US-Pakistan International Research & Education Network Connection

The Pakistan and Education Research Network (PERN) is the current network interconnecting the research and education community within Pakistan. PERN is managed by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). Like other NRENs, PERN provides dedicated connectivity between the institutions it connects as well as video-conference services and access to digital library resources. PERN also provides a gateway to the global commercial Internet for its users, but currently does not have dedicated connections to other NRENs.

This project was a cooperative effort among Indiana University, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC), the European Union TEIN2 Project and Internet2. The project was funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). Connectivity in Singapore was provided by the European Union TEIN2 Project. The project deployed a high-performance international network connection between PERN and its successor network PERN2 and the global research and education network community. Specifically, the project deployed a STM-1 (155Mbps) connection between the PERN2 connection point in Karachi, Pakistan and the TEIN2 landing point in Singapore. The circuit supplier was Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL). Once the physical network was deployed, the project focused on developing and enhancing US-Pakistan research and education collaborations.