The Second Year of EEBone Riina Einberg, department manager, Microlink Systems Marko Männik, department manager, Data Communications Department, Estonian Informatics Centre, Baltic IT Review 3 '2000 The authors look back at activities which were involved in creating the Estonian public service WAN backbone, at the second year operations of that system, and at plans for its future development. This article is a sequel to one that was published in Baltic IT Review, No. 4(11), 1998 [1]. Background The EEBone (known as PeaTee in Estonian) is a project involving the creation of a backbone network for governmental agencies. The project was originated by the Department of State Information Systems of the State Chancellery, and it is being implemented and run by the Data Communications Department of the Estonian Informatics Centre. Preparations for the project began in the spring of 1997. Work began in January 1998, and the backbone network was in place on October 1 of that year. The initial strategic plan for the EEBone was drawn up to cover the period between 1997 and 2000. A new plan to satisfy the data communications needs of governmental agencies must be completed by the end of 2000. Development of the EEBone in 1999 The EEBone project initially focused on the following goals: • Evening out regional inequalities; • Promoting the use of data communications among county-based governmental agencies; • Reducing the total expense of data communications in the state; • Setting up a data communications service at a good technical level; • Acting as a catalyst for the establishment of county-wide area networks and emerging service providers in the counties. Expansion of the EEBone in time and in space Access to the EEBone is possible through several different ways – either directly to the backbone network or as a virtual tunnel from other service providers (e.g., connections to local authorities). Figure 1 illustrates growth in the number of connections from state agencies to the EEBone. Stable growth has occurred since April 1998, when upgrading of the backbone network of the Data Communications Department began. A considerable number of agencies will be connected to the network this year, too – most of them local authorities. The government has launched a project that is known as "Village Road" to support this process. Today 140 of Estonia’s 250 local authorities have permanent Internet connections.

Figure 2 looks at the location of organizations that are hooked up to the EEBone. A great many of the connections are located in Tallinn, because most central agencies are located there, as are those institutions which do not have branches in Estonia’s counties. Ida-Viru County has the next largest number of connections, because that is where the major industrial towns of Jõhvi, Narva, Sillamäe and Kohtla-Järve are located. Many government agencies have more than one branch in the county. The city of Tartu, which is Estonia’s second city, is in third place in terms of the number of connections. In other counties, the number of connections depends on the quality of local companies which provide support and overall knowledge. The bandwidth for 75% of the connections is 2 Mbps or 10 Mbps. The bandwidth for the other connections ranges from 64 to 256 Kbps – mostly 64 Kbps.

Cooperation with local service providers Maximum outsourcing has been one of the key principles in building the EEBone network. The right to build access connections to the EEBone has been awarded to companies that have concluded cooperation agreements with the Data Communications Department. There were 16 such firms in the summer of 1998, and 10 more joined up in 1999. The companies feel that it is quite prestigious to cooperate with the department. Only small, local firms displayed interest in cooperation in the first year, but in 1999 five agreements were concluded with major data communications equipment suppliers and network builders. Not all of the firms have proven equally ready for this cooperation, however, and several of the agreements have remained mostly on paper. A list of the firms can be found on the EEBone homepage - http://www.aso.ee/peatee/teenus/firmad.htm Budget The budget of the EEBone was EEK 12 million in 1998, EEK 13 million in 1999 and EEK 14.3 million in 2000 (EUR 1 = EEK 15.64). The budget distribution is shown in Figure 3.

