The ANSP network is going to resume its historical mission and go back to being used in the development of new Internet protocols and technologies. Starting in January 2003, the ANSP network will be passed to the control of the coordinating commission of FAPESP’s Information Technology in the Development of the Advanced Internet (Tidia).
It will be used as infrastructure for the implementation of research projects already defined in the ambit of Tidia, such as, for example, as a test bed in optical fibers. This will have statewide cover, and be used for carrying out research in the area of network engineering, traffic control, optical communication and software, among others. Hartmut Glaser is leaving the post of director of the ANSP network, but is carrying on coordinating the Domain Registration project of the Internet Brazil Management Committee.
“A technological cycle has been completed”, says Luiz Fernandes Lopez, Tidia’s coordinator. “The Foundation will now start investing in Internet 2 as a research project”.
The ANSP was created as a special program of FAPESP, in 1989, and was the first Brazilian network to be integrated with the Internet, in 1991. Under the command of Glaser, it became one of the connection points to the Internet in Brazil for abroad. The ANSP also handles the interconnection of the academic networks of the universities and research institutes in São Paulo, and performs the role of Internet provider for the government of the State of São Paulo. Rearranging the objectives of the ANSP network is going to call for a new management model, with the participation of the universities and research institutes, so as to consolidate both the communication infrastructure and Internet connection, and the research network.
FAPESP, which invests R$ 9.5 million a year in the maintenance of the network, will be directing its expenditure towards research into high speed Internet to be carried out under the auspices of Tidia. “The new ANSP network will be the program’s test bed”, Lopez explains. The expectation of the project’s coordinators is that research should begin in May.
Beside the project for a test bed in optical fibers, Tidia provides for the creation of an incubator of contents, such as software, educational material, etc. The idea is to encourage the cooperative creation of digital contents and, at the same time, to disseminate the use of information in Portuguese on the Internet. The main service of the incubator will be to host projects for the creation of academic contents. Tidia also intends to implement program for learning over the network (e-learning), one of the most promising areas of the Internet that will be broadcast to the academic community by means of the optical fiber network (the test bed). The program provides for the development of educational contents and tools.
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