY 2015-2016.

→ Specialized engineering and ICT advisory services and Capacity Building of ICT directors and Technical Staffo Forums and workshops.o Diagnostic, design and project management services of campus network infrastructures

→ E-infrastructure or cyberinfrastructure services→ Provided exclusively by KENET as the NREN of Kenya


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Definition of e-Infrastructure (Europe) or Cyberinfrastructure (North America)

“e’-Infrastructure is an environment where research resources (hardware, software and content) can be readily shared and accessed where necessary to promote better and more effective research. Such environments integrate hard-, soft- and middleware components, networks, data repositories, and all sorts of support enabling virtual research collaborations to flourish globally.” (*)

(*) EC-endorsed definition:http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?ID=90825&section=news&tpl=article

World Class Scientific Research with only broadband Internet

→E-infrastructure allows a researcher at any KALRO campus to access advanced research infrastructures in other parts of the world!→High performance computing, specialized scientific

instruments, open research data→No additional local scientific infrastructure investments→But MoUs with owners of infrastructure or data required

→Researchers have to be on the KENET network for authentication →Free services only for NREN users



What Does a Researcher Need to Access Global E-Infrastructures

A trusted entity to provide access to e-infrastructures Digital certificates issued by trusted entity for users to access e-resources (secure access) Digital certificates issued by trusted for servers hosting open data or instruments Trusted Identity Provider (one sign on)

KENET is the only Trusted Entity for Kenya for access to Global e-infrastructures KENET one of the few African NRENs that has setup both the Certification

Authority and Identity Provider Ongoing accreditation of KENET CA by EUGRIDPMA responsible for e-infrastructure access in

Europe, Middle-East and Africa Register at http://ca.kenet.or.ke and http://idp.kenet.or.ke

KENET facilitates issuance of Free or subsidized Wildcard CoMoDo certificates for domain names (for secure websites, e-mail and data repositories) Annual license per CoMoDo digital certificate is $400 per domain

http://ca.kenet.or.ke/

http://idp.kenet.or.ke/


KENET Identity Provider (IdP)• The KENET Identity Provider allows researchers to

use a single identity when they sign into web pages and Science Gateways that require user authentication.

• The KENET IdP is a member of Grid IDentity Pool (GrIDP) federation and currently authenticates the users of several Service Providers including the Africa Science Gateway

• To register go to http://idp.kenet.or.ke

http://idp.kenet.or.ke/

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How does the iDP work? Service access in an Identity Federation

eI4Africa Thematic Wokshop: on to e-Science!|May 2, 2013 | Lilongwe, Malawi

The real value of Identity Federations are their Service Providers, in terms of number, diversity and quality

KENET is the Identity Provider for Kenya

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The Africa Grid Science Gateway(http://sgw.africa-grid.org)


Conclusions• KENET has established a sustainable broadband infrastructure for

universities and research institutes– ILRI and KEMRI Welcome (Kilifi) using it for large R&E genomics data transfers– Increased uptake of Community cloud services such as Disaster recovery and

Storage services for ERPs and research data .

• KENET is a full-fledged trusted entity and is the CA and iDP for Kenya– Engineering / ICT work completed now promotion among researchers

• KENET is ready to support Open Science and Open Data in Kenya and collaboration researchers outside Kenya

• Our Focus is STEM doctoral students in Kenyan Universities and research institutions– Uptake low but research infrastructure services promotion in FY 2015-2016

www.kenet.or.keJomo Kenyatta Memorial

Library, University of NairobiP. O Box 30244-00100, Nairobi.0732 150 500 / 0703 044 500

Thank You

JKUAT Case on Open Access

Education

Transcript of JKUAT Case on Open Access