Articles

History

'90s — Pioneer days

At the beginning of ‘90s, there were only few faculties in Belgrade that were connected to RCUB (Electrical engineering faculty, Faculty of organizational sciences, Mathematical faculty, etc.). First optics was laid in 1991, and first optical connections in the country were realized in the circle of technical faculties and in the Student Square, while the rest of bigger faculties and institutes were connected via low capacity modem speed (9.6 kbps, 28.8 kbps, 128 kbps). Regarding the services, electronic post was mostly used and it was exchanged with other countries over the X.25 protocol.

On the University of Belgrade day, 28th February 1996, RCUB connected the Academic network of Serbia – AMRES to the Internet via BeotelNet provider, which marked the beginning of Internet use in our country.

The first Internet connection had the capacity of 64 kbps only. By connecting new institutions, the connection capacity was enhanced several times during the following period (128 kbps, 256 kbps, 512 kbps, 1 Mbps, 1,5 Mbps), but it was still insufficient and the connection was overburdened.

By the end of the ‘90s, the first 2Mbps digital connection was established between Belgrade and Podgorica, followed by connections between other universities in Novi Sad, Nis and Kragujevac, but the majority of institutions was still on leased telephone lines’ modem connections.

2000 — Development period

In the period between 2001 and 2004, the Academic network of Serbia had the fastest development since its establishment.

This period is marked by the initiation of collaboration between the research academic networks in the region, in order to overcome the differences in the network infrastructure development of Balkan and European countries. The first 2 Mbps connection with GRnet and GEANT was realized in February 2001.

During 2001, Max Planck Institute from Munich was contacted and a donation project was realized under the name SinYu (Scientific Information Network of Yugoslavia). As the result of SinYu project, in 2002 the Ministry of Science of the Republic of Germany donated active equipment for main nodes of the Academic network valued around 300,000 euros, while the Ministry of Science, Technologies and Development of the Republic of Serbia financed the realization of LAN networks installation in the majority of institutions (USD 200,000).

The Internet connection was enhanced with two additional 2 Mbps links to GRnet, making a total of 6 Mbps toward GRnet and 1.5 Mbps over the local BeotelNet provider.

2002 was marked by introducing first optical connections with gigabit speed on intercity relations Belgrade-Novi Sad and Belgrade-Nis, and in Belgrade on relations Mathematical faculty-Rectorate-RCUB, Vinca Institute-RCUB. A local computer network was completed in the Mathematical faculty building in Belgrade, as well as a large number of local computer networks in different research and scientific organizations in the country.

In the second half of 2003, a contract was made between Telekom Srbija AD, University of Belgrade and the Ministry of Science, Technologies and Development of the Republic of Serbia, by which the Ministry will finance the realization and lease of the optic fibers on the majority of intercity connections across the country and within Belgrade, Nis, Kragujevac and Novi Sad. This enabled the realization of a reliable, high capacity intercity backbone for the Academic network of Serbia, which will reach the majority of cities with faculties, institutes or colleges,. The building of the new generation computer network has started.

In 2002, the successful collaboration with GRnet resulted in SEEREN project (South–East European Research and Education Network), through EU FP5 program. Within this project, additional 34 Mbps was allocated to the Academic network, which was released by the end of 2003. Bearing in mind that the internal network was developed and had more and more high capacity links, the Internet connection was still exceptionally burdened, so an additional 34 Mbps Internet link was realized over Telekom Srbija AD. This finally solved the Internet connection capacity problem.

During 2004, collaboration between academic networks in the region and Europe was broadened, and RCUB took part in the international projects within the FP6 and INTERIIIREG programs (SEEREN2, SEEGRID, SEEFIRE, etc.). This is also a period during which the connected institutions received higher bandwidth, analog wires were substituted with xDSL technology and available services developed further.

In the same year, two international connections between the Academic network and the Internet were implemented through RCUB: one link was realized over Telekom Srbija’s SMIN (Serbian Multiservice Internet Network) network, while the other link was realized to the Hungarian academic network HUNGARNET (through Telekom Srbija), from where a connection with the European gigabit academic network – GEANT was realized. Both links were financed by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Internet Society of the Republic of Serbia. Additionally, the first international IPv6 connection on relation Belgrade-Athens was implemented.

