05-24-2011, 04:46 PM
![[Image: Logo_pern.jpg]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Logo_pern.jpg){kind=logo}
Pakistan Education & Research Network (PERN2) is the only research and education network of Pakistan launched in 2002 by Higher Education Commission. The purpose of this national research and education network is to provide communication infrastructure to the universities, institutions of higher learning and research organizations to meet their networking and internet requirements.
The network has evolved significantly and providing valuable services, like high-speed internet, audio/video conferencing, access to digital library resources. At the time of its inception, 56 public and private sector universities/institutes were provided connectivity with a total core capacity of 2 Mbit/s and 8 Mbit/s internet bandwidth had been shared by these universities/institutes, whereas universities/institutes used to get 64-128 kbit/s links.
The initial architecture of PERN was based on legacy telecommunication Infrastructure which was not aligned with modern NRENs architecture and so was not capable to support Next Generation Networks services and applications. Moreover, limited bandwidth availability due to old infrastructure and constraints on last-mile segment do not allow supporting environment for research groups, special interest groups and todays bandwidth hungry applications.
Design
The design of this network is based on latest technology available in this domain, i.e. Gigabit MetroEthernet, SDH, and DWDM (OADMs/OLAs). The network architecture consists of 10 GE Metro Ring Networks in Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Lahore metro cities, whereas in other larger cities like, Hyderabad, Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta and Peshawar, the network is being established as hub-and-spoke topology.
Three (03) High End Carrier Class Core Routers at Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi have been installed as three Regional Access (RA) POPs (Point of Presence: a junction/aggregation point of connections), whereas, Eight Local Access (LA) POPs in the three metro cities and Four Sub-Regional Access (sRA)POPs based on aggregation/ distribution routers of Carrier Class have been installed in four major cities of the country.
