011.30  Brazil
by Eduardo Tadao Takahashi
<TADAO@ethos1.ansp.br>
Rede Nacional de Pesquisa


Brazil has just completed the installation of TCP/IP backbone.
The backbone consists of (mostly) 9.6 kbps dedicated lines
interconnecting 11 major cities in the country: Brasilia, Rio de
Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Belem, Fortaleza, Salvador,
Belo Horizonte, Recife, Curitiba, and Florianopolis.  Links
between Brasilia-Sao Paulo, Brasilia-Rio de Janeiro, and Sao
Paulo-Rio de Janeiro are being upgraded to 64 kbps.  Three
dedicated connections to the US also operate at 64 kbps and a
link to Argentina will soon be installed.

Routing has been done utilizing UNIX workstations, soon to be
replaced by dedicated, multi-protocol routers.  An embryonic
National Operations Center has started activities in Sao Paulo,
while an Information Center is being set up in Rio de Janeiro.

Another major activity carried out recently has had to do with
computational and networking support for the Earth Summit (also
known as UNCED'92 or RIO-92), the gigantic UN Conference held in
Rio de Janeiro in June.  Such support has included:

- a dedicated, "closed" information system (implemented by DEC)
for the OFFICIAL SPACE under the direct operation of the UN
Conference organization staff.

- a metropolitan network to support activities of the GLOBAL
FORUM (the forum of NGOs), with gateways to international
networks such as PEACENET and ECONET through the ALTERNEX node.

- the installation of two special-purpose nodes, one in Belem and
another in Natal.  The Belem node centralizes communications in
the Amazon Basin with neighboring countries, within the realm of
activities of the Treaty of the Amazon signed in 1983.  The Natal
node centralizes communications among Brazilian institutions
participating in the so-called DRYNET project, which aims to
interconnect research institutions in arid and semi-arid regions
in Brazil (the Caatinga), Argentina (Gran Chaco), and Chile
(Norte Chico)

Further information about the Conference and, in particular,
about what has been planned for AGENDA-21 (as the main result of
the Earth Summit), can be found in the list
<ECO92-L@BRUFMG.BITNET>.  A topic of specific interest to
networkers is the set of directives issued by UNCED'92 for the
implementation of the so-called AGIS, the Agenda-21 Information
System, which is intended to be distributed among several
countries while being remotely accessible in an uniform way via
networks.