The following year was marked with launching a number of regional projects: SEEREN2, SEEGRID, SEEFIRE and ELISA. At the same time, the improvement of the academic network internal infrastructure stipulated a repeated overburdening of the Internet link. Therefore, in the beginning of 2006, within the SEEREN2 project, the link toward abroad was enhanced to 155 Mbps. An additional optical link toward the Hungarian academic network HUNGARNET was realized, with a physical speed of 1 Gbps, and connecting to GEANT with 155 Mbps speed was approved.

In 2007, a contract was made with Telekom Srbija and a work methodology was established for introducing the xDSL VPN service as a new way to connect to the Academic network of Serbia, which is available in the of SHDSL and ADSL VPN service.

From 2007, RCUB took part in the AMRES project, which was formed in order to establish an organizational model of governance, systematic work and development of the Academic network of Serbia as a national research and education computer network, until a separate legal entity is formed. Using a work program, technical, organizational and administrative activities were defined on a yearly basis, as well as a set of concrete results which the project has to achieve. 

Contact

RCUB team

RCUB’s internal organization is constructed in accordance with Centre’s main activities and is, therefore, divided into three sectors:

• Information technologies sector
• Computer and communication technologies sector
• Administration sector

The Director of RCUB is Slavko Gajin, PhD, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

The Deputy of Director is Branko Marović, PhD, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

The Information technologies sector covers the following work and project:

• Information systems
• Data bases
• Internet services, web applications
• Multimedia and visualization
• Practical implementation of informatics solutions for education and research

Most significant projects in this field are:

• University Information System
• Development and adaptation of existing GRID work application, realization of SEEGRID, SEEGRID2 and SEE-GRID-SCI projects, as well as participation in the AEGIS initiative
• Participation in the development of computer network monitoring tools (within the GÉANT2 and GÉANT3 projects)
• Research on implementation of information technologies in the field of medicine, as well as suitable software solutions realization
• Definition of recommendation for the software development and maintenance, as well as participation in quality check of the existing software within the GÉANT3 project
• Raising awareness on the purposefulness of the e-Infrastructure development and efficient resource use in this field through the SEERA-EI project

The Computer and communication technologies sector is divided to computer networks development and maintenance group, and system support group.

Computer networks development and maintenance group

Main activities of the computer networks development and maintenance group are concerned with the infrastructure and services of the Academic network of Serbia (AMRES), for which RCUB represents a central communication node. These operations include:

• Communication equipment administration,
• Definition of technical solutions and realization of faculties and other institutions connection to AMRES,
• Participation in the development of local networks for faculties and other institutions, 
• Internet connection maintenance.

System support group

The system support group is made of system administrators and the operator service. The operator service is in charge of a continuous service functioning and is trained to independently handle a large number of problems.

The group takes care of:

• System administration of RCUB servers,
• Installation and maintenance of the user services, 
• Opening user accounts and data administration,
• Providing continuous work of the infrastructure and RCUB servers,
• Extending support to the users, as well as 24 hour help for users to access the Internet from their home or faculty computers,
• Creating instruction manuals.

About us

Belgrade University Computer Centre (RCUB) began its work in 1992, in order to provide computer services to the members of the University of Belgrade. With the development of communication technologies and Internet services, many faculties of the University of Belgrade, as well as larger research centers and other universities in the country, got connected to RCUB.

Today, RCUB specializes in two main areas:

• Information technologies – information systems allocation, software application development
• Communication technologies – computer network allocation, development of the infrastructure and communication services based on the Internet technology

Within the information technologies and software development, RCUB’s main role was the making of the University Information System (UIS). This information system is designed for the integration of faculties’ and institutes’ data, centralized issuing of diplomas, analysis of the work of higher education institutions, as well as support for university’s processes.

In the communication technologies field, RCUB provides communication services to faculties of the University of Belgrade and represents an AMRES service centre in charge of the Internet connection, AMRES backbone, distribution links, individual connections and communication services.

There are 120 institutions in Belgrade connected to RCUB, inclusive of faculties of the University of Belgrade and the University of Arts, institutes, student dorms, libraries, teaching units of the Faculty of Medicine, and other research and education institutions. Beside providing the Internet connection and other infrastructural work, RCUB is also oriented toward the development and implementation of different services for institutions and individual users.

RCUB is especially dedicated to cultivating the research work, which is best reflected in the fact that RCUB took part in numerous international FP and TEMPUS projects.

Also, RCUB represents the ASC (Academy Support Center) and the ITC (Instructor Training Center) of the Cisco Networking Academy.