Green signal to establish National Knowledge Network - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure on Thursday accorded in principle approval for the establishment of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) to be implemented by the National Information Centre (NIC). In 2009, the Centre decided to set up NKN with an initial amount of Rs.100 crore as per the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC). The NKC plans to inter-connect all knowledge institutions trough high speed data communication network. This would encourage sharing of knowledge, specialized resources and collaborative research. The architecture of the NKN will be scalable and the network will consist of an ultra-high speed Core (multiples of 10Gbps and upwards). The Core shall be complemented with a distribution layer at appropriate speeds. The participating institutions can connect to the NKN at speeds of 1 Gbps or to the distribution layer through a last mile connectivity bandwidth. The NKN will provide nation-wide ultra high-speed backbone/data-network highway. Various other networks in the country can take advantage of this ultra high-speed backbone, with national and international reach to create independent and closed user groups. The NKN will have about 25 core Point of Presence (PoPs) and 600 secondary PoPs. It will connect around 1500 Institutions. The physical infrastructure (setting up of core network) is expected to be completed in a span of 24 months. NKN will enable scientists, researches and students from diverse spheres across the country to work together for advancing human development in critical and emerging areas. In the initial phase a core backbone consisting of 15 PoPs have been established with 2.5 Gbps capacity. Around 40 institutions of higher learning and advanced research have already been connected to the network and six virtual classrooms setup.