Redundancy

With each university utilizing identical equipment -- and with the Nigerian Universities Commission storing a redundant set of spares in the capital city -- doing training, conducting maintenance, and providing staffing redundancy should prove to be markedly easier -- leading to more cost-effective installation and reliable operations.

Redundancy at a connectivity level will be accomplished by adding dial-up equipment at each of the connected universities.  In the case of equipment failure at one university, that university will be able to use their telephone line to dial into one of the other satellite-connected universities.  Each institution will have a NUC-sponsored telephone line dedicated for this purpose.

Broadening Participation

All satellite centers, including the NUC in Abuja, will host up to four dial-in connections that will allow other NUC organizations and institutions to dial-in and access the Internet.  Thus, in addition to the satellite and router equipment for each connected institution, the system will include one PC configured to act as a proxy server, a pop e-mail server, and a remote access server.  This machine, though purchased by the participating university, will be dedicated to serving the NUNet system, and thus be configured and maintained by the NUC staff and not used for any other purposes.

As envisioned, this system will provide high-speed Internet access to every computerist attached to the  local area network at each of the participating institutions.   As well, with all six participating institutions providing one or more dial-in connections, numerous individuals at other NUC organizations can also participate and share in this Internet connectivity.  Finally, the NUC will provide for each participating organization one or more workstations to be attached to the local area network and set aside for visitors from other NUC institutions to use on a reservation basis.  (These would be used by the host university when not scheduled for a guest.)

This will give individual researchers at the remaining unconnected institutions the capacity to choose either dial-in or drive-in access to the Internet. 

Those researchers wanting low-cost high-speed access might choose to travel to the nearest satellite station, whereas those wanting intermittent and convenient Internet access might choose the dial-in option.