The currently planned 2001 budget for the EEBone is EEK 14.6 million. Bandwidth between major cities is currently at 2 Mbps, but there is a connection between Tallinn and Tartu which uses ATM technologies with a 6 Mbps speed. The average monthly Internet connection cost for institutions that are hooked up to the EEBone has run at somewhat less than EEK 4,000. At the same time, however, we must remember that bandwidth in these connections ranges between 64 Kbps and 10 Mbps, and more than one-half of the connections have 2 Mbps bandwidth. These numbers cannot be compared directly with the prices which Internet service providers, however, because additional services and guarantees must also be taken into account. Service quality So how is the quality of services managed when there is such variety? Users are mostly interested in the following things: • Reliability of the installation (downtime in access); • The bandwidth of the connection to the EEBone – whether it is wide enough to avoid unnecessary delays; • Whether the backbone data communications rate is sufficient; • Whether the connection to the Internet is of sufficient quality; • How quickly a broken connection can be repaired; • Whether there is clear responsibility for the elimination of defects; • Whether there is assistance available in configuring one’s computer or local network for Internet use, and whether there is someone to whom "silly" questions can be put. The Data Communications Department has not surveyed EEBone users to learn about their level of contentment with the services that are provided, but because the DCD also maintains access connections for seven government institutions which represent 50% of all connections, we do receive steady feedback from users. We can now say that access connections and the backbone network are quite stable. Around 80% of connections were trouble-free for the entire first year, while 5% had one known and permanently occurring problem per month. Connection bandwidth was, generally speaking, sufficient, and bandwidth can easily be increased when needed. The backbone bandwidth has also, as a rule, been sufficient – in most instances it has had ample reserves. The bandwidth of one part of the backbone channels has been increased as needed during the course of the year. Statistics can be found on http://www.aso.ee/traffic (the text is in Estonian). During three-quarters of 1999, the bandwidth from the backbone to the Internet was not sufficient. This was caused by excessively liberal controls over Internet use. Controls existed only in the form of a statement signed by the manager of each institution in which it was agreed that the usage rules of the EEBone would be observed. The Data Communications Department is authorized to shut down connections of institutions which don’t obey the rules, but the fact is that so-called non-productive traffic on the channel amounted to about 50% in the first year. Recovery of broken connections requires varying lengths of time – between 10 minutes and two days, depending on the complexity of the problem and the priority of the incident. In 2000 several real-time information systems were established, and now much more attention can be devoted to response time, fault elimination and related documenting tasks. The last of the items that are listed above depends very much on the competence and dedication of the IT team of the relevant institution, or on the maintenance contract that exists with the computer firm. Sometimes there are serious shortcomings in this area, but the EEBone project cannot be blamed for this. In many cases users blame the EEBone falsely because they cannot distinguish problems among different network layers. It is very important for every end-user to know which institution must be approached when faults occur so that the problems can be fixed more quickly. The EEBone as a catalyst The Estonian government launched the aforementioned "Village Road" project at the end of 1998, and the EEBone project was one of the catalysts for this county-based data communications process. The result of the "Village Road" project is that all local authorities, schools and libraries are going to be connected to the backbone. A second major catalyst for this process was the Estonian Research and Education Network (EENet). The two projects helped to build an excellent networking environment, although the integration of county governments and commercial ISPs was also critical for success. What’s next? At this time we are fine-tuning and documenting our service principles. We’re basing this work on the ISO 9001:2000 standard of quality management. AT technology will be used more widely as soon as providers make the necessary infrastructures commercially available. All of this is aimed at improving the services that we provide, as well as the organization level of our activities. New concepts on the organization of data communications in the public sector can be adopted if the government requires them. The Data Communications Department can change its internal workflow procedures proactively in order to be able to act efficiently under any organizational framework. Summary 1999 was a successful year for the EEBone project, and most of the project’s goals were reached. There was good cooperation with institutions and companies alike. In 2000 the priorities for the project are to ensure the stable continuity and quality of services. Extra attention is being devoted to technical and organizational improvements aimed at meeting the requirements of mission- critical systems. This article was initially written by the former manager (from 1997 until May of 2000) of the Data Communications Department, Riina Einberg, and updated by the current manager, Marko Männik. Questions about the article can be sent to the department, which can be reached through its homepage at http://www.aso.ee/tiim.html. References 1. Einberg, R. "EEBone: The Governmental Data Highway", Baltic IT Review, No. 4(11), 1998. 2. Mehide, I. "The ‘Village Road’ Program: Developing Data Communications in Estonia’s Countryside", Baltic IT Review, No. 4(15), 1999.