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MIRA Project to Provide Overview of Internet’s Resiliency in Africa

Internet resilience is the ability of a network to maintain an acceptable level of service at all times. The Internet  plays a critical role in society and the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of reliable and stable Internet connectivity. However, not all countries have Internet infrastructure that is robust enough to provide an acceptable […]

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Measuring Internet Resilience in Africa

For many in the African region, Internet interruptions or service degradations occur frequently, which results in a disjointed Internet experience. In order to help improve this experience, we need to track and measure various Internet characteristics through network telemetry. This data can help to identify infrastructure and traffic issues and can provide key information to help decision makers decide where infrastructure investment and policy change might need to be made.

However, as shown by a survey carried out by AFRINIC, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa, in 2019, Internet measurement is not a common practice in the African region. This is largely due to a scarcity of deployed measurement tools, platforms and equipment, a lack of awareness in the subject, and the lack of relevant skills to carry out the measurement tasks. The shortage of measurement equipment in African countries makes it very challenging to accurately determine the problem areas that need to be addressed in order to improve Internet reliability and resilience in Africa.

Collaborative Measurements 

Assessing the resilience of the Internet is a key component of the Internet Society’s work on Measuring the Internet. To help identify the causes of Internet interruptions and service degradations, we Continue reading

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Leading from the Front: How the Internet Society’s Training Efforts Are Helping to Upskill Africa’s Future Digital Champions

Tech skills are important for digital transformation in Africa. To realize this transformation, the Internet Society is supporting work-ready digital skills development with local talent.

By 2030, over 230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills. With the fourth industrial revolution taking shape, we are helping to build a community of digital champions in Africa who will fill the skills gap on the continent.

African governments are already banking big on the contributions that digital technologies will provide to this transformation. For example, the African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy (2020-2030) wants to create a “Digital Single Market” for the continent, while national governments are increasingly embracing digitalization in several sectors of their economies.

But the continent needs the right talent for its ambitious economic agenda to succeed. Though more learners are taking interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects, school curricula in Africa primarily focus on theoretical learning with scarce engagement with digital subjects. This is one of the main reasons a skills gap exists for jobs that require digital skills.

To play a role in positively changing these circumstances, the Internet Society developed the Introduction to Network Operations course, which equips novice and intermediate level Continue reading

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In Africa, An Open Internet Standards Course for Universities

Seventy university students from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ghana gained insights into open Internet standards

Many of the Internet standards that make the Internet work today are developed using open processes. Early exposure to these processes could significantly help future engineers play a role in the evolution of the Internet.

Next Generation of Open Internet Standards Experts in Africa

To expose the next generation of African experts to open Internet standards, the Internet Society put together a short pilot course on Internet Protocol Security (IPSec). IPSec is a technology used to improve communication security between devices on the Internet.

To promote the teaching of open Internet standards in African Universities, the one-month course brought together 70 students from 4 African universities from DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ghana. The pilot course was designed to provide university lecturers with additional training material to support existing courses at universities.

Facilitators

Technology experts Dr. Daniel Migault, Professor Nabil Benamar, and Loganaden Velvindron facilitated the learning experience. Between March and April 2020, they delivered online lectures for three weeks before opening up a week for student assignments.

The Internet Society’s Regional Vice President for Africa Dawit Bekele said the course Continue reading

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Hackathon at Africa Internet Summit Focuses on Time, Vehicular Communications, and Network Programmability

We are pleased to announce the 2^nd Hackathon@AIS will be held in Dakar, Senegal, on 9-10 May, alongside the Africa Internet Summit. Participants from 14 countries have confirmed their participation and will work on activities centered around three main topics:

• The Network Time Protocol (or NTP)
• Wireless communication in vehicular environments – based on Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Network Programmability

Working on open Internet standards involves a collaborative effort whereby individuals from different backgrounds provide input and expertise to improve the Internet. Work is focused on common objectives with set timelines. This work is mostly done by people in different geographical locations using the Internet (and online tools) to collaborate on the work. In some cases, short technical events called hackathons place experts in one physical location to work collaboratively to solve a problem or develop a new product or output in a short period of time.

Last year, the Internet Society’s African Regional Bureau, together with AFRINIC, organized a hackathon in Kenya, during the 2017 Africa Internet Summit. In Africa, work on open Internet standards development is low, with only a handful of Request For Comments (RFCs) known to have been published by experts from the region. One of Continue reading