D.1. National Computer Network for Research and Higher Education (RNC)

The institute research activity on computer networks goes as back as 1971. At present RNC , which provides access of research and academic users to EARN/BITNET and INTERNET, is the offspring of a research work on "Public databases networks for transborder technical-scientific data exchange, based on EARN".

The international Gateway Node is located at ICI, being connected via satellite (speed 64Kbps), on a leased line, to the University of Vienna. 55 institutions are connected to RNC via a leased line . Among them there are:

• Institute for Atomic Physics
  
• "Politehnica" University of Bucharest
  
• Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy
  
• Institute of Microtechnology, Bucharest
  
• The University of Ploiesti
  
• The University of Galati
  
• The Academy for Economic Studies, Bucharest
  
• European Centre for Higher Education-UNESCO. Other institutions and bodies ( National Centre for Information and Documentation, the National Library, the Senate,etc.) are going to be connected to RNC.
  

Besides, other 120 institutions may access the ICI gateway node via a switched line. A Bucharest-Kishinevleased line connects users in the Republic of Moldova. The e-mail network service is being used by more than 8,000 users. Data traffic amounts to 19 Gbytes/month.

The network services include:

• electronic mail: it covers person-to-person communication and let the archives and databases in the network be accessed;
• computer conferencing on topics of interest in science, technics, economics, medicine, sociology, music, sports, art;
• file transfer;
• interactive messages;
• access to program archives ;
• access to archives of scientific reports and library catalogues;
• access to data banks;
• access to network information services (archie, gopher, wais);
• access to X500 data banks.

At national level, users' distribution tends to be uniform. However, the users in Bucharest still make 50% of them.

The major objectives include best network services provision by practicing higher speeds on international lines, and by developing national servers for lower data traffic.

The network gives the Romanian specialists the possibility of communicating with scientists in foreign countries in their area of interest, covering large academic groups and various subjects: science, technology, human science, medical science, economics, and wide scope information.

D.2. On WWW Servers' Operation

During 1995, SYSNET Laboratory succeeded to finalize:

• WWW Home Page of Romania;
• A Server for RTD in Romania.

• interconnectability to servers in the country stated as offering Internet-like services ( chosen from a list or from a map, depending on the www client facilities); it covers 26 servers in research and education institutions located in Bucharest (16), Cluj (2), Galati (1), Jassy (3), Targu Mures (1), Timisoara (3)
• providing geographical, administrative, historical, political, economic , commercal and touristic information about the country;
• giving access to the Romanian Radio Broadcast Company 's daily news;
• getting access to other countries' home pages via "Virtual Tourist" and "CityNet" services available there where the www server is officially registered.

The RTD- meant server was developed within the INDIS European project of the EU COPERNICUS Programme. INDIS (INformation DISsemination in European Research Technology and Development) goal was to inform on those institutions in Eastern and Central Europe which were scientifically capable of co-operating with Western partners on realizing RTD international programs. INDIS co-ordinator is "Institut f r Informatik in Entwurf und Fertigung zu Berlin GmbH", and partners are: CICT of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences- Bulgaria, ICI-Romania, IIEF and DFKG -Germany, IQSOFT-Hungary, MSU-Russia, Systems Research Institute of Polish Academy of Sciences-Poland. INDIS enabled that national centres of interconnected databases could appear and be interactively interrogated , locally or internationally, by the professionals engaged in international co-operative activities. The RTD server can be accessed via Internet (e-mail: URL: http://indis.ici.ro) and lets :

• hypertext like documents be accessed, where information about scientific activity in the country and abroad can be gathered from;
  • data on the research activity structure, the research programmes in Romania
  • data on the main research institutions in Romania: the Romania Academy, National Commission of Informatics, Ministry for Research and Technology;
  • list of the research institutes and of higher education institutions in Romania;
  • a link to the bibliographical information system of the University Central Library;
  • a list of the national scientific events organized by the Romanian Academy, Ministry for Research and Technology and Ministry for Education;
  • data about the organigram and current results of the Research Institute for Informatics and about its participation in international projects;
  • a list of ICI's publications.
• databases be interrogated for acquiring information on the research activity in the country
  • ORACLE database containing snapshots of the higher education institutions in Romania, of the research institutes in Romania
  • a list of experts from the research institutes subordinated to Ministry for Research and Technology
  • a Postgres database containing a list of the ICI specialists
  • Ingres database containing a list of institutions sponsored by Ministry for Culture (museums, theatres,libraries)
  • other national and international www servers be accessed and other types of information services (gopher, FTP, Archie) be used.

So far the producer of WWW Home Page has included the following information:

• about 500 documents (hypertext like files, in both English and Romanian, and images) on the two servers;
• 3 ORACLE databases (about 2Moctets text in about 1,500 records)
• a Postgres database (about 400 records)
• an Ingres database (about 120 records)
• about 3 Moctets in the files of gopher like server
• about 200 Moctets in the archives of FTP server.

Information provided by: ICI INDIS team
Last modified: 1996 May 24